Steamy romantic comedy where dogs are part of the family!
He’s her knight in shining armor. Only she’s no damsel in distress.
Wyatt
I’m a self-made billionaire with a soft spot for damsels in distress, so when I move to the quirky lakeside community of Summerdale, I immediately zero in on the woman I most want to…ahem, rescue. Only the stubborn woman refuses to cooperate.
Sydney
When Satan, aka Wyatt Winters, moves to town, I do my best to be welcoming. After all, I’m the owner of the historic restaurant and bar that he keeps showing up at, despite criticizing nearly everything about it. Deep breath. I might’ve lost my cool and made a rude gesture in his direction. And told him off. How was I to know he was considering investing in my place?
Did I mention I’m in debt up to my eyeballs and every bank has turned me down?
Still, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell I’d ever work with him. Or admit he fires me up in every way.
And then a snowstorm traps us together and—
I’m melting.
Sydney has put her heart and soul into running the bar/restaurant that has been in her family for years, but the place is bleeding money. Her brothers want to sell it because of the enormous debt her father secretly accrued to keep it open, but Sydney’s determined to turn things around. Enter Wyatt, a young tech billionaire with a penchant for breathing life into dying businesses. He just moved to town and wants to invest in the Horseman Inn. This opportunity is too good to be true since no bank will grant her a loan but it’s a nightmare because Sydney can’t stand the sight of Wyatt Winters. The two are constantly at each other’s throats but when they’re trapped together due to a snowstorm, they’re forced to get to know one another better and sparks fly.
The characters and plot were enjoyable but a bit too cliché for my taste. For instance, Sydney fixates on her raging hatred of Wyatt if his name is so much as mentioned but then she runs into him at the store buying tampons for his sister and that melts her heart. Even worse, Wyatt’s embarrassed that she “caught” him doing this completely normal thing. Also, there’s too much telling instead of showing. Describe how the tension feels, don’t just say ‘there’s tension in the air’. Tell us what happens in her mind and body because she feels a rush of longing for this man. I want to know her whole body flushes with longing for his touch when he’s near, not a short sentence that she ‘feels need’. Boring.
They also seemed to fall deeply in love in a few hours but it didn’t flow here. Insta-love can work if done right but not when the characters loathe one another and she refers to him in her head as Satan. That may have worked if there was more detail showing us how they affect one another and letting the characters reflect on their changing opinions, but it didn’t happen.
Some small editing changes might have turned a lot of the narrative into action, making this a great story, so I was a bit disappointed. There’s a blossoming story here with Wyatt’s sister and one of Sydney’s brothers to set up another book in the series and they’re both interesting characters so I’ll probably give their story a chance at some point but I wasn’t impressed with Sydney and Wyatt’s story.
Fetching on Amazon
