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Review

3.5 stars

I love Alice Clayton. She’s a go-to author for sweet, funny and sexy romance, and after loving Nuts, the first book in this series (though this one can be read as a standalone), I have been eagerly awaiting this story of a big city girl falling for a country boy.

Violet is one of the best friends of Roxie from book #1. She lives in New York City, and is a big city girl in every way – revelling in the fashion, parties, restaurants and atmosphere that makes up her beloved home town. She loves her super-social life, and her job as a successful Advertising Executive, and lately she’s taken a liking to buying cheese down at the local farmer’s market where she enjoys her weekly sighting of a certain dairy farmer from Bailey Falls.

Oscar has been the object of Natalie’s fantasies since she first laid eyes on him. But whereas she is usually a smart, sophisticated, highly confident woman, there’s something about Oscar that strikes her dumb, and for weeks their interactions have consisted of:

“Brie?”
“Oh. Yes.”

Natalie is used to having pretty much any man she wants. She has curves and she rocks them, and her confidence draws men like flies, but everything with Oscar is different. There is clearly some sexual tension there, it’s just that neither of them have acted on it. So when Violet wins an account at work that sees her working to promote Bailey Falls as a tourist destination, she suddenly finds herself thrust into all things country in the stunning small town, and it’s only a matter of time before she and Oscar see each other and all of that sexual tension explodes in an epic display of word vomit.

“I think about you all the time, naked all the time, with me, and I’m naked and I’m doing things to you, and holy shit are you doing things to me, and it’s so very very good … I’ve thought about you over me, and under me, and behind me.” … “It’s out there now. We’re both aware of it, and now when I come to see you in the city and you ring up my order, you’ll know and I’ll know that while I definitely want your Brie, I’m also imagining banging the every-loving fuck out of you.”

Freaking hilarious! And total freaking hot when the quiet, reserved Oscar seems to be on the same page.

“Those naked very good times you mentioned?”
… “Mm-hmm?”
His eyes raked over me, thrilled every inch. When those eyes focused once more on mine, I was on fire. “I’m in.”

Holy hell this book is hot! Alice Clayton can definitely bring the steam, and she’s kicked it up a notch in this one! Natalie and Oscar are on fire for each other, and that comes through the pages with each and every encounter. Their connection is electric, and they quickly slip into a relationship that is easy and natural. They have fun together and explore each other’s worlds, happily becoming a part of each other’s very different lives, and of course there’s the sex (so much hot, hot sex!).

They have their blips of course, but their feelings for each other grow naturally and realistically. But can a city girl and a country boy find common ground (outside of the bedroom) to form something lasting together?

This was a really sweet read. I enjoyed the romance (and all of the sexy time), I loved catching up with Roxie and Leo and getting to know more of the people of Bailey Falls, and there were some moments that had me laughing out loud.

Oscar was fantastic! I loved him. He has a past that he keeps to himself, and doesn’t say much but there’s something so ruggedly charismatic about him. He’s the strong, silent type, and is known around town for being fairly serious and not engaging much. But being around Natalie brings out another side of him and we start to see the smart, fun, amusing, seriously sexy man that he is.

“Seeing you standing in my line is the second best part of my Saturday,” he said, taking another step.
I was up against the wooden wall with nowhere to go. “What’s the first best part?”
“Watching you walk away.” He placed his hands on either side of my head and leaned in. “I love watching your great big ass.”

No, he’s not a douche, he makes no secret of the fact that he genuinely loves Natalie’s curves – possibly even as much as she loves them. Which brings me to why I didn’t rate this book higher *sigh*. Natalie is a curvy girl and is proud to be a size 18, but I found her over confidence to be a bit too much. Don’t get me wrong, I love a confident heroine, and I’m happy to see a change from the creatures of athletic perfection that we often see in books, but she seems to take it too far with the constant musings over her incredible curves, how amazing she looks and her general fabulousness. I thought there was too much focus placed on her physical appearance and her brash boldness meant I didn’t warm to her as much as I would have liked, which obviously impacted on my feelings for the whole book and I didn’t really feel invested.

But I did enjoy this one. I listened to it as an audiobook and even though I had some issues with the heroine, I was keen to see how Natalie and Oscar’s story ended up and was happy and satisfied with the ending. And with the set up there for Clara’s book up next, I’m looking forward to continuing on with the series.

3.5 stars.