Series: In Shady Grove (Book 5)
Look who she attracted!
One glance at the hot firefighter who responds to a
misguided 911 call and Penelope Denning knows she's out of her depth. Leo
Montesano is a charmer with an exciting career. She's an accountant focused on
getting her son through his teenage years. Yet
Leo is definitely pursuing her.
How can she possibly resist?
As the attraction between them ignites, Penelope
discovers a wild side she never knew. The passion makes her think about a
future beyond this affair…until her real life
interrupts. And when she's convinced she must choose her son over
romance, Leo does something she never expects!
Good book. Penelope is the single mother of a teenage
boy. They moved to Shady Grove from California to start over after her divorce.
Her son, Andrew, isn't happy about the move and leaving his friends behind and
has been a royal pain in the behind. One day, after another exchange of words
with Andrew before he storms off, Penelope indulged in a little too much wine,
then attempted to use the gas grill. Leo is one of the firefighters who
responded to the neighbor's 911 call.
Once he realized that she was alright, Leo was pretty
amused by Penelope. Her precise speech and habit of talking with her hands
fascinated him, especially once he realized she was drunk, not injured. He was
also attracted to her. I enjoyed seeing him make excuses to stick around a
little bit longer to make sure she was okay.
I enjoyed the development of their relationship. Penelope
was shocked when Leo showed up at her work to ask her out. He's younger than
she is and very good-looking, but she doesn't
see any point in their going out. It was a rather painful scene, especially for
Leo. He's not used to be turned down flat when he asks a woman out, and
Penelope was pretty blunt. I also thought she was a bit obnoxious in her
response to him; it seemed like she had no interest in even being polite. It
got even worse when Penelope discovered that Andrew had lied his way onto the
school football team, for which Leo is the coach. That confrontation among the
three of them was loud and antagonistic, at least from Penelope and Andrew. I
had a lot of respect for Leo because he kept his cool. It was interesting to
see the deal that they ended up working out among the three of them. It also
gave Leo his chance to get to know Penelope. It was pretty sweet to see how
much they did have in common and how the attraction and feelings between them
grew.
But Penelope has a major stumbling block to anything
serious with Leo, and that is Andrew. Because of his serious illness as a
child, Penelope has become extremely overprotective. Andrew is the be-all and
end-all of her life, and she lets him walk all over her. There was a horrible
scene when Andrew realized what was going on between his mom and Leo. I liked
the way that Leo dealt with Andrew and his attitude. He also had some blunt
words for Penelope about her attitude. I wanted to shake her until she saw the
truth, and ached for Leo when she walked away. I loved the event that opened
her eyes and her reaction when she did. It was great to see her finally stand
up for herself. It was nice to see that it was the woman having to admit to being
an idiot, and Penelope's big moment at
the end was great.
Now, for Andrew. No doubt about it, he was a brat for
most of the book. His crappy attitude toward his mom was really obnoxious, especially considering how
she had cared for him when he was sick. Yes, she was overprotective and a bit
controlling, but a better attitude might have been able to change some of that.
He was also manipulative, and I loved seeing Leo call him on that instance of
it. At first, I thought his friendship
with Gracie was going to have a good effect on him, but he even managed to
screw that up. I loved seeing her confront him over his actions. He got a real
wakeup call from his mom at the end, and
it was encouraging to see the effect on him.
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