Review: I expected so much more
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 16, 2013
Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.When a book's first line is "My new neighbor is a man-whore", you think you're in for a great, entertaining read. Unfortunately this isn't it. This story had so much potential and it just fell flat.Becca Sinclair, a reporter for the local paper and blogger, is still dealing with the aftermath of her father walking out on the family and the divorce from her cheating ex-husband when she encounters her new neighbor as she's returning from exercising with her dog.Dan Wolford (Wolf to family and friends), former Navy SEAL turned firefighter who develops instant lust for his standoffish neighbor, and decides to invite her to his birthday party. Of course Becca has no intentions of attending the party, but as they do in these books, fate (namely a sister-in-law) intervenes and suddenly Becca decides to not only attend the party, but to glam it up.Of course there is the requisite tension between the characters; actually, that's not accurate. Wolf has made it clear what he wants, Becca wants nothing to do with him (or any man for the matter). Although once Wolf learns of Becca's occupation, he suddenly wants nothing to do with her.The tide shifts when Becca sustains an injury and Wolf is there to help out. She decides the next morning that it's perfectly okay to do the horizontal tango with him. I'm still trying to figure out what the catalyst was for her decision; seriously, I'm rereading as I'm typing my review and for the life of me can't figure out what made her change her mind.So the rest of the book limps along to an underwhelming conclusion. Becca is assaulted while investigating a story, and the assault takes place at the same time Wolf is responding to a fire at his sister's hair salon. Again, as it happens in these stories, a misunderstanding takes place and causes a separation/break-up of the main characters. Once everyone comes to their senses, it's happily ever after.I wish there was more time spent on the fires, the one involving Wolf's parents and the one that destroyed the hair salon. Were they both due to arson? As I said, this book could have been so much more if certain parts of the story was elaborated on.