When the estate next door sells, the last thing Cassandra expects is the unnerving attraction she feels for her sinfully handsome neighbor, Logan West, the young and charming single father with a playboy reputation.
It’s through Oliver, Logan’s four-year-old son, who keeps popping up in her childhood tree house, that she slowly begins to catch glimpses of the compassionate and wounded man Logan has hidden beneath his strong exterior.
Cassandra knows it's wrong and that she's heading for another heartbreak.
Logan will never be able to give her what she wants…love.
Comment: I can't remember why I got interested in reading this novel. Now read, the content didn't remind me of any of the usual tropes or details I tend to gravitate towards, and, to be fair, this wasn't as great, but on the positive side, it's one less book in the pile.
When the story begins, Cassandra Clarke finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her and, to top if off, with a woman Cassandra dislikes. She decides to move on and one year later, she is getting new neighbors, mainly a father and son and of course she can't help but feel attracted to the father. Thinking he is married makes her keep her distance, although the man - Logan - seems to get on her way during their morning runs. After she finds out he isn't married, it feels as if they could have something but Logan has had a terrible relationship with the mother of his son and he doesn't want commitment now. Since Cassandra does, they become friends, but will they be able to escape their attraction or can one of them change their decision?
I wasn't aware this would not be a full story; in fact there is a second installment (and more than that for what I have seen) where the romance of Logan and Cassandra is finished. This one ends, not on a traditional cliffhanger, but on an obvious unfinished note, meaning that those who feel invested in what they have read will need to read further along to know how this ends or to simply have closure. I can say right away that it isn't my case.
I don't feel as if this is like betrayal because I didn't expect it, but I didn't read much about the story previously, so that I could have a more immersive experience, and that means I wasn't expecting the book to be divided into different installments... it was quite something, though, when the pages were getting to the end and no HEA seemed to be possible, considering the sequence of events yet to happen...
If the story had been amazing, I might have felt more annoyed or unhappy, but to be fair, I don't feel like carrying on, and I didn't like the characters enough to read more, even though a lot must have to happen in the next installments. In the end, in my opinion, the writing just wasn't appealing, the characters neither and I think that the "new adult" characters (Cassandra is 22 or 23) lack more maturity for they are quite young, but then the writing didn't make them more appealing to me.
The plot isn't too complicated, basically Cassandra is ready to have another relationship after her break up, Logan is one of those seductive and sort of distant womanizer guys who have a weak spot (his son in this case) and that is a mix of appeal to Cassandra. The whole story is how these two keep meeting, running into each other, being in each other's sphere even when the odds shouldn't be that high, and they look at each other a lot, they think about each other a lot, especially Cassandra whose POV we follow, and the sexual tension is visible to everyone around them. Sadly, so do the silliest scenes the author could invent for them to be bear one another.
I started to be irritated because of this, the plot doesn't really have a purpose, a goal. It was hard to be interested in people who behaved very childish and had inane conversations and interactions... the story does lack depth in my opinion. This would not be so bad, though, if the characters were interesting or complex themselves but that was something I missed seeing as well. Why should Cassandra and Logan matter, why would the reader care about what happens to them or what they go through? Following Cassandra was tiring at times, for her thoughts were repetitive and for a young woman just getting into her first professional job, there wasn't enough of that or anything else, really, besides her lustful thoughts...
I was convinced I would not read any more in this series but, like I said, the pages were getting less and less and Logan and Cassandra were still in the "should we be a couple, should we not?" stage of their apparent courtship, and then something fully dramatic happens! The story ends with one of those situations that worry any person and we are left with the notion Logan is going to blame himself for his actions/decisions... I can already guess it will be a book full of self recrimination and more angst and delayed happiness so, one more reason to not try it.
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