This RITA® Reader Challenge 2013 review was written by Gennghis Mom This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Best Contemporary Single Title category.

The summary:     

When a hurricane roars through Lacey Armstrong's home on the coast of Barefoot Bay, she decides all that remains in the rubble is opportunity. A new hotel is just what Mimosa Key needs, and Lacey and her teenage daughter are due for a fresh start. And nothing, especially not a hot,younger architect, is going to distract Lacey from finally making her dreams a reality.

Love has already cost Clay Walker everything. And if he's going to have any chance of picking up the pieces of his life, he needs the job as Lacey Armstrong's architect.

What's not in the plans is falling for the headstrong beauty. Her vision of the future is more appealing than anything he could have ever drafted for himself.

Will Clay's designs on Lacey's heart be more than she can handle, or will she trust him to build something that will last forever?

And here is Genghis Mom's review:

In my last review (The Recruit), I stated that in order for a book to get an A, in my mind, it has to be one of those books that makes me keep the Nook App open on my phone so I can sneak in paragraphs while waiting at red lights. This book was almost there.  I read it while waiting at pick up for swim practice (instead of Facebook) and snuck up to my room a couple of times to get a chapter in.

This book should not have worked for me. It was one of those instant “We’re going to have sex with no strings attached” chemistries that annoy me. Her friends all encouraged her to “Have a little fun! You deserve it, Single Mom Who Rarely Dates Since Your BabyDaddy Deserted You And You’ve Devoted Yourself To Raising Your Child!” And that always annoys me, too because those same friends are going to be the first to skewer the guy on the spit after it all goes wrong. AND IT ALWAYS ALL GOES WRONG!

There are NEVER “no strings attached” in Romancelandia. You know where it’s headed. The Heroine will fall for him, but try to pretend that she hasn’t, then gets her heart broken when it takes the Hero longer to acknowledge/accept his true feelings (usually by leaving town/country/planet), and then something big and dramatic happens and they are finally both able to express their love and poof HEA.

That’s the predictable framework of this novel. However! Everything that fills that framework is sweet, and funny, and real, and risky. The relationship between Lacey and her 14 year old daughter Ashley, is realistically intense even if it gets a pretty superficial treatment at times. When the BabyDaddy shows up after 14 years throwing the PTSD Ashley and Lacey (just barely survived hurricane and lost everything) into a tailspin, you empathize with Lacey and want her to have something better while at the same time empathizing with Ashley for wanting a “white picket fence” family with both of her birth parents. The friends are funny and flawed, but a wonderfully tight knit group. The heroine’s small town nemesis is a fabulously cartooned villain. And it goes on and on with the supporting characters and sub plots.

But, what really makes this book work as a romance, is the relationship between Clay and Lacey. You want them to be together. You know they are good for each other. And you like who they are when they are together. That last part for me is key to a good love story.  They are not ridiculously dependent on one another, but they are much better when it’s the two of them. Let’s face it, that’s why I read romance novels. For the love story. I get butterflies when they first kiss and want to slap them when they screw up and get a stupid grin on my face when it all comes together. So, I give this book a solid B. I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series, it’s a poolside no-brainer.

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