Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 I spent one weekend reading The Thing About Love, and it was so enjoyable and so much fun that knowing that I still had more of it to read left me in the best mood. It lifted my entire weekend, and when people ask me about it, I grin and wave my hands around and make Good Book Noise(r) (and then those people probably regret asking me). 
 There are a number of things I enjoy about Julie James' books, among them the portrayal of ambitious characters who love their careers, and the way in which a simple and subtle conflict, like work/life balance for busy career-focused people, can be expanded into a realistic tension that informs most of the story. In The Thing About Love, the tension is partly that Jessica is reestablishing her life and adjusting her career in Chicago, while John is about to leave Chicago to restart his somewhere else. In addition, they both harbor a pretty strong dislike for one another after having been in competition at Quantico, where they found one another's style and strengths very off-putting. They have to immediately set their dislike aside and work together with sufficient easy, visible camaraderie to gain the trust of their target. So there's forced proximity, plus mutual dislike and past history, plus starting over vs. getting out, which makes a big helping of all my catnip. 
 Side note: if you like competence porn, THERE IS SO MUCH COMPETENCE PORN I cannot begin to list it all. It's delicious, multi-level competence porn, including the side characters in the FBI who set up undercover operations with every single detail, the elements of the FBI training in Quantico and for the HRT, and the preparations that go into a sting operation. SO MUCH COMPETENCE PORN. 
 I had the best time reading this book. I went through my notes and highlighted sections and ended up reading a good three or four chapters while writing this review - and I noticed more subtle elements to the characters and their conversations that I hadn't seen the first time. While re-reading instead of reviewing is total hell on my productivity, it's also a sign that I'll be enjoying The Thing About Love at least once, maybe twice more. 
 - SB Sarah