You can say I had it all. The fancy house, top of the line car, lots of friends and more money than anyone could ever imagine. On the outside, we were the perfect family. No one knew about my abusive father and my mother who drank herself into oblivion every night. My name is Karly and I have scars, deep scars that no one knows about, and when my parents died I was left alone and on my own, to fight through life with no help.
When it came to life and happiness, I had it all until my world was turned upside down. My name is Nicholas and my wife, the love of my life, left me and our new baby girl without as much as an explanation. I didn’t want to accept it, but after our divorce was final and four long years passed, I started to lose hope that she’d ever come back. Emma was growing so fast and I needed help. My sister recommended that I hire her friend, Karly, as Emma’s nanny. I took a chance on bringing another woman into my little girl’s life. Did I do the right thing?
As many days and nights are spent together, feelings can no longer be denied and a relationship is formed.
Life is about taking chances and learning how to fall, but when the past comes back, will they be strong enough to fight through and trust each other? Or will all they worked for fall apart?
I was hopeful when I started this book that it was going to fulfill
the expectations that the blurb filled me with.
The plot seemed right up my alley, but the execution is where it lost
me.
Nicholas is a divorced single father.
His wife walked out on him and their daughter, so he understandably is
adverse to relationships with women. In
fact, he’s firmly in the “single and not looking” category. He decides to hire Karly to care for his
daughter. Karly, due to her own tragic
experiences, is also firmly entrenched in the “not looking” category. But, despite all of this, Nicholas and Karly
find themselves falling for each other.
I did like the chemistry between Nicholas and Karly, but it was
difficult for me to even really appreciate that because the characters
themselves fell really short for me. I
did not connect with them nor did I understand their motivations. I mean, what happens at the end between
Nicholas and Karly really left me scratching my head. I understand that conflict needs to be
introduced in order to move the plot along, but this just seemed really forced
to me and I didn’t get it.
The sex scenes were pretty hot in this book, and that kept me going
because I’m a pervert. And even though I
like sex scenes as much as the next reader, I almost got to the point where I
was skimming them (gasp!) because they were so numerous. Holy crap.
I want to buy Karly some lotion or something, because surely there was
chafing involved.
Overall, I think this book just really wasn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy the writing style; it felt
incomplete to me as far as character development as well as plot. This could
totally be one of those books that most people read and love, but for me it
fell short. 3 stars.
I was really looking forward to reading
this book when I received it. The blurb sounded great and I was looking forward
to immersing myself in Karly and Nicholas’s lives as they both moved forward
from bad pasts toward a possible future together. As this was the first book in
the series, I didn’t expect a resolution to their story and assumed there would
not be a happy ending – sadly, this is the only one of my expectations that
this book lived up to for me.
Karly and Nicholas both come with
baggage, but I found Nicholas’ belief that his damaged past was equal to that
of Karly’s ridiculous; to equate heartbreak with nearly being murdered by one’s
father was ludicrous. Further, I found Nicholas’s actions to be borderline
bipolar. His constant wavering as to whether or not he wanted to pursue a
relationship with Karly was annoying and reminded me of the internal struggles
of an angst-filled female character, not a supposedly self-confident successful
male (yes, I went there – but books often rely upon gender stereotypes);
typically I enjoy it when the male character is able to display deeper
emotions, but in Nick’s case, not so much. The speed at which their
relationship developed was also a bit quick considering how damaged the
characters were supposed to be. Additionally, the way that Nick’s sister Alexis
meddled to insure that Nick and Karly were thrown together didn’t seem
authentic; I find it hard to believe that a sister is going to try to set her
brother up immediately after he and his wife are divorced – at least not with
someone she thinks is meant for the long haul. While I liked Karly and felt
that she was the more believable of the characters, I really didn’t connect
with her either.
For me, this was just an okay read.
I found myself unable to connect with the characters and I felt the
relationship was rushed, while at the same time the story’s timeline felt off.
As I received an unedited version of the book, I find it difficult to comment
on the author’s writing except to say that it didn’t work for me personally and
it is extremely unlikely that I will read the sequel. That said, I will
recommend that you download the sample and make your own decision – just
because there was something lacking in the story for me, doesn’t mean you won’t
love it.
Saoching Moose, writing as S.Moose,
is a contemporary romance and suspense author living in Webster, NY. She
debut as an author on June 7, 2013 with Reaching Out For You. She lives
with her lovable and supportive husband.
A
2011 graduate from St. John Fisher College, S.Moose loves to read and
write. When she’s not in her writing cave, you can find her hanging out
with her amazing family and friends.
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