My Review (May contain spoilers, fair warning upon reading this review)

Falcon is a great work and I am so happy that I decided to pick up this series because I have been wanting to work through some of her backlist. I have to say I did NOT expect to see what I saw in this one here. I LOVED the way that this book was written. It was borderline rom-com in my opinion. Even though it could technically be considered a borderline dark romance, it had such a comedy feel to the story and had me laughing all over the place. The setup of the story is a bit instant love and forced proximity, there is a bit of bully romance to this but its very low key. So if you want to test the waters for a bully romance or something a bit softer in that regard, you definitely should try this one out.

We see a hero who has high expectations but has a mother who removes any affection and love out of the home and only cares about her socialite status. He has only known coldness until he meets Layla who is the daughter of his father's secretary. She sees the man and not the money or prestige or his social status and he finds that so refreshing. Their romance starts steady as there is a strong attraction between them from the beginning. But Falcon is her protector when the bullies start to circle her. There is a charm that enters their relationship. Falcon and Layla get along just right and I enjoyed the dynamics that enter into the romance. They might seem like opposites in many ways, but they also click in the right ways that truly matter. I truly fell hard for this story because it had such a great mix of elements that work well for me. Now the writing is a bit slow in the first half, but it quickly gains speed and I definitely found it to be hard to put down once I really got into the story.

The romance was pretty low angst for the most part and I found that really refreshing. The complexity of Falcon's family was really fun to see get worked through. The only negative aspects to the story is that there were a couple of plot holes and there is a serial plot cliffhanger (no worries the couple ends up together) but I definitely need to read book 2 so I can find out what happens. ( )

4 stars

Strong story with great characters, many of whom, will get their own books. I'm looking at where this story goes next. It ended on a foreshadowing event that will segway into Mason's story . ( )