Check Me Out

by Becca Wilhite

Overview

Greta loves her job as assistant librarian. She loves her best friend, Will, the high school civics teacher and debate coach. She even loves her mother despite her obvious disappointment that Greta is still single.

Then she meets Mac in the poetry section of the library, and she is smitten. Mac is heart-stoppingly gorgeous and showers her with affection, poetic text messages, and free hot chocolate at the local cafe where he works. The only problem is that he seems to be a different person in his texts that in his face-to-face conversation.

When the Franklin Library is threatened with closure, Greta leaps into action. She arranges for a "battle of the bands" book jam, hosts a book signing by a famous author, and finally, stages a protest that raises more than a few eyebrows.

Through it all, she slowly realizes that it is Will, not Mac, who she turns to for support and encouragement. Mac has the looks; Will has the heart. How can she choose between them?

Check Me Out is a contemporary romance—with just a hint of Cyrano de Bergerac—that reminds us to never judge a book by its cover.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629735467
Publisher:	Deseret Book Company
Publication date:	02/03/2018
Series:	Proper Romance
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Becca Wilhite, author of Bright Blue Miracle and My Ridiculous Romantic Obsessions, is a happy wife, and a mom to four above-average kids. High school English teacher by day, writer by night (or very early morning), she loves hiking, Broadway shows, food, books, and movies. You can find her online at beccawilhite.com.

Read an Excerpt

I was carrying a stack of adult fiction back to the shelves just before lunch. As I came around the corner, I saw the most perfect looking guy I'd ever encountered in my entire twenty-four years, standing in front of my favorite stained-glass windows, looking incredibly handsome and a tiny bit lost.

I shifted the load of books in my arms and leaned in, just a little. A completely professional lean. "Excuse me, can I help you find something?"

He turned toward me, and I got the full effect of the messy, curly dark hair, the chocolate-brown eyes, the eyebrows, the jawline. My thoughts immediately melted into Oh my goodness, what am I supposed to do with this?

He wore a button-up plaid shirt layered over a black T-shirt. There were words on his T-shirt, which I wanted very much to read (reading words is a weakness of mine), but I couldn't seem to drag my eyes away from his face. That face. It was almost too perfect to be real. But here it was, right in front of me, balanced perfectly on a perfect neck that connected to perfect shoulders . . .

"Rilke?"

I shook my head. "Greta." Shifting the books to my left arm, I stuck out my right hand. For a shake. Because I am an idiot. Then I realized what he'd said. "And you're looking for Rilke poetry?" Thank goodness for a liberal arts bachelor's degree. At least I knew Rilke was a poet.

When he nodded and smiled, he looked precisely and directly into my eyes, and I swear I saw our future. It had great hair.

Editorial Reviews

07/03/2017
It’s difficult to say who would enjoy this contemporary romance, since the thin, white 20-somethings at its heart are depicted as shallow and self-absorbed, and everyone who’s fatter, browner, or older is made the target of the heroine’s casual cruelty and obliviousness. Greta is an assistant in the quaint Victorian library of Franklin, Ohio. She’s perkily unkind to everyone, including her “best friend,” Will, who is “huge in the way that nobody really wants to be.” Her narrative is Cyrano de Bergerac from the woman’s perspective, told entirely without irony. Will claims to love Greta, but promotes her to his gorgeous cousin Mac because she has “the package” of brains and beauty that Mac wants; Greta reads the cheesy pick-up lines printed on Mac’s T-shirts as love letters aimed uniquely at her; and Mac has no apparent reason other than narcissism to engage in this nonsense. As these three use one another romantically, Greta nominates herself to singlehandedly save the library from the stinginess of the city’s voters, assuming she can take time away from griping about her obsessively matchmaking mother, the longtime senior librarians, the wheelchair users who dare to want an accessible library, and Indian food. She dismisses the humanity of everyone around her—and she’s rewarded abundantly for it. The reader, however, is not. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Clean contemporary romance, a modern librarian's update on Cyrano...It's quirky and fun, light and comfortable.  A whimsical work, with a style of dialogue that feels believable and genuine. Casual banter keeps the tone delightful, with pleasing turns into comical dialogue. Passages have a unique format that includes text messages between characters, grounding the narrative's charming ambiance.  A convivial romance that holds closely to its underlying thesis; it's what is on the inside that matters the most."

Foreword Reviews

"Wilhite’s sweet contemporary romance is a charmer for readers who enjoy witty banter and a breezy writing style similar to romance-authors Mary Kay Andrews and Donna Kauffman."

Booklist

"Wilhite’s sweet contemporary romance is a charmer for readers who enjoy witty banter and a breezy writing style similar to romance-authors Mary Kay Andrews and Donna Kauffman."

Booklist

Wilhite's sweet contemporary romance is a charmer for readers who enjoy witty banter and a breezy writing style similar to romance-authors Mary Kay Andrews and Donna Kauffman. --Booklist

From the Publisher