This family has one of the best house rules ever: if a woman punches you in the face, you have to marry her.
What’s it About?
What he needed was a miracle…Matthew Reed has seen his share of problems. But he’s a Reed and Reeds can overcome anything. Matt is content working in his family’s tattoo parlor with his brothers surrounding him. The only thing he’s lacking is the ability to have a family of his own. Then his battle with cancer leads him to meet a woman who just might need him as much as he needs her.
She didn’t need anything…Skylar Morgan is happy. She has a boyfriend. Sure, he doesn’t make her heart pound faster and he really doesn’t support her when she needs it. But she doesn’t need much. Does she? She’s happy to be self-sufficient and she’s happy that she doesn’t have a tremendous amount of responsibility. She’s educated, has a great job, and she has enough money for a lifetime. But what she lacks, she doesn’t even realize until she meets him. And them. The ones who change her life forever.
First Impressions
Within just the first few pages of the novel you can tell it’s going to have all the feels. We’ve got cancer, secret families, orphans, and absentee fathers trying to make up for lost time. I mean…pretty much the only thing missing was a love triangle or a stalker to really mix things up. The book begins with the funeral of Skylar’s half-sister, whose children are now under her care.
Honestly, I was surprised there was no real adjustment period upon her getting three children dumped on her when she’s so used to being on her own. It really distinguishes it from your typical Kate Hudson rom com with shenanigans in abundance. On the one hand I found it remarkably refreshing to have such a strong lead female character who could still function as an adult even though her life has just been turned upside down. That being said, it was still kind of surprising that there was no big issue there from a story standpoint.
All the Cards are Played
There are two people who really help Skylar as she’s thrust into motherhood. This includes the eldest child of the three, Seth, stepping up to the plate. The other is Matt. Our charmingly sexy male lead. Pretty much from the get-go, Skylar and Matt lay all their cards out on the table in regards to what they’re expecting out of this relationship they have decided to explore.
While I couldn’t help but feel it was markedly bizarre that he’s declaring she’ll fall in love with him and want to marry him before they’ve even gone out on a first date, you also feel a sense of admiration at the both of them for being upfront right away about what’s really important to them. Matt acknowledges that the chances of them being able to have a baby together are extremely slim due to the after effects of his chemo. Skylar admits that her nieces and nephew are now a package deal when it comes to dating her, and she wants to know if Matt will be bothered by being seen with them in public because they aren’t white. Her ex-boyfriend openly admitted he had a problem with people making assumptions about their mixed race, which I think we can all admit makes him the ultimate uber jackass of the year.
Past Flames
I was surprised that the main point of conflict in this story really didn’t involve Skylar’s parenting, or the boyfriend who was mentioned in the synopsis. I’m not a huge fan of love triangles, or questionable starts to relationships when one of the players is already involved with someone else. However, this novel did a grand job of making us immediately detest Skylar’s boyfriend, and see that their relationship was already starting to fizzle out. In addition, Matt doesn’t attempt to make any move on his feelings for Skylar when she’s dating someone else, and it’s Skylar who ultimately makes the decision to drop the douche-hole all on her own with no interference from Matt whatsoever.
Instead, our conflict doesn’t really come until the very end of the novel when both Matt and Skylar attend the wedding of his ex who cheated on him with his best friend. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it was right around the time when Matt was first diagnosed with cancer. His family convinces him to attend the wedding as a form of closure. Now, I couldn’t help but draw an immediate parallel connection to Friends, and question whether or not he should have gone. Just like when Rachel debated going to London to attend Ross and Emily’s wedding. Personally, I found it rather weird that Matt chose to go. He doesn’t hide how much he hates these two people, and even though it’s no secret to them they still invited him to their wedding. Honestly, I think it would have been a better night for him to stay at home with Skylar and bang it out all night. So what exactly is the conflict? Matt forgot to mention the minor fact to Sky that they were attending his ex’s wedding. Can we say blindsided?!
Series: The Reed Brothers, book 4. Happy to finally see Matt get his happily ever after.
Should you read it? The drama at the end with Matt confronting his ex was interesting, but I would have liked some more descriptions of Skylar’s adjustment to suddenly being a mother to three children. Something which surprised me was that my favorite moments in the book weren’t actually between Sky and Matt, though they did have some sexy scenes together. Instead, the heart-to-heart discussions between Skylar and her nephew Seth were outstanding. His difficulty adjusting to life without his mother, having to say goodbye to her for one last time as she dies from cancer…that tugs at the heartstrings right there.
Smut Level: We have a scintillating phone sex conversation, as well as a frenzied and passionate sex scene in a storage closet. Oh, and did I mention Matt’s one eyed snake is pierced?
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $4.99 Kindle Price. Night Shift Publishing. 316 Pages.
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