November 2017, HQ Digital, 384 pages, Ebook, Review copy
Summary from HarperCollins
Can Eva find love this Christmas?
Eva Harris has her hands full
juggling a young son, a disobedient dog and running her thriving
seaside guesthouse, so really the last thing she needs is to be
distracted by her new neighbour, ridiculously handsome but arrogant Ben
Matthews.
For one thing, she’s got nothing in common with the man,
Ben’s a high flying lecturer at the town’s university while she barely
scraped through high school, for another he’s fresh out of a
relationship while Eva hasn’t been on one single date since the death of
her husband, seven years ago!
Nayu's thoughts
This sounded exactly my kind of read and it was. I loved learning more about Eva, the struggles she has being a single mum and owning her own business. She has good friends who take care of her, especially since she gets anxious about everything after her husband's death, but when part of that friendship moves away from being her next door neighbour I think she felt a little bereft. I think that's a tiny part of why she found herself keen on becoming friends with Ben, to gain a different friendship which will bring her joy.
It was rather sweet seeing their relationship develop, with the usual misunderstandings happening in the beginning. The only reason this doesn't get full marks is because for me there wasn't the major incident which usually happens in these types of books. There is an incident, but I'd have liked that to escalate and be a bit more dramatic, but that's a personal preference and the rest of the book is absolutely solid.
I love the trouble that Hamish causes, and the hilarity that Eva's chickens provide both me and Ben. I liked seeing Eva's passion for decorating and designing shine through both to me and Ben (& her friends). Ben isn't a stuffy professor, he didn't expect to like Eva and from her reaction neither did she, but they really do go well together. The romance parts are sensitively handled which I really enjoyed. The extra touch with Eva beginning to sort through her family issues added an extra element to an already amazing read. I'm a fangirl of this style of light romance, and will definitely be checking out more of Maggie's work!
Suggested read
A much loved series of mine about independent women finding love starts with Blog Tour: The One Real Thing by Samantha Young (Romance, Contemporary, 10/10E)
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