4.5 Smooches!
Synopsis
MALIYA
Falling in love is not for me. I don’t do relationships, they never end well.
I don’t believe in fate, soul mates or happy, fairy tale endings. I’m definitely not a sweet little princess in search of her prince.
I have a plan to follow and falling in love is not part of that plan.
Nothing is going to change my mind.
Not even a domineering, gorgeous, blue-eyed firefighter who seems to be everywhere I go.
CALEB
The moment I saw her, I knew.
I knew the funny, curvy, raven haired beauty was supposed to be mine.
She may not agree with me at the moment, but I’m a patient man.
I’m not afraid to play dirty to get what I want.
And I want Maliya Abbott.
When her sister decides to move from London, across the Atlantic Ocean to Starling Falls to run an estranged relative’s bakery, Maliya Abbott is pretty sure her sister has lost her ever-loving mind.
Not wanting to be separated from the only family she has left, Maliya goes with her, a move that was only supposed to last a year. After all, training to be a doctor at the same University her parents did had always been her goal.
What she hadn’t planned on, was meeting Caleb Jameson. A man who is adamant they are destined to be together. That would be great, if she actually believed in any of that crap.
She also hadn’t planned on his insane, lovable, meddling family trying to derail her plans.
Maliya is a smart girl. She knows what she wants and what she doesn’t want. She definitely wants to go to Oxford University and train to become a doctor. She definitely does NOT want anything to do with Caleb Jameson.
Now, if only she could get her stupid heart to listen to her head.
Authors Note: 18+ For mature readers only. Book contains graphic language, scenes of a very sexual nature, a dirty-talking and determined alpha male, a sassy and food obsessed heroine who talks to herself far too much, a cynical and suspicious geriatric aunt, a meddlesome family, some very unhelpful friends, a mind controlling goldfish and a possibly cannibalistic cat…
REVIEW
Falling Completely is Aidan Willows’ debut novel, and she did a great job penning this funny, sexy, sweet story. I liked all of the characters – there were A LOT of them introduced here – and I’m looking forward to some of their future stories. I love a small town romance, and she painted a picture of Starling Falls that was vivid and richly developed.
“Oh how perfect. A firefighter and a nurse. It’s like a Hallmark Movie.”
I really liked Caleb and Maliya, or Liya as most people call her, together. They had an immediate spark, and Caleb was hot in pursuit of Liya right from the start. He was a great hero, a perfect blend of sweet and sexy, and let me tell you, Caleb no problem ramping up the alpha when he needed to. What started out as a friends with benefits situation, though, slowly and very sexily burns into more. Family dinners, movie nights, text message bantering, and some seriously steamy between the sheets—and on the front porch—action paves the way as they both fall harder for each other every day.
“…this thing between us is the real deal. If you don’t believe it, that’s fine. I’ll believe it enough for the both of us.”
But Liya is only in Starling Falls temporarily. She has plans to return to London, so she is hesitant to get involved with the sexy firefighter. She is one feisty, sassy-mouthed chick, but what is she hiding with all that smart-alecky spiritedness? Their chemistry is undeniable and impossible to ignore, but will Caleb be able to break through Liya’s walls or will her fears and guilt get the best of her and send her running?
“What…am I doing? I don’t want to live a life filled with regret.”
Maliya’s relationship with her sister, Annika or Nika as Liya calls her, was also hilarious, and Aunt Trudy was a crotchety old woman with a mile-wide sarcastic streak – I loved her instantly. Caleb comes from a big, boisterous and in your business family, and the possibility of stories down the line for each of his siblings has me adding Willows’ titles to my Goodreads TBR. (I believe the next book is about Nika and Caleb’s brother, Jake the chef.)
All in all, this was a pretty low-angst read; there wasn’t any drama from exes or other suitors in this relationship at all, and I really liked that. This book had so much humor in it, I found myself laughing loudly and often while reading it. There were some grammatical issues, wrong words or incorrect tenses of a word, that made for a few awkward stumbles, but I was able to keep my head in the story through them. Bottom line was that I enjoyed this story, and I wouldn’t hesitate to read more of this series. I was impressed with Aidan Willows’ debut, and Falling Completely gets 4.5 smooches from me!
~ Danielle Palumbo
