Love After All
Hope Series, Book #4
By Jaci Burton
ISBN# 9780515155631
Author’s Website: http://jaciburton.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Jerjen
Chelsea Gardner has her life together pretty well. She has a job that she loves, being a high school math teacher. She loves her students and enjoys making a difference in their lives. She has friends that she can spend time with and that she knows she can count on. She even loves the small town where she lives, even if everyone else knows your business. There is only one imperfection in her otherwise perfect life. She does not have the man of her dreams to share that life with. She decides to make a list of the perfect man and then go out and find him. She includes such things as must love animals, must work a nine to five job, must like fine dining and must not like sports. After all the losers that she has dated, she knows what she wants and figures her list will make finding him easier.
Bash Palmer is a bar owner who also likes his life the way it is. He loves his bar, he has great friends and he dates a lot of different women, never being tempted to settle down. He has been married once before and he never plans to make that mistake again. He has been friends with Chelsea for a long time and he thinks she is fun and cute. He also knows that she is not the type of girl to just have fun with, she is a forever after type of girl. And although he wants no part of that, when he learns about her list, he becomes upset and thinks that the list is ridiculous. He offers to help Chelsea find the perfect man, although he is pretty sure that man does not exist. The more time he spends with Chelsea, the more attraction he feels toward her and the feeling is mutual. Neither can deny that there is a chemistry between them, but chemistry burns out and does not last forever. Will Bash and Chelsea be able to deny the feelings that are developing between them? Will Chelsea ever find her perfect man?
Most of the time I enjoyed reading about Chelsea. I thought that she was a good friend and a fun person. I enjoyed finding out what a caring teacher she was and how she only wanted what was best for her students. But when it came to her list, I thought she acted immature. I felt like she acted like one of her students. I felt like this was a big inconsistency between the mature teacher and the man hunting girl. She compared everyone she met to her list and I became a little tired of reading about that. At times I wanted to hit her over the head with her list and say “wake up and look at what is right in front of your eyes”.
Bash seems like a great guy and would be someone you would want to be friends with. He is a stand-up guy who always tries to do the right thing. He is loyal to his friends and is willing to defend and protect those he cares about. He is a dedicated businessman with plans to expand his bar and open up a restaurant. He even brought a dog into his life and gave the dog her forever home. At times I felt he was too good for Chelsea.
I did enjoy reading about the relationship growing between Bash and Chelsea. I enjoyed the bickering, bantering and teasing that occurred between the two. They were friends before anything more serious developed and that is the way it should be. In real life I think this is the best way to develop a lasting relationship.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted contemporary romance. I would not recommend it to young adult readers due to some language and the steaminess. This is the first book I have read by this author but I plan on reading her other books.
