Keep This Off The Record

Writing romance was an interesting genre switch for me as an author. On the one hand, it’s not like I was transitioning from commercial sci fi to litfic, and I’ve always had a lot of romance in my speculative fiction, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected for me to expand my artistic portfolio in this way. On the other hand, there was a whole new world of reader expectations for me to tackle – including new tropes. There were many that came easily to me, others that came with a bit of practice (fittingly, slow burn is in this category), but there is one that I just never took to – enemies to lovers. I struggle to see how two people who well and truly hate each other, and have justifiable reasons to do so, can fall in love. So I was curious to see how Arden Joy would handle this in her debut adult romance, Keep This Off The Record.

The story follows old high school rivals Abby and Freya as they meet again years later at a reunion. Predictably, things do not go well. However, neither can put the incident behind them and move on since Abby’s best friend and Freya’s close coworker hit it off. Let’s just say the “enemies” portion of the story is very successful. I believed that these two hated each other with a passion. To the point where I almost didn’t continue past Chapter 3, because I too sincerely and deeply loathed Freya despite spending some time in her point of view. I was TeamAbby right off the bat, and when she threw her drink at Freya, it felt emotionally cathartic for me as a reader.

Freya is an award winning journalist and media darling, adored by her many fans as a trailblazer and feminist in an often male dominated space. She’s also the kind of person that values image and popularity above all else, sacrificing those around her to maintain power and status. This reader felt Freya’s every action was permeated by a deep hypocrisy. What kind of feminist mocks another woman for living alone or having a cat, and how image obsessed do you have to be to not so subtly pay off the bartender with an outsize tip so that she’ll take your side and ignore the fact that your high school BFFs are basically a two woman gossip mill intent on destroying everyone around them? Sure, we later learn that Freya is also deeply insecure and has sacrificed pieces of herself – including her queer identity – to maintain her position, but that doesn’t excuse the way she treated people in high school. Especially when she continues to repeat that behavior now. It made me not want to spend any more time with her, or in her head.

Luckily, the prose and banter in this book were so hilarious, they pulled me along into the later chapters. Much of this witticism comes in the form of a delightful cast of supporting characters. Indeed, these secondary characters get much more page time than I am used to in a romance and there is a second love story embedded within the main romance. Abby’s best friend Naomi falls in love with Freya’s associate producer Will. Their relationship provides much of the drama for the book and is very satisfying, as is the entire bride crew. I was especially hooked by Riley, the nonbinary fashion designer, who somehow manages to make everything better.

In terms of heat level the friend crew banter is definitely X-rated. However, the actual romance on page is limited to a few steamy kisses and sexts, after which everything fades to black. As someone who prefers her romances high heat and my banter clever without relying on sexual jokes, I might have swapped those two, but that is a personal reading preference and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book. This was safe enough to read on the subway and the attraction and embraces were so well done I can only hope Joy experiments with leaving the door open in some of her future offerings.

Not liking a main character off the bat is not an immediate DNF for me. As a Jew, I believe in reparation of both the world and ones own personal short comings. However, I also believe that secretly having feelings for someone does not justify treating them like garbage. It is not cute from kids on the playground and it is certainly not OK from an adult. It takes a very specific type of soul searching to move on from that type of behavior, and I saw none of this from Freya while she and Abby were starting to realize they may have more than friendly feelings for each other. She ponders what her prior actions might say about her as a person, but she has not yet shown any capacity to stop harming others (or herself) in an effort to keep up her image. It is therefore a very tidy narrative move when this exact issue is what leads to the third act break up and Freya has to actually recon with her behavior and take some public risk in order to win Abby back.

In the epilogue we see Freya complete more of this work, including having an impact on the world at large, and I was grateful for it. Because while all the sexy banter and arguing leading to kissing is fun, what typically holds me back from this particular trope is that oftentimes there is no believable process of character transformation. Without it, the reader is left wondering how long this relationship will actually last and how much hurt the characters are in for down the road. Here we get a full view of Freya taking her change forward and trying to help others recognize that they should not need to put others down in order to succeed in life.

Abby and Naomi are both Jewish, and there are casual references to hosting a Rosh Hashana dinner, attending Hebrew school, and Abby wearing a star of David necklace. Freya, Will and several of their friends are not Jewish. The book therefore features two interfaith romances, although it does not dwell much on how the characters feel about that aspect of their relationships. It simply shows people who just so happen to be Jews living their regular life, with the Jewish practice that they choose to engage with completely normalized into their existence. I really, really love when books just let Jewish people be themselves, without any heavy handed exposition.

Overall, I’m glad I stuck around. Keep This Off The Record has some very delightful banter, a well rounded group of friends, and an actually believable enemies to lovers plot line. The major star, for me, was the prose which shone from the very first page. I’m interested to see what Arden Joy writes next.

Note: BookishlyJewish received a physical arc of this book from the publisher after they reached out to offer one. No strings were attached, but presumably they were hoping for a review.

---

Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon