I really enjoyed this one! I had a feeling when I read the first chapter in the SmartyPants Sampler a month or two ago that this was going to turn out to be another one I enjoyed. The enemies to lovers that this romance started out as was tinged with a bit of more friends to lovers in a way. Leigh and Walker had been kind of friends because of Leigh being best friends with Walker’s sister Zora. Even the banter was more playful than enemy-like. But the attraction was there, as Leigh said at one point, from the first time she’d seen him. And Walker had good reasons for the way he was, but he wasn’t quite as all that as Leigh made him out to be a manwhore. But family issues definitely made Leigh leery of Walker, and no one could blame her. And wow, when she went home, the surprise waiting for her there? What in the world is wrong with her family! Or I guess her mom I should say. That was horrible, and they should have told her for sure before she just happened to see it like that unprepared. The relationship as it developed between Walker and Leigh moved at a very perfect pace in my opinion. I was a little irritated with Walker’s reaction after he ended up in the hospital. I always hate when that is how a character behaves. But it worked, and kind of made sense.

Now, I have to say, even as much as Octavia, or Tavia, made herself unlikable in this, the little snippets we got out of context of things she said that were going on with her made me very ready to read her book. I’m also thinking, since she’ll be in Chicago, that we might get some time with the Knitting in the City series women from Penny Reid’s books!

Review first posted on Lisa Loves Literature.