Nate has been slogging through grief and numb to emotion since his fiancée died eighteen months ago. He’s thrown all his energy and focus into his veterinary practice, and he’s getting really weary of his mother’s matchmaking efforts intruding on his life. When he meets Lauren at a family barbecue, he feels an attraction to her, but more importantly, he may just be able to convince her to be his fake girlfriend and get his mother and the rest of his family off his back. But as he gets to know Lauren, he finds that there’s so much more to her than he first realized. Not only is she a gorgeous woman who models part time, but she’s intelligent, kind and compassionate. Even more, she brings light to his darkness and breathes new life into him, something he fights mightily.
The advance copy I read of this book is my first book by this author, and I found it to be masterfully crafted, with thought, care, insight, and attention to detail—poetic prose that touches the heart and echoes on the soul, full of deep emotion, abundant in pain and loss and, best of all, overflowing in joy and love. Nate and Lauren are both characters I immediately fell in love with. Nate’s being mired and stuck in the grief and loss from his past immediately resonates, as does his instinctual stuffing the feelings away in a box and burying them deep. Lauren’s free spirit and altruistic need to save the world and fix everyone both attract Nate and scare him silly. I thought Lauren was a bit naïve at first, but circumstances beyond her control shake her to her foundation, causing her to reevaluate her beliefs and gain a more mature perspective. I found the relationship between the two fascinating. A lot of push and pull, but both characters learn and grow and find a way to be what the other needs without compromising their own progress.
This book has a bit of everything – the pain and grief of loss, the willingness to change and grow, realistic life events that demand reexamining core beliefs and protective mechanisms, and deep, abiding love. Nate’s big family is warm and welcoming and painted in such a way that the reader feels like a peripheral part of the family, and Lauren’s family is equally endearing. I like the fact that the first book in the series is parallel to this one – Nate’s brother Zach’s romance with Ashley happens in the same time frame as Nate and Lauren’s, and now I want to read that book, as well. And I hope the other brother, Josh, will have his own book soon. I really enjoyed “My Sexy Veterinarian,” full of heart, sweet sensuality, spunk and courage.
Nate and Lauren, our H/h, were perfect opposites, yet as is the way with love, they both found that something in the other that served to complete them. The Amazon book description gives the plot basics, but read this one not only for the romance angle, but also for the relationships among all the family members and friends. Kudos to the author for her writing skill that is able to so endear her characters to the reader. I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book.
A great book. Sexy, funny, emotional. I was sucked in on the first page and totally vested in what was going to happen next. I highly recommend.