Small-town bachelor

Kicking this book off with a tornado was such a smart move. That hooked me in right away. Following that up with a pair of playful, rescued otters? Yes please! I'm a sucker for those little critters.

This was a pretty cute story. While not all of it was to my taste, I appreciated the plot twists and setting and the weather and critters involved.

One thing I really liked was that a character had to face her super controlling nature and decide whether or not she was going to continue telling everyone in her life what to do with theirs. That nature made it challenging for me to root for her, but that moment was definitely a good one.

Something I disliked was how physical attraction was a huge focus in the story. It seemed, at times, to be the main reason why certain characters made certain decisions. It also got awkward to keep hearing them think of each other as “hot” and “devastatingly” handsome. They sounded like they were fifteen instead of in their early thirties. The story felt shallow at times because of this, but there was a lot more depth in the second half.

The boat on those cover was completely gorgeous. The one in the book, however, was a pontoon boat with an engine. What happened to matching the cover art with what the author wrote in the story? The cover would have been just as beautiful with a pontoon boat – and the cast that ought to have been on a certain somebody's leg.

I struggled to understand the Sheffield family's dynamic at times. It seemed like any important conversations they had jump started with a huge screaming match. This isn't normal in my world. Civilized conversations would have been a nice change. Again, this made the characters seem a fraction of their real ages. I was glad to see some apologies happen, but no one ever really apologized for screaming at one another. I found that odd.

I'm looking forward to reading more in this series to see how the author's writing has grown over the years.

Content: crude sexual term, replacement expletive, drugs, alcohol, swearing by “the love of all that's good in the world”