Author: Anne Marie Walker
Publication Date: 19 January 2021
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Page Count: 224
Reading Method: Digital ARC
Synopsis:
As a Certified Professional Organizer, everything in Paige Parker’s world is as it should be. Perfect apartment, perfect office, perfect life. And now, the perfect vacation planned to celebrate Singles Day. After all, what’s better than celebrating her pride in being single? Because who needs a man anyway? They have zero taste in quality television, leave the toilet seat up, and sleep with your best friend. No thanks. Her life is fine just the way it is.
As the owner of a now-dormant bed & breakfast, single dad Lucas Croft finally has some peace and quiet. It’s only him and his five-year-old daughter, which is just the way he likes it. Because who needs a woman anyway? They nag you to clean up your stuff, want the toilet seat put down, and expect the dishes to be done the same day the meal is cooked. No thanks. His life is fine just the way it is.
But when Paige books a room that Lucas’ well-intentioned sister listed without his knowledge, their two worlds collide. If they can survive the week together, they just might discover exactly what they’ve both been missing.
Review:
Reading the synopsis for this one, I had such high hopes. Opposites attract, stuck in an inn together due to bad weather, professional organizer meets messy man… ahhhhhh I was so excited! And for the most part, this was an enjoyable read.
As previously mentioned, Paige and Lucas get stuck together in Lucas’ bed and breakfast and have to learn how to live with each other until the storm lets up. Because of this, we get a lot of great interactions between the two and lots of *tension.* (But if you’re looking for steamy scenes, it’s probably best to look elsewhere.) I genuinely enjoyed Lucas and Paige’s shenanigans and watching them ease into their feelings for each other. I liked how Paige got Lucas to open up and Lucas got Paige to chill out a bit. It was a great opposites attract type romance.
Though this was a quick read, there were a few little things that gave me pause and didn’t love. This is where the review gets potentially *spoilery* – so proceed with caution, or skip to the next review altogether.
Potentail SPOILERS below:
When we first meet Paige she talks about not wanting children. I was really excited by this. It’s not often we see women in romance novels that don’t want children, so it was a breath of fresh air. But lo and behold, when a man actually does waltz into her life, her whole line of thinking changes. Which isn’t entirely fair in this instance, because Lucas already has a daughter. But even so, her whole perspective changes and I didn’t care for that. Now that’s not to say women can’t change their minds. Of course we absolutely can! But it would have been nice to see a woman in a book stick to it for once. This is, of course, a personal preference on the direction of the book and others may not feel the same. Heck, I might be the odd man out on this one. But it just didn’t sit right with me.
SPOILERS OVER
There’s also a lot of gender stereotypes I didn’t care for. I thought the synopsis was just being silly to hook the reader, but the whole “why do women expect us to put the toilet seat down” scenario actually happened. And it was both Paige and Lucas doing it. Multiple times Paige makes comments about “not needing a man” and then completely throws that out the window. She was so wishy washy and continually flipped back and forth – often within the same chapter. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being unrealistic or overly harsh with this review, but there were just so many moments that made me scratch my head or roll my eyes.
Overall, this was an easy read with lots of cute moments, even though I wasn’t head over heels in love with it.
