e-ARC provided by author
Author: Tia Louise
Cass has been feeling a little “aimless”. She’s recently broken upon with her smarmy ex, she can’t find a decent job or a place to stay… when her best friend’s brother-in-law offers her the perfect job: to be the nanny for his little girl. It wouldn’t be a problem at all if her ex hadn’t shown up at her friend’s wedding and assumed she was engaged to to Alex. Cass lets him think so because he’ll be leaving after the ceremony and then no harm no foul. When he doesn’t actually leave town, nothing shocks her more than when Alex proposes they go along with the ruse.
Alex is a self-made billionaire. He turned the family’s “moonshine-y” bourbon into to a top notch brand and the distillery is a huge success. He likes being in control. The last time he “let loose” he got himself a little girl. How on earth did he get himself into this?
What a lovely, steamy, small town single dad/nanny catnip of a story! You pretty soon figure out it’s a “it’s always been you” situation that didn’t develop anything before because Alex really doesn’t rush things.
Cass is fun and loving and you see yourself rooting for her and Alex. You definitely want her to to be Mama Cass (I’ll date myself, but this gave me The Mamas and The Papas flashbacks lol) to little Pinky, who’s an adorable spitfire. You do get the “return of the awful mother”, who’s as detached and awful as expected, but to be honest, when she showed up, Alex did something to Cass that got him “this close” to being unredeemable to me. But Tia expertly brought him back to swoonyville.
Loved it!
Thanks, Tia, for the opportunity to read this in advance.
PT: child abandonment, toxic relationship with an ex/gaslighting
