{"id":23999,"date":"2017-03-08T20:54:02","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T01:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=23999"},"modified":"2018-06-19T16:06:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T20:06:22","slug":"review-mack-daddy-by-penelope-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=23999","title":{"rendered":"Review: Mack Daddy by Penelope Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Nook<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

3 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

This book….<\/p>\n

I was so excited to dive into this book. A friends-to-lovers, second-chance-romance, it\u2019s full of my favourite tropes, but sadly it fell a little flat for me and I didn\u2019t love it as much as I wanted to. There were a few things that didn\u2019t work for me and I\u2019m using the review writing experience as therapy so please bear with me while I purge my thoughts and feelings.<\/p>\n

Francesca (Frankie) is a first grade teacher who loved her job and who is smart, confident and happy. She lis in a committed relationship, living with her boyfriend, and she is gearing up for the new school year when a blast from the past shows up and derails everything.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie (Mack) is the hot new single Dad in town, and he has all of the women around the school talking. Nicknamed \u2018Mack Daddy\u2019 he is soon to become the focus of the myriad of single women. But he only has eyes for one person.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have that one person. It\u2019s not necessarily someone we end up with. But it\u2019s that person who, for whatever reason, gets under your skin and stays there. You can move on, but parts of them are always with you. Sometimes, if things never had a chance to develop, if feelings are still unresolved, that person becomes an even more powerful force in your life, even in absentia.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mack and Frankie shared a house with a friend in college. They became the best of friends, but it all fell apart when Mack broke Frankie\u2019s heart and left. Now, years later, he has shown up at her school to enrol his son in her class, and he makes it clear that he\u2019s there to make up for lost time and claim her the way he has always wanted her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did your son end up in my class?\u201d
\n\u201cIf I told you it was a coincidence, would you believe me?\u201d
\n\u201cNo.\u201d
\n\u201cWell, it\u2019s not,\u201d he was quick to admit.
\n\u201cWhy? Why are you doing this? Why didn\u2019t you warn me?\u201d
\n\u201cWould it have made it any easier?\u201d
\n\u201cNo,\u201d I whispered.
\n…
\n\u201cYou\u2019re the only one I trust with him… I don\u2019t know what the fuck I\u2019m doing, in general. I know it may seem like eons ago that we were close, and I know you\u2019re confused right now. I know I fucked everything up between us, but I\u2019ve never forgotten you. Not a single day.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The book switches between the present day and Frankie and Mack\u2019s past together, and I loved their past history. Their friendship develops wonderfully with lots of banter, teasing and laugh-out-loud moments, and I loved watching them become the best of friends and falling for each other without even really noticing or acknowledging it. There was never an actual romance between them because Mack was in a relationship with somebody else the whole time (and the question needs to be asked\u2026 why?), but the feelings were there and the chemistry is wonderfully written. But we know it\u2019s all going to fall apart \u2013 and given the circumstances in the present, it\u2019s not too hard to figure out how and why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost all those years, only to end up in the same place, wanting you and wishing I hadn’t ever let you go.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Back in the present, Mack is a man on a mission to win over the one woman that got away. He is bold and open about his feelings, desperate to finally have his chance, and you\u2019ve got to love a man who is so determined to win his girl.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour happiness is all that matters. You\u2019re holding all the cards, Frankie \u2014 every single, last one of them. But just be aware that I have no issue with showing you exactly how much I want you right now.\u201d He moved in closer, to the point where I could feel the heat from his body. \u201cThe next time you ask me to kiss you, I\u2019m going to fucking kiss you\u2026 I\u2019m not gonna lie to you about my feelings. I\u2019m not going to hide the fact that I want to make love to you more than anything.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But having said that, it\u2019s a fine line between getting completely swept up in Mack\u2019s passionate pursuit of Frankie as he says and does all of the right things, and feeling uncomfortable and sad that her absolutely amazing boyfriend is being completely disrespected. It\u2019s a sort-of love triangle, but sort-of not as it\u2019s very clear where Frankie\u2019s heart lies, but it takes her while to figure that out, and it\u2019s an angsty ride while she sorts herself out. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a situation that most people will be able to overlook but it just rubbed me the wrong way, and I lost a lot of respect for the way the two of them handled the situation.<\/p>\n

