Reviewer: Casee Someone like You by Lauren Layne
Series: Oxford #3
Also in this series: Irresistibly Yours, I Wish You Were Mine, Someone Like You, I Knew You Were Trouble, I Think I Love You, Irresistibly Yours, I Wish You Were Mine
Publisher: Loveswept
Publication Date: December 6, 2016
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 228
Add It: Goodreads
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Series Rating:
Lauren Layne’s bestselling Oxford Series continues with the poignant, heartwarming story of New York’s most eligible bachelor, Lincoln Mathis, a man who’s living a lie—until his dream woman takes away the pain.
Lincoln Mathis doesn’t hide his reputation as Manhattan’s ultimate playboy. In fact, he cultivates it. But behind every flirtatious smile, each provocative quip, there’s a secret that Lincoln’s hiding from even his closest friends—a tragedy from his past that holds his heart quietly captive. Lincoln knows what he wants: someone like Daisy Sinclair, the sassy, off-limits bridesmaid he can’t take his eyes off at his best friend’s wedding. He also knows that she’s everything he can never have.
After a devastating divorce, Daisy doesn’t need anyone to warn her off the charming best man at her sister’s wedding. One look at the breathtakingly hot Lincoln Mathis and she knows that he’s exactly the type of man she should avoid. But when Daisy stumbles upon Lincoln’s secret, she realizes there’s more to the charming playboy than meets the eye. And suddenly Daisy and Lincoln find their lives helplessly entwined in a journey that will either heal their damaged souls . . . or destroy them forever.
Lincoln Mathis. Yes, Lincoln. Sexy as sin. Hot as a mother. Sex incarnate. Men want to be him and women want to do him. All his friends are mystified about the fact that he doesn’t have a string of angry exes lined up at his door, but everyone just loves Lincoln. He even has a tiny white dog to go along with the cuteness. Who wouldn’t want a man whose masculinity isn’t threatened by walking a 4lb dog down the street, wearing a pink shirt, or drinking a girly cocktail?
It’s a a carefully constructed lie. Lincoln hasn’t slept with a single woman since he moved into New York City. He’s an engaged man. It doesn’t matter to him that his would-be bride is brain dead and in a health center for people that can’t take care of themselves. Lincoln knows he’s responsible for Katie’s accident. She was trying to answer a text from him, one he sent when he knew that she was driving. It’s only a matter of time for Katie. No one in her state can live a long life.
Daisy Sinclair has been warned about Lincoln by her sister, Emma. The moment she lays eyes on Lincoln she knows that everything she’s been told needs to be thrown out the window. Lincoln is not the man that all his friends think he is. He hasn’t slept around and she doubts he even dates. She doesn’t know why and doesn’t want to make it her business. Lincoln makes it her business when he decides to tell her his deepest, darkest secret. Daisy is devastated for him because she knows that his ending won’t be happy.
When Katie dies, Lincoln is broken. He goes through the motions, but his boss and friend, Alex Cassidy, forces him to take a leave of absence. Where does he get sent? To North Carolina where Daisy lives. Cassidy tells him that he’s going to be doing a set of articles on dating in the South. Lincoln goes because he has no choice. When he gets there he finds that Daisy is exactly what his battered heart needs.
After two short weeks, Daisy has fallen for Lincoln. It doesn’t matter though because in his heart Lincoln is still engaged to Katie. Daisy herself is still stuck in the past and in a physically abusive relationship that broke her. After Lincoln rejects her, she makes the decision that she’s not going to watch life go by. She’s going to live her life.
I simply loved Daisy. I read in the Acknowledgements that LL had a thought about giving Lincoln a mousy copyeditor for a heroine. That would never, ever have worked. Lincoln needed a strong woman like Daisy. Someone that stood up to him, that accepted him and didn’t back down. Their road was a rocky one, but in the end it was worth it to both of them. Daisy never got jealous, never had any ill feelings toward Katie. She always just accepted her as part of Lincoln’s life. That made me love her even more.
My favorite part was at the end when Lincoln was begging Daisy for a second chance. I admit that I got a little teary eyed.
“I’ll go,” he whispered. “But Daisy, if I can ask a favor, as a friend . . .”
She nodded, her heart squeezing at the thought that she might really let him go. “Anything.”
“Tell me you love me.”
Daisy gasped in pain, and his gaze was tortured but steady as he looked at her.
“Lincoln—”
“I know you love me,” he said, his voice desperate. “Or at least you did before I screwed it up. Let me have the words just once, Daisy. Lie to me if you have to, but give me something to replay when I’m old and all alone and loving you so much it hurts—”
Daisy let out a strangled sob as she launched herself at him, arms going around him as she buried her face in his neck. “I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
Slayed.
Rating: 4 out of 5. (5 out of 5 for the ending)
Oxford
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