A bearded handyman who carves wooden lovespoons and that fun cover - sign me up. Liam is his family's steady one, the fixer of problems, and to Kayla, the somewhat intimidatingly closed off, taciturn brother of charming, flirty Aidan. That is, until one night when Kayla drinks too much and starts to realize there is more to Liam than just a gruff exterior and a workshop full of tools.

Unfortunately, Kayla's emotional whiplash exhausted me. I was really looking forward to her book: Kayla was the only person I liked in book #1, So Wrong It Must Be Right, but this faded fast with Kayla's endless internal moping and whining. Kayla was cut off by her family when she quit working for the family business. There's very little explanation about why her family is so cold or unsupportive, but she mopes constantly about being pushed around, not having any direction, and not being taken seriously. But while she does try to be supportive to Liam amidst his family drama, ultimately Kayla's anger crosses the line into pure immature petulance.

Yes, Liam was pressured into making a boneheaded decision but he was under incredible stress. Kayla couldn't stand by him even for a bit of it and flounced off, not even contacting him the day of his dad's surgery. Girl, bye.

The scenes where Kayla and Liam slowly learn each other were beautifully done, and yup, the sex scenes were almost startlingly in their carnality (who knew quiet Liam was such a dirty talker?). But once the going became difficult, I had a hard time with Kayla's drama, not to mention Liam's weird family drama.

I'm a big fan of Nicole Helm's other works, especially her farmer's market series, but I think the Ivy & Gallagher series just isn't for me.

4 stars for strong, steady Liam + 2 stars for Kayla = 3 stars

Would love to read something by this author again! The story was well thought out and the characters were very likable!

The technical stuff: This book is the second in a series but you do not have to have read the first book to enjoy this one - it totally stands alone and does not end on a cliffhanger. This book contains a lot of cursing and a lot – like A LOT - of sex. If you don't enjoy those two things you will definitely not enjoy this book.

Although the beginning of this book was really well written and interesting, once Liam and Kayla officially had sex, the plot suffered tremendously for the sake of sex scene after sex scene (after sex scene). While I do love a good sex scene and I enjoyed these two characters, I really wanted more of Liam and Kayla actually bonding and building their relationship outside of the bedroom. There were so many things that were glossed over or rushed (example: Aiden's issues magically being gone by the epilogue) that could have been explored deeper but weren't. I also wanted to know more about Kayla and her issues with her family. It really frustrated me as a reader that those issues were such a big part of who she was becoming and were mentioned repeatedly at first, but were left completely unresolved. With a balanced plot this would easily have been a four or five star read for me because the writing was really good and this book had a ton of potential.

If you enjoy a book that you can read in an afternoon about two really likable characters who don't seem to belong together but who somehow make it work, you will enjoy this book.

I requested and was granted an ARC of this book via the publisher and NetGalley. I was under no obligation to write this review.

Another awesome story by Nicole Helm! The writing style is stellar!
I loved how she wrote the hero (Liam Patrick) in the beginning, “Reverend Tight Ass” and “President Boring”, who tries to appear “flat and dispassionate” whereas he’s really the opposite. The revealing and blossoming of his character was so beautifully crafted, I loved it!
Liam’s role as the fixer – fixing things, fixing people – was a bit too painful to watch, in spite or because of its truthfulness. Being the responsible, dependable guy everyone in his family turns to when things go bad is such an unwieldy burden. His martyr complex and his inability to draw boundaries was so vivid that I was just a bit uncomfortable with it.
I also liked the romantic relationship development and the heroine’s (Kayla Gallagher) still hesitant strength, as well as the writing of the sex scenes, with some unexpected twists and where feelings and emotions play a substantial part. Helm shows her superb craft writing the initial stages of a relationship, the doubts, fears and insecurities, when they see something in each other but cannot read/interpret it.
And kudos for writing a hero who hasn’t always condoms at hand and a heroine who hasn’t easy orgasms.
Having found the depiction of Liam’s family dynamics superb, I regretted that so much of the story focused on such self-centered and selfish characters as his little brother (or even his mother) and on Liam’s jumping up to fix his family problems instead of focusing more on the romantic couple.

For me the story was ok. While I enjoyed the relationship between Kayla and Liam because they both brought out the best in one another, I was left wanting more from the story. I felt like the entire time it was mostly them getting it on. While there's nothing wrong with that, I do want a good story to be told around it.

I wanted to know more about why Kayla left her family. What was so bad that she walked away? I wanted to be shown why, instead of told. It was briefly touched on, but not enough to give it any weight for me to care. And I want to care about the characters. This seemed more like Liam's story than Kayla's since it devled deeper into his family drama. Since this is a series I wonder if there will be more background information on the Gallaghers in other books? I just wish it could've been tackled more in this one.

Overall the story wasn't bad, I just wanted more depth to the plot instead of the bedroom scenes. There wasn't enough of a balance, therefore the story felt really short and once I got to the end I felt like there could have been more.

loved this book