What if all you want is the one thing you can’t have? First grade teacher Emily Towson always does the right thing. The sensible thing. But in her dreams, she does bad, bad things with the town’s baddest boy: Tanner O’Connor. But when he sells her grandmother a Harley, fantasy is about to meet a dose of reality. And then he goes and calls her “sensible”... Tanner can’t believe sweet Emily is standing in his shop. Yelling and waving her hands and looking so god damn sexy he’s having trouble focusing. He’d spent two hard years in prison, with only the thought of this “good girl” to keep him sane. He really should send her away... Before either one thinks though, they’re naked and making memories on his tool bench with apparently the oldest condom in history. Now Tanner’s managed to knock-up the town’s “good girl” and she’s going to lose her job over some stupid “morality clause” if he doesn’t step up. But can this bad boy teach his good girl they’re perfect for each other in time?
Handle With Care by Nina Croft was such a surprise! I was sucked in by the blurb because there's not much better than a wanted-you-from-afar-for-forever kinda love story, but it was much sweeter (and hotter) than I was expecting, which I liked. Emily, our heroine, is a "good girl," but it isn't a matter of purity, and Tanner isn't necessarily the bad guy he's believed to be. Both aspects were so refreshing. I loved the set up of the story, too--Emily's grandmother buys a motorcycle from the town bad boy just to get Emily all riled up and confrontational with the aforementioned town bad boy. It's so silly and it's ridiculous that it works--except of course it works!
Angst was minimal (though I wouldn't have minded just a little bit more of it). While I liked the side story with Emily's grandmother and her own love interest and past drama, I thought the story was weighed down with its multiple POVs. Handle With Care isn't some sweeping epic, and I felt like there were too many story lines (or at least too many people telling them).
Should you read it? All in all, Handle With Care is a very enjoyable book, and you should absolutely let Nina Croft suck you in to this sweet small town romance! I'll definitely be reading more from Nina Croft (I'm looking forward to the other brothers' stories)!
3 1/2 Stars
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Published July 30th, 2018 by Entangled: Amara