Review: Sweet Love Story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2013
4.5 StarsThis is the 3rd book in the series but the first that I have read. After finishing this I can promise that I will be reading the first two: Lucky Break and Luck of the Draw.Betsy Harris is a shy, private woman. Scared to tell anyone about her mentally ill mother in fear of how they will pity her or think differently of her. The medical bills for her mother are stacking up and if Betsy doesn't find a way to pay them her mother will be kicked out of the care facility. Betsy has a job as a legal assistant working for Jace Macnamara, whom she has had a "secret" crush on since she started working for him. They share a small group of friends. Betsy and Jace work very well together and she's happy with her job but she's still not making enough to pay the bills.Jace probably wouldn't be able to function without "B". He shares things with her that he hasn't shared with their friends. Like how he's waiting to inherit his childhood home from his dead grandfather that raised him there after his parents death when he was young. The house is the most important thing to Jace so he's devastated to find out that he only gets it once he's married and has lived in the house for six months with his bride. Jace is a playboy, he has no interest in getting married but the house is too important for him to give up. After hearing Betsy on the phone and realizing that she needs money he decides that they can help each other. They'll get married and he'll pay her, helping her while getting what he wants, his house.They convince their friends and the rest of Shamrock Falls that they have been secretly dating and are in love and want to be married. A week later they are. Their first kiss is on their wedding day and why can't Jace stop thinking about it? They've been friends for a long time and Jace has always like and appreciated Betsy for all that she does for him and he's known she has a crush on him but until now he never thought of her that way.Betsy sees things in Jace that nobody else does. How he befriends and feeds the homeless guy that's always outside of the office or how he brings Betsy coffee just the way she likes it everyday. To Betsy he's not just the attractive playboy that everybody else sees, he's worth more than that. Mostly she makes Jace feel like he's more than that.I really loved this story. How do you not feel bad for Betsy and more importantly how can you not be proud that she's turned out as well as she has considering that way she was raised to believe that ALL men are bad, bad, bad!!Jace....sigh...how can you NOT have a crush on him. Successful, good-looking lawyer whose biggest happiness comes from the thought of living in the home he was supposed to live happily with his parents before tragedy hit.Honestly we all know how this story was going to turn out but the way that it got there was perfect.I once saw a quote that said something like, "Men don't fall in love with a woman but rather how they feel about themselves around that woman."I really feel like this is why/how Jace came to love Betsy because he believed he was worth love and happiness when he was with her, because she believed it too.Their romance was slow and subtle without too much angst. I fell in love with the way that they fell in love.I was dying for Betsy to just be honest with Jace and tell him about her mother and was shocked at how it went down when he finally did find out. Then I was angry that he gave up so easily.When Betsy confessed the whole marriage situation to her friends I felt myself sigh in relief even though I knew her friends weren't blind to the fact that something was off about the marriage.Can I just say that the way Jace came to her and laid everything out for her at the end was just as perfect as it could have been.Now I have to go back to read the first two books from this series because if they are anywhere near as enjoyable as this I cannot wait!!Side note: I've read most of the other books written by this author under the pen name Nyrae Dawn and have yet to be disappointed by any of those either.