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Review

5+ stars!

What an amazing read! A fun, sweet, laugh-out-loud yet emotional story with fantastic characters, SO much heart, and a beautiful and passionate small town, grumpy/sunshine, slow burn romance. I listened to this audiobook until I finished it at 3am this morning, unable to put it down, and I loved every moment of it!

Naomi’s life has pretty much imploded when she gets a distress call from her troublesome twin sister and and heads to the small town of Knockemout, North Virginia, to ride to the rescue, as she always does. On her arrival in town she learns that her evil twin is the most reviled woman in town (which is a fair judgement), and after suffering the indignity of being confused for her Tina, she is horrified when her sister promptly steals her car, belongings and money, and leaves her with an 11 year old niece, Waylay, who she knew nothing about.

Knox is Knockemout’s gorgeous-yet-grumpy introvert. He owns a couple of local businesses and is a good guy with a deep love of his town, but he lives a mostly solitary life with no intentions of ever changing. When Naomi rocks up in his town, he immediately jumps in to defend it from who he thinks is Tina. When he learns the truth though, he is swept up in helping Naomi out, and as much as he plans to keep his distance, their lives get more and more entwined, and he ends up getting way more involved than he ever anticipated.

“Listen. Thank you, Knox, for all of the shouting and the rides and the coffee. But as you can see, I’ve got a situation to handle. So it’s probably best for you to go on back to whatever cave you crawled out of this morning.”
“I’m not goin’ anywhere.”

It’s a fantastic set-up, and I was immediately invested as Naomi goes about creating a new life for herself and her niece. Naomi is strong, stubborn and determined, and Waylay is “11 going on 30” (and absolutely fabulous), and I loved watching them both take all of their massive life changes in stride and keep forging forward. And inserting himself right into the middle of pretty much everything, is take-charge, protective alpha, Knox. Their antagonistic dynamic is endlessly entertaining, but there is an attraction there that is undeniable, and the sexual tension builds brilliantly until they let it all out in a blisteringly hot encounter.

There’s an unexpected but fun twist when their promised one-night-stand actually becomes a fake romance, and keeping up the pretence of a relationship allows all sorts of touching, affection and continued sexy time as Knox and Naomi easily and naturally fall even deeper into each other’s lives. At the same time their families, friends and the townsfolk are getting involved, welcoming Naomi with open arms, and before they know it, they are the town’s golden couple as the new girl finally captures the heart of the town’s playboy.

It’s all so much fun, and I was loving the Knox and Naomi together. They have a wonderful dynamic that is playful, flirtatious, and a little bit snarky, and their chemistry absolutely sizzles and they are insatiable for each other, and their feelings develop beautifully in a slow burning love story that is sexy, fun and so gorgeously emotional.

“Why don’t you ever fucking listen?” he grumbled, lips moving against my hair.
“Because sometimes people don’t know how to ask for what they really need. You needed a hug.”
“No. I didn’t,” he rasped. He was quiet for a long moment, and I listened to his heartbeat. “I needed you.”

But these two have some dramas to go through before they get their happy ever after. There is drama and angst, and oh my heart hurt! The emotions hit hard, but alongside that angst comes so many funny moments which keeps the story light. There is also a suspenseful climax which fits in really nicely with the story, and which had my heart racing, but again had me laughing. This is a wonderfully rich story. It feels like there is so much happening, and it’s all so witty and well written, and I was completely swept up in it all. Of course the romance is key, but there’s some wonderful character development as both Naomi and Knox (and Waylay) deal with some pretty huge issues, and they are beautifully explored, and really bring the feels.

“There’s a difference between taking care of someone because you love them and taking care of someone because you want them to love you.”

“You get to decide how you show up in this world. No one else gets to dictate to you who you are.”

There’s a large and fantastic cast of side characters, each of them contributing to the story in their own way. Both Knox and Naomi have a fantastic group of people around them, from their families and best friends, to the new friendships forged by Naomi, and even little Waylay and her fantastically entertaining attitude, there is so much to revel in. The Knockemout townsfolk bring so much to the story, and their relationships with both Knox and Naomi are such an important part of the story. Often in a romance book I get so caught up in the love story that I fixate on scenes where the couple are together and not so much when they’re just hanging with other people. Not so here. The characters are so well-developed, and the witty banter and laugh-oud-loud moments are so much fun, that I loved and devoured all of it! So many of these characters are screaming to have their stories told, and I cannot wait to return to Knockemout for those – let’s start with Lucien or Nash please!

I absolutely love this book. It’s a gem of a read, and after those two incredible epilogues, I was left with the biggest, goofiest grin on my face (yes, even at 3am). I look forward to rereading this one over and over again.

“You make broken things whole again. Me. You made me whole. And every time you smile at me, I feel like I hit the lottery.”

The audiobook is narrated by Lila Winters and Sebastian York, and they do a great job. This was a wonderful book to listen to.

5 huge stars!

 

Knockemout