4 Stars
Publisher: Dragonfly Press
Date of publication: September 12th, 2018
Genre: Romance
Series: Welcome to Otter Tail
An Unlikely Setup—Book 1 (review here)
Can’t Stand the Heat—Book 2
Life Rewritten—Book 3 (review here)
For Baby and Me—Book 4 (review here)
Where to find Can’t Stand the Heat: Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Goodreads synopsis:
When Walker Barnes walked into Jen Summers’ catering event, all the shame, guilt and regret for what she’d done to him in high school roared back to life. As well as the feelings she’d once had for him.
But this Walker isn’t the shy, awkward geek from high school — he’s tough, successful, brilliant, confident… and sexy. And he hasn’t forgotten how she used him. Hasn’t forgiven her, either. This Walker is looking for payback.
How on earth can she be falling for him all over again?
My review:
Jen is a hardworking divorced mom of 2 who dreams of opening her own restaurant. When she sees Walker at her friend’s wedding, Jen is filled with regret and shame. What she did snowballed into something that affected 3 lives. It has haunted her for years. How can she make it right? Will there be more fallout from her actions all those years ago?
I loved this book. Honestly, I was expecting it to be a fluff book. You know, a book where the plot is forgettable and the sex is hot. Instead, I got a book with an intriguing plotline and hot sex. I was hooked from the first page.
The plotline of Can’t Stand the Heat was interesting. I thought that the author did a great job at creating a situation where paternity could be questioned. But I didn’t like how Walker made assumptions about things. He saw Nick and assumed that was his son from the first glance. All because of a grin. Then he treated Jen horribly when she got defensive when confronted. Heck, any normal woman would have acted the same way. I know I would have if an ex-fling (technically it was) came back into my life and started making claims that one of my kids were his.
I did feel for Jen. She was put in a hard situation. How does she explain to her ex that Walker might be Nick’s father? And how would she explain that to Nick? It would open up a can of worms that could backfire on her. No wonder she didn’t want to do the DNA test. I didn’t blame her one bit.
I am going to admit that I didn’t like Walker until halfway through the book. I thought he should have left well enough alone. But then came the scenes where he was looking through his mother’s album. I got teary-eyed because his regret over the past was palpable. It was at that point where I started to like him. He redeemed himself in my eyes.
I liked Jen. I thought that she was a sweetheart. Yes, she made mistakes and yes, she paid for them. But she was making an effort to try and move past them. She was a good mother. I loved the scenes where she went all mama bear on Walker. I was doing fist pumps and saying “You go, girl”.
Walker and Jen definitely had some serious chemistry going on in the book. The sexual attraction was there and was kept up until they had sex. Now, talking about the sex scenes, I was actually happy that they weren’t graphic. There is a time and a place for graphic sex scenes and I am glad the author went the less graphic route with this book.
The end of the book was emotional. I am not going to get into it. But I will say that I thought everything was handled perfectly. Also, the epilogue made me smile.
I would give Can’t Stand the Heat an Adult rating. There is sex (not graphic). There is language. There is mild violence. There are no triggers. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.
I would reread Can’t Stand the Heat. I would also recommend this book to family and friends.
I would like to thank the author for allowing me to read and review Can’t Stand the Heat.
All opinions stated in this review of Can’t Stand the Heat are mine.
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