3.5 stars

Tropes/themes: fake dating; single mom; age gap (older woman/younger man); himbo man; social anxiety

I’ve been looking forward to this book since the first book in this companion series came out and this romance was teased. Sadly, it didn’t quite live up to how much I adored book 1. With the fake dating trope, I think they got together too soon and then a lot of the book was mostly our main character being really avoidant and commitment phobic and not using her words. I did still pull for them though and wanted them to work out even though she was being a little too emotionally unavailable for my liking. I also wish her personal arc and development was a little better as it felt a bit half baked to me.

One side note that I love about this series is none of the characters have a happily ever after that features having kids or hinting that they will have kids. Multiple character discuss being child free and that’s something you don’t see a lot in romance.

I still plan to continue with this series if Jen DeLuca keeps writing books in this world.