Hair, makeup, clothing, decor ... everything in Bethany Castle's world is organized, planned, and styled to perfection. Which is why the homes she designs for her family's real estate business are the most coveted in town. The only thing not perfect? Her track record with men.
Bailey uses alternating-third-person narration for this book very well ... Her powers of description are about average, but there are so many spikes of sharp humor and observation that it doesn’t matter. Her main characters come across as distinct and understandable without the crutch of first-person PoV ... I can’t even take off points from this book for the unrealistic depiction of children – I wouldn’t have enjoyed it half as much if Laura had been portrayed as the traumatized time-consumer she’d most likely be in real life at her age and with her background ... Tessa Bailey books are very hot, so if you’re the sort of person who prefers romances in which the vagina is referred to as a ‘secret garden’ instead of a 'pussy', this will not be your book. The heat takes a while to arrive, however, and I was definitely checking the page count at certain points wondering when they were going to ‘do it’, but it comes – and so do Bethany and Wes ... needs no renovations and is move-in ready for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
Quirky secondary characters, inviting small-town setting, and sensual scenes are highlights of this charming and funny novel ... Fans of the Hot and Hammered series will delight in visiting with familiar characters, but this can certainly be read as a stand-alone. Fans of Christina Lauren and Helena Hunting should add Bailey to their list of go-to rom-com authors.
... every bit as fun and sexy as [Bailey's] readers have come to expect ... The key elements of a Bailey rom-com are certainly present: snappy dialogue, likable characters and red-hot chemistry. But it’s the plot that makes this romance feel perfectly of the moment, and readers quickly learn that the house the main couple is flipping isn’t the only thing that needs a little overhaul. It’s hard to be perfect all the time, and Bethany embodies every modern woman I know who juggles career and relationships, self-confidence and vulnerability. Wes is a very lovable hero, stepping up to care for his niece while fighting his own insecurities from bouncing around different foster homes when he was younger ... This is such a timely story for an era of quarantining and social distancing, when families have had to reconfigure their own tools of engagement, learning how to shift gears and work from home, entertain less personal space or even take on new tasks like cooking and homeschooling. Bailey’s characters face their fates with good humor and hope, which is a good aspiration for her readers. I think she’d also like to know that, as usual, I laughed out loud while reading her book . . . and I may have even snorted.
