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Passion Project by London Sperry

Romance

Passion Project

Debut

by London Sperry

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Quick take

An adventurous romance about finding love when you least expect it, set against the backdrop of bustling Manhattan.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Inspirational

    Inspirational

  • Illustrated icon, Female_Friendship

    Female friendships

  • Illustrated icon, Salacious

    Salacious

  • Illustrated icon, NYC

    NYC

Synopsis

If your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Bennet Taylor is failing miserably…with a big emphasis on the miserable. Where’s that zest she keeps hearing about? She’s a temp worker in New York City with no direction, no future, and no social life. And at the painful center of this listlessness is grief over the death of her first love.

When Bennet runs into Henry Adams just hours after standing him up for a first date, she makes an alcohol-fueled confession: She’s not ready to date. In fact, it’s been years since she felt passion for something. Not even pottery, or organized sports—not anything. Rather than leaving her to ruminate, Henry jumps at the opportunity for adventure: Bennet needs to find a passion for life, and Henry will help her find it. Every Saturday, they’ll try something new in New York City. As friends, of course.

As their “passion project” continues, the pair tackle everything from carpentry to tattooing to rappelling off skyscrapers, and Bennet feels her guarded exterior ebbing away. But as secrets surface, Bennet has to decide what she wants, and if she’s truly ready to move on.

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Get an early look from the first pages of Passion Project.

Passion Project

Chapter One

I’ve been betrayed by pasta carbonara.

I sit back on my heels, trying not to tip over and smack my head on the bathroom wall or, worse, the rim of the green ceramic toilet in front of me. Dean Martin’s voice wafts through the speakers, an embarrassing reminder of where I am—the bathroom of a fast-casual Italian restaurant on the Lower East Side. And I just puked my guts out in their toilet like a frat boy. I wipe my chin and press the flush tab, wincing at the seasick feeling of the room rocking back and forth.

I lied before. It’s not really the pasta’s fault. It was the wine. It was the two and a half bottles of Chianti I slurped back like one of the Real Housewives. Who on earth told me I could afford that? One single glance at my bank account would make me vomit again, I’m sure.

I squeeze my eyes closed and cradle my head in my hands. It’s like my stomach knew to expel any evidence of tonight’s disaster from my body.

I’m assuming my date left hours ago. I don’t really know. I’ve already blocked his number. We were supposed to meet at a cocktail bar across the street called Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, where customers learn how to make personalized signature cocktails and sample them all night. Their Instagram advertises maple Manhattans with ­bourbon-soaked cherries, mezcal palomas with charred grapefruit wedges, and matcha martinis with mango honey. In other words, if you’re like me and you have the anxiety of an entire therapy waiting room, it’s the perfect spot for a first date. You can dodge eye contact and focus on the ­bartender-slash-instructor, and then get drunk and forget about it in the morning.

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Why I love it

Are you struggling to find your passion in life? Do you live in a city that you hate–but want to love? Is online dating destroying your soul? Unfortunately, I can’t actually help you with any of those problems—but you should read Passion Project anyway. This book brilliantly balances the darker side of life as a floundering twenty-something with one of the most sparkling, joyful romances I’ve read in years.

Passion Project follows Bennet Taylor, a young temp worker in New York City. Still mired in grief and hopelessness after her ex-boyfriend’s death several years earlier, she feels like she’s lost her passion for life—but when an online dating misadventure brings Henry Adams into her life, he offers to help her get to know the city and herself a little better. As friends, they try everything from rappelling to tattooing in an attempt to discover Bennet’s real passion. But in the end, it will be up to Bennet herself to decide if she’s willing to go after what she truly wants…

If you like your romance novels with a side of real-world emotional depth, Passion Project is absolutely the book for you—and it certainly doesn’t hurt that Henry is exactly the sort of sweet-yet-sexy book boyfriend I would bring to life in a heartbeat! I can promise this book will be your new passion in no time at all.

Member ratings (134)

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Romance
View all
Yours Truly
Wedding Dashers
You Between the Lines
Promise Me Sunshine
One-Star Romance
It’s Getting Hot in Here
Scythe & Sparrow
The Pairing
Is She Really Going Out With Him?
Pictures of You
First-Time Caller
PS: I Hate You
Passion Project
Happily Never After
The Paradise Problem
The Love of My Afterlife
Not in Love
Leather & Lark
The Rom-Commers
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
Butcher & Blackbird
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love
Ready or Not
Four Weekends and a Funeral
Just for the Summer
The Second Chance Year
A Winter in New York
This Spells Love
Red, White & Royal Blue
You, Again
Love, Theoretically
People We Meet on Vacation
Hello Stranger
Stars in Your Eyes
Part of Your World
Love & Other Disasters
Georgie, All Along
It Ends with Us
The Heart Principle
The True Love Experiment
The Holiday Swap
The Bodyguard
The Love Hypothesis
One Last Stop
The Bride Test
Love on the Brain
Head Over Heels
Most Wonderful
The Reunion
One Day in December
Things You Save in a Fire
Lunar Love
Bringing Down the Duke
Ana María and the Fox
Beach Read
Before I Let Go
The Boyfriend Project
How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days
The Heiress Gets a Duke
The Rewind
In a Holidaze
Kiss Her Once for Me