{"id":75936,"date":"2024-08-14T07:15:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T11:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=75936"},"modified":"2024-08-14T07:18:13","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T11:18:13","slug":"audio-review-mad-love-the-single-dad-playbook-1-by-willow-aster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=75936","title":{"rendered":"Audio Review: Mad Love (The Single Dad Playbook, #1) by Willow Aster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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

The first book in a new series from Willow Aster, this is a slow burning, surprise baby love story that is emotional and swoonily romantic, and it\u2019s such a gorgeous read.<\/p>\n

Weston Shaw is a star NFL quarterback with a happy and carefree life, until he receives a life-changing phone call telling him that he has a two month old son whose mother (a one night stand) has just died. Weston jumps right into the role of brand new dad to baby Caleb, but he\u2019s not doing it alone. Sadie is Caleb\u2019s Aunt (her sister was Caleb\u2019s mother) and she has been helping to raise him since birth. She\u2019s furious when Weston arrives on the scene, mistakenly thinking that he knew about his son and had chosen to not be involved, but she is shattered by her sister\u2019s death and by the thought of losing Caleb, so she agrees when Weston offers her a place in their lives and she moves into his home in a co-parenting arrangement.<\/p>\n

It’s a great set-up that had me quickly invested in the story. I cared about the characters and felt for them on the wild rollercoaster of emotions they were going through and couldn\u2019t wait to see what was going to happen. There\u2019s initially a lot of anger and grief, but we see lots of them adjusting to living together, and Weston embracing every moment of life with his son, and it\u2019s all so cute. There\u2019s an attraction there from the beginning, but they both have so much going on that they agree not to pursue anything, and so begins the slow burn.<\/p>\n

The romance is a long time coming, but the build-up didn\u2019t really flow for me due to the amount of time skips. At times it felt like a highlight reel. There\u2019s epic sexual tension, then suddenly it skips weeks or months forward for more epic sexual tension, then skips again. It\u2019s a long time before something actually happens (after yet another time skip) and then suddenly they can\u2019t keep their hands off each other. It felt a bit weird because we hadn\u2019t followed it all the way through, but I have to say that when they do finally reach the point where they give in to their feelings, the romance is beautiful!<\/p>\n

She\u2019s the first person I want to tell anything, and the last voice I want to hear every night. I feel like part of me is missing whenever we\u2019re apart.
\nShe\u2019s my best friend, and I\u2019m madly in love with her. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Weston is such<\/i> a sweetheart. His instant love and fierce protectiveness over little Caleb is gorgeous, and as a romantic hero, he\u2019s so damn dreamy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t just want one night with you. This isn\u2019t just sex for me. You\u2019re my best friend. I love the life we\u2019ve created together. I\u2019m falling in love with you,\u201d I tell her. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their relationship is sweet, sexy, functional, playful and so freaking swoony, we see plenty of Weston and Sadie all loved up and figuring out life as a couple, and they are so damn cute together! They have challenges to face with Weston\u2019s celebrity, and the circumstances of them coming together in the first place, but they deal with it really well, and I loved watching them find their HEA.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Weston has the support of his NFL buddies \u2013 most of them single dads themselves \u2013 and I loved the teasing and banter between the boys. They are all fabulously supportive of course, and the dynamics in the group are so much fun, and I\u2019m excited to read more about each of them as the series progresses.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a fun tie-in to the Landmark Mountain<\/i> series. Weston is the brother of Felicity from Stay (Landmark Mountain, #5)<\/a><\/i>, so we get to see some of those characters as well, which I loved!<\/p>\n

This is a fun read, and great in audio \u2013 narrated by Ava Erickson and Connor Crais. It\u2019s sweet and swoony, and a fabulous romantic escape, and I really enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

3.5 stars.<\/p>\n

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Single Dad Playbook<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Mad Love (#1) <\/strong>(Weston & Sadie)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Secret Love (#2) <\/strong>(Henley & Tru)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Reckless Love (#3) <\/strong>(Rhodes & Elle)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Wicked Love (#4) <\/strong>(Bowie & Poppy)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Crazy Love (#5) <\/strong>(Penn & Addy)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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About the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Willow Aster is a\u00a0USA Today\u00a0Bestselling author and lover of anything book-related. She lives in St. Paul, MN with her husband, kids, and rescue dog.<\/p>\n

Connect with Willow:<\/p>\n

Website\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Goodreads\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Amazon\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Facebook Group<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Twitter\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Tiktok<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Bookbub\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Pinterest<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Buy:\u00a0\u00a0Amazon   Review 3.5 stars The first book in a new series from Willow Aster, this is a slow burning, surprise baby love story that is emotional and swoonily romantic, and it\u2019s such a gorgeous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[454,52,9,1036,58,29],"tags":[48,1575,1105],"class_list":["post-75936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio-recommendation","category-drama","category-romance","category-single-parent","category-sports-star","category-steamy","tag-review","tag-single-dad-playbook","tag-willow-aster"],"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\/2024\/06\/Mad-Love.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-jKM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75936","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=75936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}