Age-gap single grump dad romance. 

34 year old single dad, newly divorced, Dex moves next door to 22 year old Winnie. There’s instant attraction and they start a casual relationship. Dec has sworn off all relationships and Winnie is trying to avoid falling into the same trap of quickly falling in love with assholes. Then Winnie gets an offer for her dream job a thousand miles away and suddenly their feelings are on the line. 

This was my first Harlow book, and I have to say it was not good. Someone get ice for Hallie and Luna cause they broke their backs carrying this book. And I don’t usually like kids in books cause they either talk too young for their age in an extremely annoying manner or they talk way too adult. And though Hallie and Luna speak like adults, they were absolutely hilarious and really the only reason I gave this book any stars. 

For starters, the way Dex thought about Winnie had me itching to call the cops. He was constantly comparing her to his DAUGHTERS. He would say she looked or sounded childlike and innocent. Just constantly thinking how she barely looked legal and how she had more in common with his FIVE AND EIGHT YEAR OLD CHILDREN than she did with him. And I don’t normally like age gap romances, and I didn’t realize this was one, and though the immediate ages of the characters would automatically make me cringe, I thought “this is a romance novel, if there was ever going to be an exception to the rule it would be in a fictional book”. But absolutely not. And I’ve read plenty of age gaps that didn’t make me want to vomit like this one did. 

I’m also not a huge fan of instalove, but given how young and immature Winnie was, I could understand it. But even more immature was Dex. Like he’s a 34-year-old man, father of 2, and he acts like such a dick to his kids, his sister, and Winnie at the slightest inconvenience. There’s a difference between being grump and being an outright dick. 

Also, though most mainstream romance books are devoid of diversity (#RomanceSoWhite) there was just something about this book that felt extra WASPy. Like lowkey conservative porn. Between the much older men going after barely legal women and all the military and cop family members with the females characters having very domestic type jobs, yeah that’s exactly how this book felt. 

Though some of the spicy scenes were a little hot, just Dex’s inner monologue about Winnie had me feeling like I was witnessing a crime. 

Hard pass on this one.