Author: Lena Hendrix
Series: The Sullivan Family Series Book #2
Category: Contemporary Romance
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
"It was what I had learned to do. What I discovered I loved to do. Fix things. People, problems, hundred-year-old farmhouses that were crumbling around me. I could do it." - Kate
Fireworks flew when Kate and Beckett came face to face at the farmhouse Kate needed help renovating. She wants nothing to do with him, while he thinks she is a spoiled princess who always said the right thing while dating his brother. But despite the tension, both are attracted to one another and finally stop resisting the pull.
Their relationship started off as transactional, but Beckett grew to develop definite feelings for Kate once he saw her for who she really was and not how she acted on his brother's arm. He is a closet romantic who doesn't think he is suited for anything long-term, but his actions toward Katie spoke louder than any of his hesitations. He loves her but doesn't think he is good enough.
"Kate was everything, and somehow I hadn't seen it. I had been too stubborn to see the warrior hidden beneath the pretty princess." - Beckett
Kate took much longer to come around to the idea of the two of them becoming a couple. Not only was she gun-shy because of her ex-boyfriend, the fact that Beckett was his brother threw her for a loop.
I absolutely loved that Beckett and Kate took the time to better themselves as individuals so that they could get together as their best versions. There was so much more character growth than in your typical romance story.
"'Promise me? Promise we'll both put in the work and this time apart isn't forever?' Her eyes were searching for comforting reassurance forever. I had never been more sure of anything in my entire life." - Beckett
I read this series out of order, Beckett's and Kate's book, and their relationship's evolution, was much more engaging. I mean who wouldn’t fall in love with Beckett?! Lena Hendrix knocked it out of the park with this book, five stars from this reviewer.
Tropes and Themes: Contemporary Romance, Ex-Boyfriend's Brother, Small Town, Home Renovation, Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Praise Kink.
Blurb
Falling hard for my ex-boyfriend’s rugged older brother was never in the plan.
Beckett Miller may be my brother’s best friend, but he’s also the last person on earth I want to ask for help. He’s stubborn, demanding, and doesn’t care at all what people think of him—everything his little brother wasn’t, and definitely everything I should not want.
Thanks to my own stubbornness and my three infuriating siblings, he is the only one who can help me renovate my beloved aunt’s farmhouse.
Beckett thinks I’m a doormat, and I know he’s an arrogant prick, but toss in one late-night game of tipsy strip poker, and before long, endless summer days turn into scorching nights.
Every stolen touch—every kiss—is wrong in the best ways.
I can fix everything around me: my friends’ problems, my brothers’ love lives, maybe even the decades-old rivalry that divides our cozy coastal town. So Beckett’s snarl and heavy sighs are no match for me.
The only thing I can’t seem to fix is the way my body reacts when he swings a hammer. I built walls to protect my heart after what his brother did to me, but I’m finding it could all come crumbling down with just one touch.
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