Published: November 9, 2017
I very much enjoyed this book. I had won a copy of it a few months ago in one of the book groups’ contests that I follow on Facebook. I was surprised when I won it for sure but I would have never entered if the book didn’t sound delightful and I wasn’t let down. Now I’ve never read an Amie Knight book before and it looks like she is a fairly new author (though I could be wrong) and since I’ve avoided anything not paranormal romance like the plague until the last couple of years it has been great discovering new authors.
Miranda is an editor and a lover of romance novels so of course she has combined her profession and her passion into one job so that she can read for fun and for work. She is also a lover of donuts and making lists. The lists calm her when she is stressed and the one list that will get her into trouble eventually is “My One”. But you would need to read the story to find out why. She is also a part-time stalker of her sexy, scowling neighbor that nobody knows anything about. She knows his schedule better than her own. But he takes is scowling, “I hate the world” attitude a step to far when he yells at her little neighbor boy. Miranda may be a lover and not a fighter but she’ll give him a piece of her mind. Just like any good southern girl would do.
Holden is an ex-army ranger that has only been back in the civilian world for 6 months. His forced retirement is all he knows and trying to re-acclimate to the world with only 1 1/2 legs and terrible nightmares has not caused him to be the most warm and fuzzy person out there. But he knows his neighbor is watching him and when he yells at the little boy, he also knows that he deserves to be yelled at and taken down a notch in return. What he doesn’t realize is that the woman who is up to the job may just create feelings in him that he is unprepared for after not having felt anything besides anger for so long.
This couple is the classic girl-next-door meets the scowling man who isn’t good enough for her. And like many books that have this same troupe the girl-next-door somehow fixes the scowling man. But in this case fixing is too light of a word. For an ex-military man who is suffering from PTSD, Miranda is the light that allows him to live again. Miranda isn’t looking to fix anyone but she is so full of a love of life that she can’t help but want to share that. And that includes her love of donuts which is a theme that we see throughout the book. Though I would argue that Krispy Kreme is not as good as Dunkin’ Donuts, I know I would lose that argument with any southerner. I also love that she is a romance aficionado. Miranda talks freely about her book boyfriends and Holden tells her that you can’t base a man on her books. The fact that Holden is also a closet romance novel lover is fantastic because too many men get made fun of for reading these awesome books. And for him to be basically the image of a “man’s man” and to love romance novels is something we do not see often enough. Honestly, I think y’all can’t go wrong by picking up a copy of this novel. It has all of the elements for a well-rounded read that you would expect from any contemporary romance.
“Sometimes you just have to eat the donuts”
Angie
bookishlyromantic.com 