Single dad seeks nanny. Benefits are … mind-blowing.
My best friend, Liv, is leaving town. No surprise there: She’s never stayed in one place more than a few years, and it’s past time for her to move on. Only her car broke down, and she’s got no job and no place to stay while she gets back on her feet.
Meanwhile, I’m a single dad, and my nanny just quit.
Problem solved, right? Liv can be my temporary nanny. And it’s just two weeks, so no chance for things to get complicated—even if suddenly I’m noticing just how beautiful Liv is.
But being under the same roof with Liv is making me look at everything differently. For the first time, I don’t want to be the guy who sleeps around, and “just friends” doesn’t feel like enough. I’m starting to want more—and she’s not saying no.
If things keep going like this, someone’s going to get hurt. And I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be me.
Review:
This book–where to start? First, friends-to-lovers is always going to be a winner for me, as long as it’s well written and works for the characters. That’s a check here. Second, I love kids, but if they’re going to be major players in a romance, especially when single parent(s) are involved, they need to read like real people, not convenient little plot moppets. Another check! (OMG, when Katie was doling out the directions in her elaborate princess stories…there was snort-laughing going on over here, I’m not going to lie) Third, the hero and heroine’s issues, y’all. They need to make sense, be believable, and please, please, please try to avoid the could-be-fixed-with-a-simple-conversation-but-we’re-not-going-to-because-of-reasons trap. Not a problem here–Chance and Liv’s felt totally genuine–they were heartbreaking, but at the same time you (and they) had at least a glimmer of hope. Everyone was just *flirting* along the edges of angst until they figured their sh…ahem, stuff out and managed to pull out a believable–and perfectly-imperfectly-lovely!–HEA in the end. Check, check, check!
One of my favorite things about the re-write is the addition of the Wilder brothers in the background of the story–they play a small role from the outside since their business happens to mesh really well with Chance’s career goals. (Am I the only one who gets excessively excited when characters in one series mention characters I love from another series, no matter how small and inconsequental the mention? Seriously, every time I’m like, “Hey! I know those guys!” It’s a very Thor: Ragnarok kind of moment:
Seriously, it can’t be just me, can it?)
There’s also a baseball game scene that is just sigh-worthy. No, it’s not that baseball game scene, keep reading. Trust me, you’ll know it when you get to it. I swear, it made my heart smile to read it.
There’s also an epilogue at the end that has me itching to pick up the third book in the series RIGHT NOW, but darn if I don’t have other obligations this week that have to come first. At least its re-release isn’t until 3/29, so I can pretend I’ll get everything I need to get done waaaay before that, right? So I can drop everything and just read that day for sure? Dare to dream…
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.