And that was the beginning before all of the other stuff came along to annoy me. Warning, rant ahead\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/span>Spoiler <\/div>
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Cheating alert!!!<\/b>
\nI like that Frankie was upfront and honest with her boyfriend about Mack coming back into her life and her confusion about her feelings for him, and he was wonderfully accepting and understanding in the way that he handled it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI love you so much. But I can\u2019t bear to be with you if your heart isn\u2019t in this with me.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\n*sniff*<\/span><\/p>\n

Admittedly, he told her to take a week and explore her feelings and figure out where her heart truly lies, but what I didn\u2019t like was the fact that she made her decision, and was on her way to tell him (as she should), but she was so desperate for Mack all of a sudden that she goes straight to him for some hot monkey sex\u00a0before<\/u>\u00a0breaking up with her boyfriend. For some people that may not seem like cheating, but I really wasn\u2019t happy with the way that played out, and I would rather she have gone to Mack free and clear of any other romantic entanglements.<\/p>\n

And there was some questionable behaviour before that even happened, like Mack calling her at home and asking her to go on a drive with him, so she leaves her boyfriend at home and goes. She doesn\u2019t hide where she\u2019s going, but still, given the fact that her boyfriend knows how confused she is \u2013 that\u2019s disrespectful and totally not cool.<\/p>\n

Laundromat Sex<\/b>
\nThis is just a moment of epic grossness. Seriously. Mack and Frankie are doing their laundry at a laundromat and they are so overcome with sudden lust that they pay the laundromat dude $50 to go up to his apartment and have sex in his house. On his bed. Oh holy grossness, I almost gagged. Seriously. This guy is a total stranger, and they have hot, naked sex in his house \u2013 and he lets them! Just bleh.<\/p>\n

The feet thing<\/b>
\nNo, it\u2019s not a kinky fetish or anything, but just a moment of disbelief that further added to my irritation about the story. I won\u2019t go into the details but there is a pretty significant moment at the end of the book that has to do with Mack\u2019s son\u2019s feet, and the fact that he has webbed toes, and Mack\u2019s mother goes on to say that she never noticed he had webbed toes. I\u2019m sorry. What kind of grandmother has never noticed her grandchild\u2019s feet at any point during his six years of life? And as for Mack \u2013 what kind of son has never noticed his mother\u2019s feet at any point during his 30+ years of life? Considering the implications that this holds, it just seemed ridiculously far-fetched, and though it was an emotionally significant moment, I was annoyed that they were all so surprised about it.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

So yeah, a whole combination of factors as to why this one wasn\u2019t a winner for me. I think once you lose respect for the characters, it all sort of goes downhill, and that\u2019s what happened for me with this book. I didn\u2019t really fell the excitement I usually do when a couple gets their HEA, and the drama thrown in at the end felt unnecessary. But through it all I could still appreciate Ward\u2019s writing, which is a great mix of funny and emotional and she does the dual POV really well, and there is a nice epilogue though that finishes off the story beautifully.<\/p>\n

I truly wanted to love it, but sadly, it wasn\u2019t for me.<\/p>\n

3 stars (just).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Check out our\u00a0Penelope Ward Author Spotlight<\/a>\u00a0for more books!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0Amazon\u00a0|\u00a0iBooks\u00a0|\u00a0Nook\u00a0|\u00a0Kobo\u00a0|\u00a0Paperback Review 3 stars This book…. I was so excited to dive into this book. A friends-to-lovers, second-chance-romance, it\u2019s full of my favourite tropes, but sadly it fell a little flat for me and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,9,24,29],"tags":[132,48],"class_list":["post-23999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friends-to-lovers","category-romance","category-second-chance-romance","category-steamy","tag-penelope-ward","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Mack-Daddy.jpg?fit=150%2C234&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-6f5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}