Review: Papa Knows Best
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 26, 2013
I'm usually not a fan of the "parent syndrome" - by which I mean, going back and reading about the parents' love story of my favorite alpha males.  Usually I find it caters too much to the books which came before, is too bogged down by what has been revealed about the relationship in previous books and ends up coming off trite and cliche.  This one... not so much.Joey was always a great mom, the little pushy, kind of scary Marine mom that you just love to see bossing around her big, bad boys.  Getting her story, seeing her interact with Papa aka Stewart Santini, was fantastic.  We not only get a little glimpse of them in the present, which means getting a tiny peek at the Santini sons as well, but we finally get the whole back story!  And it's so much more interesting than any of their sons realized.  Because when Papa met Joey, she was a little broken inside.  She's a strong woman, but she's recovering from a devastating personal event in her past, she's not interested in letting any man get inside her defenses, and yet she's the kind of strong heroine that any young woman would be happy to emulate.  Seeing her lower her defenses enough to accept some help and care from a man who wants nothing more than to protect her and love her, was fantastic.This time, I think I actually might like the parent story even better than the sons!