Practice Makes Perfect (2023) is an adult contemporary romance novel by Sarah Adams set in a small town and told from the dual perspectives of Annie Walker and Will Griffin. When Annie is accused of being boring, she intends to prove everyone wrong and secure a husband by getting relationship coaching from Will, the gruff bodyguard of her older brother’s pop star fiancé, Amelia Rae Rose. Sarah Adams is a TikTok sensation and a New York Times best-selling author for both The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect.

This guide refers to the e-book edition published by Dell, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in 2023.

Plot Summary

Annie Walker has spent her life pushing her own needs aside to care for others. She loves managing her successful flower shop in her hometown of Rome, Kentucky, to honor the memory of her late mother, but she recently has felt like something is missing in her life. Believing that a perfect marriage will fill this void, Annie plans to find a husband within the next year.

On her first date in years, Annie is called boring and dull before he feigns a roommate emergency to bail. The embarrassing interaction is witnessed by Will—the on-and-off bodyguard of Amelia Rae Rose, the pop star sensation currently engaged to Annie’s older brother, Noah. Will is on a date of his own and is well-known for playing the field as he travels the world for his job. With Amelia and Noah’s upcoming nuptials, Will has been reassigned to protect Amelia from the media and overzealous fans.

Will walks Annie out to her truck before rejoining his date inside but cannot focus for the remainder of the night. He returns home early, where he gets a call from his younger brother, Ethan, informing Will of his engagement to his girlfriend, Hannah. Will is not happy with the news and hangs up. Will doesn’t believe in lasting love or marriage because he grew up in a dysfunctional home with unfaithful parents. His aversion to long-term relationships makes him extra wary about spending time with Annie, with whom he’s had an intense attraction in the year since meeting her.

During an Audrey Hepburn movie night with Amelia and Annie’s sisters, Emily and Madison discuss Will’s return to town. They joke about which sister would make a better match for the man but laugh at the idea of sweet, innocent, “Angel Annie” dating him. Annie tells Amelia about her tragic date in private, and Amelia promises to find a way to help her improve at dating.

Will does not look forward to spending a month in the small town. Though Amelia wants Will to become her permanent bodyguard after the wedding, he would rather leave for a more high-profile job in Washington, DC. The next day, Amelia tasks Will with delivering a letter to Annie’s flower shop. When he arrives, Annie is in the middle of reading a steamy pirate novel. The letter suggests that Will should become Annie’s dating coach. At first, he declines the offer because he’s worried they’ll both develop real feelings and he’s not looking for a relationship. However, he agrees on the condition that he can borrow the historical romance book she’s reading. Annie is determined not to tell her siblings about Will because they’ll treat her like a child and make hurtful jokes about her innocence.

Will spots Annie doing her weekly grocery shopping and joins her. He appears more interested in her family and life than her previous date had and admits to reading—and enjoying—her romance novel. When he jokingly calls her Angel Annie, she admits she hates the nickname for the first time, and he promises not to use it again.

Will devises a plan to sneak Annie into his room at Mabel’s Inn to avoid town gossip. There, their first lesson consists of Will teaching her the art of seduction, the key to it being feigned confidence. They discuss his world adventures, and he offers to accompany her on any of her own if she decides a low-key marriage isn’t what she wants. The following day, Will accompanies Amelia to the farm where she plans to have her wedding so that she can take pictures for her remote wedding planner. He notices Annie in the flower fields acting friendly with another man and becomes jealous.

Annie and Will go on a date at a local diner, where they practice natural conversation. Will reveals the story behind the flower tattoos snaking up his arm, which represent the magnolia tree he’d go to as a kid when he needed to escape. Annie wants a tattoo of her own, and Will admits that he finds her sexy with or without one. Annie is flattered but quickly becomes hurt when she believes it’s only pretend flirtation for practice, and she bails. Will finds Annie later in the day, apologizes, and assures her that everything he said during their practice date was true. They kiss, and Will forces himself to stop before it can progress too far. A few days later, Will makes an appointment for Annie to get the tattoo she’s always wanted. She gets a small tattoo of a book on her shoulder.

Will must leave town for a few days to accompany Amelia to LA for a TV interview. He drives to Annie’s house in the middle of the night, and she lets him in through her bedroom window. They exchange numbers, and instead of leaving, he makes himself comfortable on her bed. They kiss, and just as he’s about to remove Annie’s top, she halts their momentum. Will spends the night cuddling with her and wonders if he can actually sustain a long-term relationship with her.

While getting his morning coffee, Will discovers that the entire town has found out about his late-night trip to Annie’s and has begun a petition to demand that Annie and Will end their relationship for Annie’s protection. Annie is confronted by her sisters and is hurt by their jokes about her and Will’s incompatibility. Will’s week-long absence is filled with their flirtatious back-and-forth texting. While he’s away, an attractive man named Brandon Larsdale moves to town and asks Annie on a date.

Annie goes to Hank’s on Friday night with her siblings and is joined by Amelia and Will, who have returned from LA. Annie gives into her desire for Will by kissing him in the public bar. John, with whom she went on a date before, happens to be present, and Will mistakenly believes Annie kissed him to make John jealous. Annie falls sick after the night at Hank’s, and Will takes care of her. The intimacy leads to Will sharing his troubled past with Annie and why he doesn’t believe in relationships. He spends another night by Annie’s side but finds out about Annie’s upcoming date with Brandon the following day. In an attempt to act nonchalant about the news, Will admits that he’ll be reassigned to be a politician in DC when the month is over.

Brandon takes Annie to his nephew’s baseball game. Amelia and Will show up in terrible disguises, and Annie accuses Will of sabotaging the date. After learning more about Brandon, Annie decides they’d be better as friends. Later that night, she texts Will, asking him to come over. After spending another night with Annie, Will is more confused than ever and calls his brother for advice. Ethan tells Will to follow his heart. Annie is equally confused about her feelings for Will but doesn’t want to burden anyone with her problems. She settles on crying alone but is discovered by Mabel, who urges her not to give up on Will and to tell her siblings the truth about everything she is struggling with. Annie later confronts her siblings about their hurtful Angel Annie jokes.

Will is injured by an aggressive super-fan of Amelia’s while on duty. Annie finds out days later and shows up in his room while he’s exiting the shower. Annie accidentally sees him naked, and after an intimate conversation about their mutual growing feelings for each other, they have sex. The following day, on their way to the diner for breakfast, Will and Annie interrupt a town meeting called to discuss their relationship. Annie gives a speech to the town defending her relationship with Will only to discover everyone has voted to support it.

Annie attends Noah and Amelia’s rehearsal dinner. Annie worries over Will’s impending departure as they spend another intimate night together. She wakes up the following morning to find Will and her latest pirate romance gone. Will doesn’t attend Noah and Amelia’s wedding, and Annie worries that he left town without saying goodbye.

Will arrives as she’s leaving the venue, roleplaying a pirate from her romance novels. He jokingly kidnaps her and drives her in his newly bought truck to his newly bought house, where he announces he’s quit his job and plans on staying in Rome with her while taking community college classes to become a teacher. Will proposes marriage because it’s important to Annie, but she respects his fears and suggests she be his girlfriend instead. They plan to take their relationship slow and share adventures around the world first.