One of these days, I might learn my lesson about reading things that are advertised on my Insta. So far, their record for good recs is 0 and 3, but I was snared by an excerpt that seemed pretty sexy.
Athica Lane is the third installment in the Carpino Family series, following Cam Montgomery and Paige Carpino. I read the summaries for the two books preceding this one, but wasn’t interested enough to try and read those first.
There was a lot going on in this book. A single dad, the baby sister of a large, Italian family, a stalker, a criminally-neglectful ex-wife, a virginal heroine. We hit a lot of tropes with this one. I felt like the author couldn’t seem to decide where she wanted to go, and there was so much drama. It read a little like a telenovela.
This one was marketed as a grumpy/sunshine trope, but Cam was less grumpy and more rude and domineering. He was sweet with his kids, sure, but he was just forceful with Paige and didn’t seem capable of taking no for an answer. I know there are people who are into the idea of a man that will boss you around, but I’m not one of them.
Their relationship also progressed too fast for me. They’re, like, living together by week two, in his home, with his children. I just can’t believe that Cam is supposed to be a responsible parent, but still allows for their relationship to progress at that rate.
The surprise at the end is too much and way too contrived. I think I would have written something similar at the height of my Harlequin romance obsession when I was about 14 years old.
Stars 1/5, Spice 2/5
The Basic Book Bitches 
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