Reviewer: Tracy Wrecking Ball by P. Dangelico
Series: Hard to Love #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: January 19th 2017
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating:
Cam DeSantis’ life is a hot, steaming pile. How else would you describe losing your husband, your job, and your money all at once? Desperate times call for desperate measures, so when salvation comes in the form of one intolerable a-hole, who just happens to be the starting quarterback for the vaunted NY Titans, she has no choice but to accept his offer as a live-in nanny slash teacher for his eight year old nephew. Now all she has to do is find a safe place in her mind to hide whenever she feels the need to throat punch him into tomorrow…which is often.
Calvin Shaw has zero interest in women. Wait, wait––let me rephrase that. He loves women, he just doesn’t want anything to do with ‘um. Not since his wife, presently ex-wife, got knocked up by the guy she was cheating on him with. Problem is...there’s one living in his house. And he doesn’t know what’s worse, that he promised to be civil, or that he’s attracted to her.
The protagonist of this stand alone novel has a propensity for profanity and sexual shenanigans. You've been warned.
It’s been 3 years since Cam’s husband died and the end of a very long year that she’s been under investigation by the FBI. Her husband had been running a Ponzi scheme and had stolen millions from people. She was finally cleared by the FBI because she had nothing to do with any of it – she had no idea he was even doing it! Now she’s kicked out of her house with only her cat and her clothes and she’s living with her parents.
Cam had been a teaching but she was let go because of what her husband did and they assumed she was an accomplice. She’s looking for work and ends up at an employment agency. They finally find a position where she would be taking care of an 8-year-old boy. It’s a live-in position and previous employees haven’t stayed very long as the employer is hard to work for. When Cam goes for the interview she finds out firsthand what an asshole he is and walks out with no thought of ever working for that nasty man. Between him and his lawyer, however, they don’t give up and Cam is desperate enough for money that she finally accepts the position.
Calvin Shaw doesn’t trust women. His ex-wife had cheated on him and he hadn’t ever recovered. Despite his asshole-ishness toward Cam he actually liked her and how she was with his nephew, Sam. They form a truce and basically stay out of each others way but soon enough Calvin is asking Cam to be his fake girlfriend for events so that he can keep the ladies away. The problem? Calvin isn’t treating her like a fake girlfriend but a real one.
This book started out with Calvin being a major ass. He says something thoroughly nasty about Cam (to his lawyer) and she happens to overhear it and walks out of the interview. He did grovel after that but frankly I thought he needed to do more groveling for her to actually accept the position. She was adamant about some things and I had to admire her for sticking up for and looking out for herself. Calvin did get better during the course of the book but he wasn’t a gentle guy nor would he ever be.
Once Calvin and Cam worked things out and eventually got together there was another issue on the table that had to do with children. This portion of the book broke my heart but frankly it was one of the best parts of the book. It was so highly emotional and I could feel both Cal and Cam’s pain and love for each other. The story was told only from Cam’s POV so it was hard to latch on to Calvin’s feelings a lot of the time during the course of the book. I wanted to get into his head, that’s for sure. The last portion of the book, however, showed us a different side of Calvin and I really liked that man a lot.
The story was told well and brought in some secondary characters that I want to know more about and I want them to get their own HEA. Hopefully that will happen cuz I think those books would be great.
Rating: 4 out of 5