Rowena’s review of Perfect Fit (Serendipity #4) by Carly Phillips.
Hero: Mike Marsden
Heroine: Cara Hartley
Carly’s NY Times Bestselling SERENDIPITY series was such a hit with readers, she brings you back to the picturesque upstate NY town, where three siblings have grown up in the shadow of their proud and respected police chief father. But what do love, fate, and fortune have in store for the next generation of Serendipity’s finest?
MIKE
Always feeling like the odd man out in his family, Michael Marsden wanted to make it on his own. So he escaped Serendipity to become an undercover cop in Manhattan, where the Marsden name wasn’t known. But Michael’s independence is compromised when he returns home to replace his sick father as chief of police. Back in the shadow of his family, he’s as lost and restless as ever, until he’s challenged by someone he never anticipated.CARA
Cara Hartley is the Serendipity cop with whom Mike had a one night stand three months earlier. Neither expected anything more but fate has other things in store. When Mike returns as Cara’s boss, the sexual tension between them is impossible to ignore – and the unexpected emotional connection continues to grow. But Cara’s a small town girl while Mike has a wanderer’s blood in his veins.Together their chemistry explodes but …
Both are convinced a future together is impossible. Until Mike’s real father’s secrets come back to haunt him and he realizes there are some things worth staying and fighting for. Including Cara
I’ve been battling this reading slump for the past few months but when I buckled down and got to reading this book, I was taken to my happy place. Carly Phillips delivers another Serendipity book that entertained the heck out of me. I really enjoyed getting to know the new characters and see what the other characters are up to. I’m really enjoying the small town of Serendipity and the people in it.
This book follows Mike Marsden, the new temporary police chief for the Serendipity Police Department and Cara Hartley, a fellow police officer on the force. Before Mike became the temporary police chief (a position that he’s filling in for while his father goes through cancer treatments), he had a one night stand with his brother’s partner, Cara Hartley. It’s a memorable experience for the both of them because it was so hot damn explosive but when Mike comes back as Cara’s boss, things change.
Mike isn’t a relationship kind of guy. He doesn’t take commitment too well and he has what my friends and I call “itchy muli” which is Samoan for, “itchy ass”…and Mike is always itching to get out of wherever he’s at if he’s been there long enough to settle down. He moves from town to town, coming in and out of people’s lives and he prefers it that way. When his father asks him to come back home and fill in for him at work, Mike does it because he loves his family. He’s always been fortunate to have the support system that he has but because the father that raised him isn’t his real father, he’s got his own set of daddy issues.
Cara, on the other hand has her own issues that she’s working through. Her father is emotionally and physically abusive to her mother and Cara got to the point in her life that she can’t sit by and watch her mother just take her father’s abuse so she gives her Mom an ultimatum. Either you leave Dad or you lose me. Her mother chose to stay with her father. Cara has taken to volunteering her time to the women’s shelter in town and it is there that she tries to help women who are in the same situation that she grew up in and she helps them find ways to get out. She’s helping all of the women, the way that she wants to help her mother and sometimes, the frustration of the whole thing gets to her.
Both Mike and Cara are doing a credible job of ignoring the other at work and it’s starting to get on Sam’s nerves. Sam is Mike’s brother and Cara’s partner. He’s peeved with Mike for treating Cara the way that he’s been treating her and he’s not above calling him out on his shit. Mike wants Sam to stay out of his business but knows that he’s right. He has been a pretty big butthead when it comes to dealing with Cara, now that he’s back in town.
Watching Mike and Cara work through their different issues and come together was a really great way to spend a few hours. I really enjoyed their story, their romance and just the two of them together. I thought they were a perfect fit and I really enjoyed getting to know Cara. Cara was the kind of heroine that I admire the hell out of. She wasn’t the kind of person to throw temper tantrums and be unreasonable about things. She handled her shit and when she runs into bumps in the road, she picks herself up and trudges right along. She dealt with her problems herself and she didn’t let anyone get her down or push her around either.
There were times in this book where I wanted to bean Mike in his head with something sharp because well, he was a stupid man at times but in the end, I really came to love Mike and his family. I’m very anxious for the next book in the series, which is Erin’s book. I read the excerpt in the back of my eARC and I’m stoked that we’ll be getting that book soon.
If you liked the other Serendipity books than I’m pretty confident that you’ll enjoy this one too. It was fun, it was cute and the romance was steamy and good…just the way that I like it. Kudos on a job well done, Mrs. Phillips.
Grade: 4 out of 5
This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
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