Synopsis:
Newly divorced, Avery Hart returns home to Wildwood eager to take on her dream opportunity and transform her family’s dive bar into her own bakery. The contractor for hire isn’t just a master with his hands—he’s big, built, and wears a tool belt like nobody’s business. Despite being an ex-con, Trace Hutton is irresistible. Too bad he’d never go for someone as inexperienced as Avery.
Trace needs to focus on the job at hand, not daydream about smearing icing all over the sexy baker…and licking it off. This job is the key to getting his construction company back on its feet after his time in prison. Besides, no one deserves a fresh start more than Avery, and she certainly won’t get that with him.
After a delectable night of passion (and pie), Trace craves something more. But he’ll be damned if he’ll let his checkered past crush her dreams. And as Avery starts to realize how Trace fulfills more than just her physical needs, she struggles with whether to let her history decide her future, or explore the wild new possibilities of forever…
Review:
I am loving this series!
Wild KIsses is the story of Avery Hart, second of the Hart sisters, fresh from her divorce and ready to start her brand new cafe, giving new life to a building that has had such a toxic past. She’s stretching herself thin, baking as if her business depends upon it–okay, it kind of does–and cultivating customers, both in her hometown and online. She’s sinking everything she’s got into the business–literally.
And she’s trying really, really hard to not think about Trace Hutton, the contractor her sister hired to help her renovate the building. But it’s not easy.
Trust me, it isn’t 😉
Trace is looking to start over–he’s wasted far too much of his life paying for past mistakes, but now his dad needs him and it’s time to prove himself at last. Fixing up Avery’s cafe could be the key to everything. If he can finish on time for her grand opening and make it the building of her dreams, it just might convince the skeptics of his hometown that he’s turned his life around for the better. Or at least get him some new clients…but not if he can’t keep his mind off of Avery. She’s off limits, for a multitude of reasons.
But of course they can’t keep their thoughts–or their hands–off of each other, and thank goodness for that 😉 The sparks they generate could power up every one of Avery’s fancy new ovens, and then some–so really, their plan for “one and done” was doomed even before they finished making it. They do have decent reasons for staying apart: Avery’s disastrous first marriage has turned her off of relationships, and Trace of course believes that getting involved with him could permanently ruin her chances for a do-over.
Fortunately they manage to figure things out and achieve their HEA, just in time for (I’m assuming–though Ms. Jordan really didn’t give us much more than the barest of hints here) youngest sister Chloe’s book. I’m totally looking forward to Trace and Avery looking all adorable and in love in book three, much like Ethan and Delaney were in this one. (Favorite scene with the two of them–when someone upsets Avery, who goes to Delaney to vent. Ethan pops in, asks whose a$$ he has to kick, and when Delaney tells him, he responds, “She doesn’t drink beer anyway. Consider it done.” He’s a brewer.)
If you’ve read their book (Forbidden Fling), you too will love the Delaney and Ethan moments, but if you haven’t yet, no worries. Wild Kisses should do just fine as a standalone.
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
