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.

Willow’s life changed completely when her mother died. Her stepfather revealed his true colors, and from there forward she found herself alone and being verbally abused by him and her horrible half-sister, Ivy. This caused depression and terrible self-image problems for her, made worse by her verbally and emotionally abusive husband, that she can’t seem to overcome.
On her way to her divorce settlement, from her cheating husband Brad (with her sister) she meets Kane Masters, famous actor, and her life has set a new course.

Kane is looking for a true connection someone to make him feel everything he has been searching. When he meets Willow, even in her worst possible situation, he immediately realizes she is all he ever wanted.

I want companionship. I want a partner I can build a life with outside the insanity of my celebrity status. I want more for my future than bright lights around me.”

“I want someone real. I need a challenge. I want to feel that connection to someone I’ve never been able to find. That one you read about. The one that makes you feel alive. Awakens you with just a glance. I know it’s out there because I felt it once before; a fleeting feeling gone just as quickly as it hit, but it’s out there … otherwise, the movies they pay me millions to create wouldn’t be instant blockbusters. Everyone dreams of finding that feeling. And until I find it, I’m afraid I’ll spend the rest of my days wandering around like a lost puppy.”

“I’m not a person driven by lust anymore; I’m a man who knows a real solid connection when it smacks you in the face. “I felt it, Mia.” I sigh. “I felt that zap. That feeling of being kicked right in the chest. All it took was for her eyes to meet mine.”

OMG, I really can’t put in to words I wonderful and amazing Kane truly was. He was loyal, devoted and caring, and so supportive of Willow through her self-discovery journey. Actually he was the key to her del-image issues, showing her herself through is eyes.

“There isn’t beauty in perfection. It’s as fake as the image the word projects. Beauty is found in imperfection, Willow, because to admit you’re not perfect means you’re admitting you’re not whole and absolute. When I think of myself, I see someone willing to admit he’s as far from complete as it gets because, in order to get to that perfection, I need to find the other part of me who will make my life better. To take all the faults I have and fill them, and only then will I be there. You see, the way I see it, the only way to become perfect is to find that perfectly imperfect person who brings it out of you.”

“I can see the same intensity I’m feeling reflected in her stare, and I know that what we’re both feeling goes beyond the love we’ve developed. This is more than just coming together physically. This was our souls devouring any space left between them to become one. To fuse together in a bond that will never be broken.
At this moment, our love turned into something so much bigger than words can describe. It’s only when I roll my back to the mattress, pull her body to mine, and feel her head rest gently against my chest that I realize tears of my own have fallen from my eyes.”

The secondary characters, especially Eddie and Kirby, were amazing and their help was crucial. And their bluntness and shameless comments also allow a few funny moments through the book.

“Everyone does it, Willow. You act like I’m the only person who uses a little ass cream on my face.” He stops what he’s doing when he realized what he said, a slight frown between his brows. “Don’t—”
“Don’t what? Point out the fact you’re probably used to butt cream in other places?”(Eddie and Willow)

Willow had through the book a true journey of self discovery, with the help of her friends and especially Kane’s love, we see her evolution, and blossoming of her true beauty. She let go of her awful past and open her arms to the future.

“I welcome the light just as much as I welcome the body I used to hate, because not only does the man I love adore every inch, but through his eyes, I do too.”

“I’m ready to move on from my past, and I know you’re worried about me because of everything you had to watch me suffer through, but you have to stop. It’s taken me a while, but I’m free of that pain. I can see that I was trying to search for the feelings I felt lacking, but I didn’t realize I was the one who held the key to them. I’m strong. I stepped out of that comfort zone I was stuck in, and just like you said it would, my life began.”

“When I look in the mirror, I won’t see the things they will most likely say about me. I’ll see me, Willow Tate, the woman who isn’t perfect, but she is perfect in her imperfections. They are not allowed to have that from me. I’m not weak. I no longer fear words meant to tear me down because I’m better than that. I love me for me. I love me for you. And I love you because you were the one who gave me this beautiful love, taught me how to see myself, and there is no one who could ever come between that.”

This didn’t get the five stars rating for two reason, first the way the whole Mia situation was treated and resolved. (SPOILER ALERT) I get that the whole is Kane the father of her baby was to add some angst to the story, but really there was no need for him to allow the press to fully assume it was his child. It would be all very simple done, just making a press explaining the was JUST Mia’s friend and the baby was not his. Of course the press would speculate who is the father, but it is very far fetched think they would find out that Kyle was the father. If the author still wanted to keep the angst, at very least this should have been done after the reveal to Willow. It’s very poor taste and unfair to her (even if she suggests it) and to their future children, because the press will never give it a rest, and assume the child is truly his. The other point is that I really wished that the epilogue would show us a look in to their distance future, not only their closer future, of only one year later. (SPOILER END) Nonetheless it was truly a beautiful and revealing story, something we should all want to achieve, acknowledging our self worth.