4.5 SMOOCHES!
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SYNOPSIS:
Just friends.
That’s all Beckett Weaver and I have ever been.
Sure, he’s a hot cowboy who left Wall Street behind to take over his family’s ranch. Yes, I’ve had a secret crush on him since we were seventeen. And who wouldn’t appreciate those strong hands, that massive chest, and the way he fills out a pair of Levis?
He makes a girl sweat just looking at him . . . and I look. A lot.
But I’m a single mom trying to move on with my life, and he’s running that ranch single-handedly while taking care of his elderly father. We don’t even live in the same state. I only returned to my hometown of Bellamy Creek to sell my late mother’s house, and he just invited me and my son to stay with him because he’s got a big heart.
That’s not the only big thing he’s got–which I discover the night I finally sneak across the hall to his bedroom and shed my inhibitions right alongside my pajamas. And once we give into each other, we can’t stop.
The hayloft. The bed of his truck. The dock by the pond.
Nothing has ever felt so right, but his past has taught him not to believe in happily ever after, and every perfect night I spend in his arms brings us closer to goodbye.
Like any cowboy, he’s good with a rope and knows exactly how to tie me up.
But what if I want him to tie me down?
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REVIEW:
I love a good small town romance. Give me some quirky, all up in your business, everybody-knows-everybody characters and a sweet, sexy romance, and I’m happy as a clam. Melanie Harlow writes some seriously fantastic small town romances, and she definitely is one of my suppliers of choice to feed that need of mine. Set in a charming small town in Michigan, her Bellamy Creek series has a bit of an Americana vibe to it, and it’s full of interesting characters and some seriously swoon-worthy love stories.
Tie Me Down was a bit of a hybrid romance. Part friends-to-lovers, part second-chance romance, it had all those lovely small town romance vibes that I love. Beckett and Maddie grew up together, and in high school, they had a special friendship—that basically acted as a cover for the crushes they both harbored on each other. Maddie, a single mom, is back in Bellamy Creek with her young son following her divorce to get her deceased mother’s home fixed up and on the market. An extremely successful former Wall Street executive, Beckett left the big city scene behind to return home to run his family’s ranch and care for his aging father who was in the beginning stages of dementia. Maddie hasn’t been back to Bellamy Creek for years, and she didn’t realize the state of disrepair her mother’s home had fallen into. Thankfully Beckett did, and he offered her and her son a place to stay while she worked on cleaning up and selling her mom’s house.
They have always skirted around their feelings for and attraction to each other. While Beckett and Maddie avoided or ignored the chemistry crackling between them, pretty much everyone who knew them saw it. Between being together under Beckett’s roof, picking up their friendship where they left off, and the fact that they’re two adults who are still very much drawn to each other, well, it’s no surprise that they finally act on that attraction. Beckett has some trust issues related to his mother, and he just doesn’t believe relationships can last. He desperately wants Maddie, but he won’t allow himself to make her any promises. After everything Maddie went through with her ex-husband, she needs those promises, those declarations and that commitment.
Tie Me Down was exactly what I love about small town romances. Beckett and Maddie’s romance was sweet and sexy, and I smiled and swooned the whole way through this easy-reading, entertaining and addictive romance. Tie Me Down by Melanie Harlow gets 4.5 smooches from me!
~Danielle Palumbo
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