Summer’s life is in shambles with a recent breakup, a cross-country move, losing her beloved grandma and then losing everything she owns in a fire. She’s forced to move in with her best friend but Autumn is away on vacation and Summer accidentally climbs through the window of a neighboring apartment and meets Cullen, the hella hot neighbor with a bad attitude. Cullen is cranky but sympathetic once he realizes what’s happened. Summer has a hilarious inner monologue and she’s sassy and fun. They were easy to like and I enjoyed the banter as they repeatedly clash.
Things keep getting worse for Summer when she finds out her insurance lapsed so she has no coverage for the fire loss so she’s really down. The last straw is facing her brother Matt’s wedding, where her skeevy, cheating ex is the best man and she’ll have to walk arm-in-arm with him. We learn that the ex is her brother’s best friend and business partner so even though he cheated on Summer, she’s let her family think that she dumped him. She knows Matt would take her side if he knew the truth about Wyatt and Summer doesn’t want his business to be ripped apart. Wyatt has been playing heartsick and milking her family’s sympathy for all it’s worth, letting everyone think she dumped him for no real reason.
Summer decides a plus one is in order to be a buffer against Wyatt and to help deflect the usual litany of questions from her family about her social life. Cullen could use a fake fiancée of his own to stave off his cheating ex-wife who wants him back so despite their bickering, they can help each other out. At the wedding, Wyatt goes to great lengths to get between Summer and Cullen, but it doesn’t work because they’re getting closer all the time. They have a great time together and decide to give in to their attraction but Cullen has PTSD from his time in the desert so things are complicated between them. He’s been waiting for medical clearance to return for another tour of duty and when it comes, he’s forced to leave in a hurry, then there’s more drama while he’s gone.
There are a lot of things I liked about this story and I loved the MC’s, but I do wish the author had done some things differently. My biggest complaint was too much drama. There’s Summer’s ex, Cullen’s ex and his divorce, his PTSD, her family issues and financial problems, his having to leave, both of them wanting a fling only and a few other things. It was way over the top. This would have been a better story with fewer problems or at least less focus on them and more focus on developing the relationship. There were also some minor inconsistencies in the story that I found distracting.
Overall, I really enjoyed and I liked the characters enough to read this all at once, I just wish their author had given us less fluff and more focus on their relationship.
Hit It And Quit It on Amazon
Hit It & Quit It
by Melynda Price
Standalone
Published 2021
“Hey, Mom and Dad, I’m engaged!”
It was one little white lie. What could possibly go wrong?
With my brother’s destination wedding on the horizon and no plus-one at my side, desperate times call for desperate measures. My mother has made it her personal mission in life to get me back together with my ex, who also happens to be the best man and my partner down the aisle. Nobody knows why I abruptly broke off our engagement and fled to Montana two-years ago, and I intend to keep it that way. Wyatt is determined to win me back, and the thought of dealing with him and my mother for a week in Maui would drive any woman to drink. Which is exactly what I did, and five shots of Tequila later, I’ve got the perfect solution to my problem. All I need is a fake fiancé…
I’ve had one goal that’s kept me alive when it would have been easier to give up—recuperate and get back to Afghanistan to complete my mission. What I wasn’t expecting was a petite, sexy-as-hell blonde to crawl through my bedroom window and turn my life upside-down. After a rocky start that involved me pulling a gun on her, we coincidentally find ourselves in need of the same thing—a fiancée. To be fair, I warned her not to fall in love with me—that I was only going to break her heart. Guess I should have taken my own advice . . .
