“Flirting Lessons,” Jasmine Guillory’s sapphic romance, hits April 2025’s bestseller lists with a steamy, heartwarming tale of love and self-discovery. Released this month, it follows Avery Jensen, a straitlaced event planner, as she learns seduction from Taylor Cameron, Napa Valley’s resident heartbreaker. Guillory’s fizzy prose and relatable heroines make this a standout, blending queer romance with her signature charm.
Avery, nearing 30, kicks off the story in a rut: her dating life is a desert, her job a grind. Enter Taylor, a charismatic landscaper with a trail of broken hearts, who bets her best friend she can stay celibate all summer. Their paths cross at a winery gala Avery’s planning, where Taylor’s effortless flirtation—winking over a pinot—sparks an idea. Avery, desperate to shed her uptight shell, begs for lessons in allure. Taylor, craving distraction, agrees, and the game is on.
Guillory sets the stage in Napa’s sun-dappled hills, where vineyards and oak groves frame flirty tutorials: eye contact over coffee, teasing at a farmer’s market. Avery’s bumbling attempts—tripping into Taylor’s arms, botching a pickup line—are laugh-out-loud gold, balanced by Taylor’s cool confidence. The chemistry simmers as practice dates blur into real feelings, Guillory’s dialogue popping with zingers and vulnerability.
Avery’s arc is empowerment through awkwardness. Raised by strict parents, she’s unpracticed in desire, making her lessons—hair-tossing, sultry laughs—a shedding of restraint. Taylor, meanwhile, hides scars from a cheating ex, her playgirl facade cracking in quiet moments: a stargazing confession, a shared cabernet. Guillory layers their romance with stakes—a gala Avery must nail, Taylor’s bet deadline—while weaving in pals like Jazz, a sassy chef who nudges them together.
The turning point hits at a harvest dance, where Avery, in a borrowed red dress, tests her skills on Taylor. The kiss that follows—hot, vineyard-scented—ignites a will-they-won’t-they spiral. Guillory’s love scenes sizzle, all tangled limbs and breathless banter, yet the heart lies in their growth: Avery’s newfound boldness, Taylor’s softening edges. A late twist—Taylor’s friend catching their tryst—threatens the bet, but Avery’s stand for love clinches the win.
“Flirting Lessons” ends with the gala’s triumph and a moonlit promise between the pair, their future as bright as Napa’s dawn. Guillory’s queer twist on her rom-com formula—sexy, funny, fierce—lands it atop April’s bestseller heap.