Tome Thursday: Tempt

 

Hello everyone!

 

I have a rather delectable book for you tonight.

 

LOL that came off way worse than I thought it would, but anyway. Let's move on with the show.

 

So my main focus, when reading and choosing books to review for this blog, is usually fantasy-related or maybe it's going to be sci-fi or something.

 

Every once in a while, however, I end up on the other side of the fence.

 

I like to call it my personal Dark Side, because I'm dramatic like that.

 

And this particular dark side is relatively harmless - it just has a lot of very thirsty books that don't engage the brain all that much and mostly just give you a rush of endorphins so you can then go about your day happier haha.

 

Tonight's choice is exactly one of those. I stumbled over it randomly enough - I think one of my Goodreads friends read it and it popped on my feed.

 

So I figured, why the heck not, right? Let's take a look at a book very aptly named Tempt.

 

Since I haven't read anything else by the author yet, this one won't have any links down at the bottom, but I might build up the collection as time goes by, we'll see.

 

Tempt is written by Melanie Harlow, and is apparently a continuation of her series called Cloverleigh Farms, of which this would be ... book number four? I think?

 

As I say, you don't necessarily need to read any of the previous books because this one can happily be a standalone, no problem, since you get information in the text that allows you to focus on the main characters rather than wonder who the hell all the other names are.

 

To the actual story: Millie, a wedding planner at Cloverleigh Farms, gets stuck in New York because of a freak storm, and is bemoaning her fate of literally being stuck in a rut otherwise, too. Her sister points out this might be because she picks men that are actually still boys in a way, fixes their baggage, and then it turns out they aren't compatible at all, since she wants a man, but says she doesn't want him because then she'd have to be vulnerable.

 

So her sister encourages her to be brave for once, which leads to her going down to the hotel bar, getting annoyed by a married man, and rescued by a tall, dark and handsome called Zach.

 

You probably know what's going to happen next.

 

After what she coins a magical night in his hotel room, she boards a plane to go home, but he does leave her his phone number - which she never uses. She's soon busy planning her ex's wedding, anyway, to a woman she introduced to him.

 

Which is how Zach gets drawn back into her orbit because - DUN DUN DUN - he's the groom's father.

 

Oh yeah, it's one of THOSE books.

 

The age difference isn't that big, trust me - fifteen years, I think - because Zach was eighteen when he got the kid's mother pregnant, but because he was hot-headed, angry, and just about to leave for his posting in the Navy, when the girl's ex came round looking for a fight, he ended said fight, and left without a word.

 

He never even knows he HAS a son until the guy reaches out through one of those ancestry websites.

 

So now he's there at Cloverleigh and the chemistry between him and Millie is STILL off the charts - only, the son seems to have an issue about Millie being with his dad in any capacity, so naturally both of them swear nothing happened, but they'd just met before in New York, never knowing who the other really was until now.

 

Then they proceed to have phone sex that same night, before swearing they need to just forget about each other. It'll be too complicated otherwise.

 

Considering this happens in the first third of the book, you can guess how well THAT works out for them.

 

I mean, to their credit, they do try their hardest, but the pull between them is just too strong, to the point that Zach shows up on her doorstep after they decide they really just ... can't not, and from then on out probably spends every night with her up until he has to leave.

 

The man even tries to leave earlier, but misses his flight because he's fast asleep in her bed, and has to switch it out again!

 

However, things are dicey because they need to watch and not get caught, since remember Zach's son? He's harping all about how much he values honesty and blablabla.

 

Dude, you're an adult. Your father doesn't HAVE to tell you anything he doesn't want to, especially not about his personal life. Grow a pair and stop obsessing over your ex when you're getting married to a woman who's pregnant with your child.

 

Eventually though, Zach does in fact have to leave back for San Diego, where he's told in no uncertain terms by his boss and best friend that he should probably just delete Millie's number and not contact her ever again - this after she sends him a care package to the office when hearing he's got some sort of cold he picked up along the way.

 

But neither Zach nor Millie can actually bring themselves to sever the connection, and soon enough she's flying to wherever he's working at the time so they can spend the weekends together in hotels. She's also lying to her family, which is killing her, and which is absolutely bonkers for a woman in her thirties! It's not like they're committing a capital crime here, they're consenting adults!

She's also working on opening her own clothing shop for wedding dresses which would cater to plus size brides as well as everyone in between, a niche that seems to be woefully missing from the market, and a jump she's willing to make, both with Zach's and her family's encouragement.

Eventually, they both recognize this either has to continue in the open or end, and because neither one of them wants to hurt Millie's ex (god damn him and his fragile snowflake feelings) it drags for them both, hurting them in turn. By Christmas though, Zach gifts Millie a diamond necklace before they part ways, both of them literally as broken-hearted as if their soulmate had just died. 

And everyone around them notices, except the stupid son, mind.

Why did Zach have to hustle over Christmas? Well, he had a job to deal with, but through this job he also talks with his best friend again, who points out that, yeah, maybe he did the right thing for the kid he didn't know he had until now, but he's legitimately miserable, more so than when he married his now ex-wife honestly. Did he cut things off for the right reasons?

So Zach goes to talk to his son, who's in a huffy fit because he saw Zach give Millie the necklace and deduced that there's something more going on there, then goes on and on about how he hates feeling stupid and people not telling him things, like he's entitled to know every single detail of everyone's life around him.

Anyway, short story made shorter, Zach apologizes (instead of booting the kid with his mama-kept-secrets-issues in the butt) and goes over to Millie, who's just about ready to open her store, and asks her to try things on for real this time, in the open. Even her marine father will have to admit this is ballsy, but then again they're all ecstatic for them and for Millie's sister who got engaged over the holidays.

The book draws to a close with the fashion show Millie's been putting together all through the book, where they trick her into wearing one of the wedding dresses and Zach gets down on one knee to ask  her to marry him in front of everyone.

Considering he's also promised to get his vasectomy reversed to see if they can maybe have a kiddo of their own, I'd say this is a very successful new beginning for Millie, in personal and professional life both!

This was a departure from my current usual reads - and also something I picked which wasn't an ARC, so funnily it felt like a vacation (disclaimer: I love reading, so none of it is ever a job).

And boy, was I HERE for it!

Zach is my type of hero, and if that makes me some sort of old fashioned girl who should look down her nose at writing like this instead of loving it ... well sorry to disappoint. He's tough but kind, caring but naughty and so much alpha that he needs to come with a warning.

Millie is also freaking adorable and I love that she's no nonsense, realistic ... but still a dreamer.

You should never stop dreaming.

I wanted to take a star off because Mason is unpacking his mommy issues on his dad but ... in the end, I loved this book. I love the scene at Cloverleigh Farms. And I love Zach and Millie.

10/10 recommend, and I'll be picking up some other books by this author soon.

AND I now know why the cover image looked so familiar. Dead ringer for Kyle Cushing on Superman & Lois!

xx

*image not mine