This book has all the tropes I love, (Single dad, nanny romance, firefighter, small town, age gap, forbidden…) so I was so excited to read it! This is the third book in the Honey Mountain series, but can be read as a standalone.
Ashlan is the youngest Thomas sister. She wants to be an author, but is struggling with what to do with her life after college. She jumps at the chance to nanny for Jace King. Jace is a local firefighter, and recently divorced father of two little girls. He needs someone to stay with the girls while he is on duty at the station for a few days each week. Ashlan moves into his guest house to be close (that way she doesn’t have to keep living with her parents either), and then stays in the main house on the days that he is gone.
Ashlan and Jace are both incredibly attracted to each other, but a romance between them is off limits. Jace is almost 10 years older than her, and is friends with her dad (Ashlan’s dad Jack is the fire chief). Ashlan is writing a romance novel, and the hero in her story is based on Jace. The tension between these two is off the charts. Between accidentally walking in on him to their flirty text messages, I ate it up! I do wish this part would have been drawn out a little bit more. They jump into a relationship what seems very quickly. There is an obstacle in the second half of the book that is an outside conflict. I liked how that was done, and I did like how their love for each other stayed strong throughout everything they had to face.
4 stars
Thank you Valentine PR and Laura Pavlov for the ARC.