Series: Hot & Hammered, #3
Traits & Tropes: enemies to lovers; age-gap (older heroine)
Genre/Setting: Contemporary, Port Jefferson, Long Island
Publication Date: 09/22/20
Heat Level: 4/5
Rating: 5 stars!
Bethany Castle is the queen of appearances, designing and staging beautiful and much-desired homes for her family’s construction business. She’s given up on dating, however, as her need for perfection always seems to lead her to self-sabotage before any guy can get too close to seeing her flaws. She’s decided to try her hand at doing a house flip on her own, but her older brother, Stephen, who runs the company, doesn’t take her desire seriously.
To make matters worse, a TV producer hears of this bit of sibling rivalry and decides to make the flip into a competitive reality show between Bethany and Stephen. Bethany wants to prove herself and win but has only one man on her crew: Wes Daniels, newly arrived in their small town to care for his niece. Wes has gotten under Bethany’s skin since she met him, and the confident young Texan is the last thing she needs underfoot.
Working in close quarters on a hurried flip, the back and forth sniping between Bethany and Wes rapidly heats into more. These two soon find common ground and Bethany finds herself falling for Wes and sending her well-ordered life into messy chaos.
I adored this book! I was unsure about this one at first because Bethany could be pretty awful to Wes at times and he didn’t deserve it. But the more Wes peeled back her shiny veneer to the real insecurities beneath, the more relatable Bethany became. I’m definitely an overthinker as well and Wes handled that anxiety so beautifully in this book that my heart just melted. Wes was just the perfect hero. He was capable, competent, adorable with his niece, a master of dirty talk, protective, and so decisive and honest about his intentions with Bethany. He was also vulnerable at times too and that was lovely. I only wish we’d gotten just a little bit more of Bethany being there for Wes and making him feel like he belonged too. Of course, this was implied and shown a bit in the end, but I would’ve loved just a bit more on the page. Either way, I loved how open Wes was with Bethany and how he refused to let her fall back into her destructive old habits with relationships. Even their fights were quickly resolved, and I loved that maturity and the emphasis on choosing each other even when things are tough and it’s not all smooth sailing. I also loved how they both made each other such a priority and were so honest about their feelings. Wes has raised the bar for heroes and these two were my favorite couple of the series for sure (even though I haven’t yet read Fix Her Up).
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/2165271336
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3505597729
Comments
Post a Comment