probably more of a 3.5, but ended up being one I'm glad I finished. I would have DNF'ed this if I wasn't reviewing the audio for Library Journal as the start is quite slow, but once I hit the 40% mark it picked up a lot.

Single POV, featuring a gorilla expert and zookeeper who struggles with work life balance who develops feelings for TV star Kai, host of THE WILD SIDE, an animal education series much like The Crocodile Hunter. I felt this story skewed slight more into Lucy's personal journey, but overall I felt satisfied with the romance too. Kai is sexy as hell, and at first I thought Lucy was being quite mean to him for not great reasons at all (judgey judgey was a bear), but I appreciated she took ownership after some cringe-y moments and learning that she shouldn't make assumptions, just like others do about her.

I very much appreciated the mom issues developed in this story for both Lucy and Kai, and where those issues were left at the end (no magical fixes, big boundaries being set, some bridges tentatively being planned), and at first the gorilla stuff was a bit too much but I made it through!

Also, bravo to making Lucy a stalwart no-kids ever person, so much so her crappy ex was trying to convince her to change her mind so she got rid of him. yay! loved that.

This is again heavier than that sunny cover denotes, and I would love to see this developed for screen because it would work very well on it.

The narrator also did a great job with the voices, including Kai's sort of mixed bag South African/Aussie/British mix explained by his moving around constantly.

Glad i stuck this one out.

BIG content note - there is a really sad animal death (both in the past, discussed and a major part of the plot) so do take care if you are sensitive to that. it was really sad.