this book was alright. it was cute sometimes, but oh so… wrong? or maybe i'm too judgmental of certain… life choices. safe to say this book was way overhyped.

read if you like:
♡ dual pov
♡ opposites attract
♡ age gap
♡ grumpy male character
♡ single mom

the book started off crazy. it taking place in alabama is so... it makes sense. so keep that in mind.

hadley reynolds accidentally got pregnant with her high school sweetheart, scott jameson, shortly after graduating high school. they had lucy. and then hadley and scott willingly got pregnant again , with eli, at 21 because she wanted her children to have the same father and be close in age... what in the alabama white people shit!?!

despite everyone's concerns and disappointment, hadley was financially struggling to support herself and her family because scott was a useless bum with no job or further education prospects and played video games all day. meanwhile, hadley was being a full-time mom, working full-time at a nursing home, and a full-time nursing student. then scott  c h e a t s  on hadley with her cousin while little lucy was listening in from the living room.

when hadley leaves scott after the betrayal – which she should've done ages ago but i digress! – scott makes hadley's life hell by trying to manipulate her by using their own daughter. scott the bum – and his mother, because of course he's a mama's boy – would talk shit about hadley to lucy when hadley wasn't there, making lucy cry all the time. *sigh* i felt bad for poor lucy whenever she was around those horrible, manipulative relatives.

maybe this is a cultural difference but hadley's unwillingness to cuss – which everyone does – also bothered me. her saying "god bless america" gave me the ick every time. also, what kind of name is hadley?! okay, maybe i am too judgy.

now that i got that out of the way, let's meet elijah parker. the moody, broody, asshole neighbor who's covered in tattoos and owns a tattoo parlor. oh and he hates children too. they all meet when grocery shopping and he steals the last bag of chips from lucy by scaring her after hissing at her…? huh!? then he develops a disturbing kink "fascination" with hadley's nursing breasts and refers to them as her "leaking tits" to others. *bleh* he's a grown ass 30 year old man for fucks sake! and all he can seem to think about is funyuns and leaking tits.

eventually though, elijah apologizes and makes it up to hadley and her little family. we start seeing his character shift the moment he – while freaking out internally – helps hadley get to the hospital when her water broke in her car and she's about to give birth to eli.

by the way, everything i have written happens in like the first 20% of the book. fucking wild.

slowly but surely, elijah goes through major character development as he feels this pull towards hadley and her family and he wants to get to know them more. and vice versa. so he makes steps to try and better himself to not scare them away. basically he's an asshole to everyone except to hadley and her children.

their relationship progresses naturally and he falls for the family and the family fall for him. hadley and elijah's romantic relationship was not toxic at all. there are sweet moments throughout the book which was heartwarming after all the shit she has been through.

overall, normally i'm all about cute romance stories, but this one was seriously lacking something. sure there was some cute moments between the main characters, but what i liked the most was elijah's relationship with lucy. and she's 4 years old! they had more chemistry than elijah and hadley, who's relationship was more lusty than meaningful if i'm being honest. i also really didn't care for hadley. she made her own bed – i.e. two kids before 22 – and should lie in it instead of her "woe is me" attitude she projected onto everyone else.

tldr: elijah and lucy, and eli's, relationship truly made the book more bearable and didn't make me dnf. the epilogue was *chefs kiss*