Tony is a recently divorced, single parent of two little girls.
For years he was dedicated to his store/business and family, but now with his divorce finalized six months prior and the struggle to keep his business afloat., he feels that he’s losing control of everything around him, and he’s slowly drowning. But he feels he needs to keep up appearances for his girls and for his younger brother Ray (the H of the previous installment).

Beth is a strong willed independent woman. After a weekend fling where all form of birth control failed, she found herself pregnant, but instead of the predicted emotions for a person with her lifestyle, she decided to embrace Fate and was confident about her option. Before this life changing event, she was a very sexually liberated woman, she enjoyed her ONS and was always very honest with her partners.

How are you supposed to do that when you’re shackled to one person for your whole entire life? People should have the freedom to fuck their obsessions away when they feel like it.

 

I will never, ever make that mistake. I might not want a long-term relationship, but I’m not a cruel person. I don’t want to be the cause of anyone’s suffering. By being rigorously, diligently honest, I make sure that doesn’t happen. Always. I make sure the other person can accept my terms before I get involved with them.

As she mentions multiple times through the book, her problem regards the conventional, monogamous relationship, especially marriage, not children, so she always saw them in her future, but always as a single mother. Her deeply ingrained issues with marriage, as we find out through the reading, come from her parents disastrous marriage ( I won’t reveal too much here because that is one of the main core issues to the character, and the slow paced reveal really adds to the enjoyment of the book).

From the moment they meet (Beth is best friends with Holly, who is dating/living together with Ray, Tony’s brother – previous book MCs), they immediately feel drawn to one another, but with Beth’s recent pregnancy discovery and Tony’s personal and professional life problems, they try to ignore the chemistry.

Certain events take place (with a little unconscious help from Holly and Ray) and they find themselves cohabiting the same space, and struggling even more with their physical reaction to the other. Until the moment they loose the fight…

“But for the record,” she says, “you are kind of ridiculously hot, okay? I want you to know that.” I breathe in, deeply, and hold the breath. She can’t possibly know what it means to me to hear that. After so many years of Alexa’s indifference. I know I’m not bad-looking. I know I’m a decent guy. But when your wife doesn’t want you, how can that not crumble your confidence?

OMG, I can honestly say it was one of the more realistic books I have ever read, their personal insecurities, their fights, and their honesty was incredible.

I might not be the woman for him in the long term; I’m not that woman for any man. But I can give him one gift today. The gift of losing himself. The gift of learning what lies beneath the nice guy he so studiously presents to the world.

 

As much as it hurts—and God, why does it hurt so much?—I can set aside my own complicated feelings. And just support her.

I was feeling what they were feeling, suffering with their internal battles, cheering their obstacle they overcame, and yelling my head with their poor decisions.

I wasn’t built for long-term romantic commitment. I am too much like my father. Impatient and restless, wanting adventure and space and my own separate life. I would hurt Tony like Dad hurt Mom, and I couldn’t live with myself if I did that.
He deserves so much better.

 

“You think you’re going to hurt him, don’t you? You think you can’t be you and still be with him, and you think you’re going to get sick of that and leave, and break his heart.”

Given how much I enjoyed the book, I have to say that Beth’s denial in accepting their relationship, her feelings for Tony, and particularly her unconsciously blindness and denial, were the main reason to which my rating wasn’t higher. I could understand the first time – not that I liked it – she pushed him away and didn’t want contact, but the second time <spoiler>after her baby’s birth, where he was her support and help </spoiler> I was really mad at her. It was to much, because Tony, he was just so damn sweet and loving…

I’ve tried to be as normal as I could—like a friend would be.
But this.
This was always here.
This need for her. This craving.
This love.
Rippling through me. Tying my hands.
Asking for more.
Because it’s not enough, only being Beth’s friend.

 

“I love you, Beth. And I want you. And your child. Everything is what I want. That’s how it is.”

He was really incredible, I just wish, at times, that he was a stronger, less beta, character, and hadn’t allowed her to push him away so much. That he had taken some action. I understood why he didn’t, given his past and the reasons for his failed marriage, I just wanted a bit more strength and hands on attitude! This being said, for a beta, he was of the best and sweeter male MCs I have ever read. In the end, they overcame their problems, but damn, I wanted more, hence the other half a star deduction, because their ending felt a bit unfinished, and I wanted a epilogue, to see how they manage their solution on the long haul. Nonetheless, it was a great read, and I will for sure, read more from the author.

There’s no going back now to the place inside myself where I’ve been hiding all these years. For better or worse, she found me out. And now here I am, as open as she is.

 

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley from CrushStar Multimedia LLC for an honest review.