Image and blurb from Goodreads
Title: Wrecking Ball
(Hard to Love #1)
Author: P. Dangelico
Publication date: January 19th, 2016
Category/Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Cam DeSantis’ life is a hot, steaming pile. How else would you describe losing your husband, your job, and your money all at once? Desperate times call for desperate measures, so when salvation comes in the form of one intolerable a-hole, who just happens to be the starting quarterback for the vaunted NY Titans, she has no choice but to accept his offer as a live-in nanny slash teacher for his eight year old nephew. Now all she has to do is find a safe place in her mind to hide whenever she feels the need to throat punch him into tomorrow…which is often.
Calvin Shaw has zero interest in women. Wait, wait––let me rephrase that. He loves women, he just doesn’t want anything to do with ‘um. Not since his wife, presently ex-wife, got knocked up by the guy she was cheating on him with. Problem is...there’s one living in his house. And he doesn’t know what’s worse, that he promised to be civil, or that he’s attracted to her.
Calvin Shaw has zero interest in women. Wait, wait––let me rephrase that. He loves women, he just doesn’t want anything to do with ‘um. Not since his wife, presently ex-wife, got knocked up by the guy she was cheating on him with. Problem is...there’s one living in his house. And he doesn’t know what’s worse, that he promised to be civil, or that he’s attracted to her.
The protagonist of this stand alone novel has a propensity for profanity and sexual shenanigans. You've been warned.
4.5 “Wrecking me like there’s no tomorrow” Stars
ARC via NetGalley.
Thank you!
Dude, I needed this
book. Seriously. I did. I was having a bad reading week where nothing I started
held my attention, until this book came along.
I hadn’t planned on
starting this book so soon after getting the e-ARC because it won’t be
published until Mid January, but as I went through my Kindle searching for
something that would keep my attention and interest, I ended up circling back
to Wrecking Ball. Thankfully!
This book was all sorts
of great.
Why? Because it
delivered on what it promised: a romance between two people who have been hurt
by the ones they used to love and now, despite initially hating each other, end
up falling in love. It delivered crazy chemistry, an extremely likable main
character and a brooding, ultra sexy love interest.
Like I said, everything
I needed.
Camilla/Cam/Cami, the
main character, was exactly the kind of protagonists that conquers me from
chapter one. She had a strong voice, a difficult backstory that instead of
turning her into a sobbing mess only made her stronger, and tons of personality.
Cam was the kind of woman I could see myself befriending because she was smart
enough to know when to push back or give in. She fought for what she thought
was right and she didn’t let people walk over her, but she wasn’t stupid enough
to pass on great opportunities because of her pride. I seriously loved Cam,
because life was cruel to her, but she got back up and found a way to make the
little she had work. She was also thoughtful and loyal to the people she loved.
Her relationship with her parents, her best friend and the eight-year-old boy
she was hired to teach were all excellent, and they showed how amazing Cam was.
But, yeah, the star of
the show was her relationship with the kid’s uncle, the man who hired her:
sex-on-stick, too-hot-for-his-own-good quaterback Calvin Shaw.
Calvin was my kind of
hero. Moody, broody, mysterious and sexy AF at first sight, then itense,
protective and caring once you got to know him more. From the start, I knew
that Calvin’s attitude was his way of dealing with his attraction to Cam. That
was clear, even though we didn’t have this POV, which is another plus.
I love the dual POV
romance as much as the next girl, but sometimes a story calls for single POV,
and this is a good example of one. Plus, Cam had a great enough voice to carry
this story from start to finish.
Back to Calvin, dude
needed major lessons on how to date and make a woman swoon, but fortunately Cam’s
job required her to live in his house in order to take care of his nephew, which
gave Cam and Calvin a lot of opportunities to interact and get to know each
other.
Like The Hating Game, another favorite of
mine this year, The Wrecking Ball
took its sweet time building the relationship between Cam and Calvin. Making
them go from sort-of-enemies to friends to more. There was no rush, and I
enjoyed every second of it. The story also took its time develiping Cam’s
attraction to the brooding hero. She wasn’t all over him at first, despite acknowledging
his beauty and appeal. That was consistent to Cam’s character and her arc. So,
yeah, everything happened the way it was supposed to.
I also really appreciated
how we got to see Cam interacting with Sam and helping the boy come out of his
shell. I was kind of expecting a different ending for that plotline, but I wasn’t
unhappy about the way things went.
Nothing about this book
made me unhappy, to be honest. Sure the writing needs another round of editing or two, especially for commas and repetition, but the voice, the chemistry and the characters made up for it. In fact, this book made me smile, laugh out
loud and even tear up. Not too mention all the swooning I did. I couldn’t have
been happier about picking up this book, and I hope you do that, too.
*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.
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