He’s perfect—but he can’t be hers.
Pepper Hannigan is determined to keep any romance off the table—and out of her bedroom—while her daughter Juno is still young. Sure, a certain handsome commando is thoughtful, funny, and undeniably hot, but Pepper’s had her heart broken before, and she won’t let it happen again. Not to her or her little girl, even if this hero could melt any woman’s resolve.
Augustus “Auggie” Hero can’t deny his attraction to beautiful, warm-hearted Pepper or how much he wants to make a home with her and her little girl, but Pepper’s mixed signals have kept him away. That is, until Juno decides to play matchmaker. Her efforts finally bring Pepper into his arms, but they expose the danger Pepper is in. To protect Pepper and Juno, Auggie will have to live up to his last name and prove happy endings aren’t just for fairy tales.
Spinning off from the bestselling Dream Man and Rock Chick series, this is the emotional and steamy contemporary romance fans of the Dream Team series have been waiting for!
This is book 4 in the series and I haven’t read the others so the first few pages were dicey. Like there were way too many people and I had no clue who they were but luckily it all made sense anyway. Pepper is the bomb. I love her inner monologue and the way she looks at the world. Auggie and Pepper are perfect together but she’s been burned before so she keeps pushing him away until she can’t anymore. He’s a man who knows what he wants and he’s determined to get her, even if he has to wait so Auggie’s been patient while she comes around.
She has a lot going on in her life and his support makes a world of difference but rather than feeling needy, Pepper learns she can return the favor because Auggie has some issues of his own to handle. I enjoyed watching them come together and bond over Juno, her eight-year-old daughter who’s determined to play matchmaker for the two. She was a fun addition to the story until the end when she became a bit too precocious because it seemed out of character.
The suspense plot is interesting although the ending felt sudden. I would have liked a bit more build up instead of going from barely knowing anything to the situation being resolved completely, but it was still an intriguing subplot. There’s an element to the subplot that’s left hanging, likely to draw readers into the next book in the series and I don’t like that at all but I enjoyed Pepper and Augie’s story so I’m going to pretend it didn’t even happen and not let it ruin this for me. I received an ARC from Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest review.
