‘Sweat Equity’ by Monica McCallan is the first book in the ‘LadyLuck Startups Romance’ series. Seems the series will revolve around three Stanford graduate friends and co-founders of a lesbian dating app company. Brennan, Carter and Avery share two apartments in Brennan’s house in San Francisco. This book is Avery’s story.

Avery Simmons is the person in charge of the technical end of the startup company. Her life is in shambles after she discovered her girlfriend of three years cheated on her. This brings Avery to Brennan’s empty second apartment awaiting a new roommate. Enter Charlie Grant, Brennan’s old boarding school friend who is trying to start a new chapter in her life. She is attempting to leave personal tragedy, overbearing parents and a promising but unfulfilling career in New York City in order to try a more meaningful one as a personal trainer. The new roommate arrangement starts with some rocky moments until there’s a truce between the two characters as Avery asks Charlie to guide her in her journey to physical fitness.

Avery’s character is the youngest of the group and she is treated as such by her friends and family. This is something she tries to overcome throughout the book and plays a role in explaining her moods. However, the character does have some redeeming qualities and grows on the reader as the story progresses. Charlie, on the other hand, is more even-keeled and mature throughout the majority of the book but later falls into uncharacteristically immoral behavior which seems a bit forced. There is this constant pull and push and flip flopping of who was doing the right, mature thing in this book that was frustrating to read. The author moves the relationship forward through thoughtful, meaningful moments only to negate them with the characters’ next action.

The company setup and secondary characters were enjoyable and will no doubt serve well in the future installments of this series. The three friends’ banter is on point, entertaining and in my opinion the highlight of the book.

This book is available for purchase through Amazon or free through Kindle Unlimited.

Overall an okay read with a slow and at times frustrating romance. 3.5 stars.