A small-town romance with the promise of a sweet happily ever after? Count me in. The blurb really got me and I was definitely in the mood for a sweet romance. And Nina Croft more than delivered on her promise.

Tanner O'Connor was one of the towns bad boys. Time spent in prison for a crime he didn't commit only hardened his shell. But beneath it all beat a heart that loved the town of people who judged him cruelly without knowing him. He was a man who portrayed someone who could care less while he was a man who perhaps cared too much. He wasn't good enough for the town's goody-two-shoes, but he couldn't help but crave her all the same.

Emily Towson lived a sensible life as a sensible teacher in a town of people who tried to be sensible. And she was tired of it. For years she yearned for the town bad boy but she knew that he couldn't possibly want her because she was too... sensible. But what happens when the sensible girl chooses to break out of the shackles of society's expectations?

This was a generally enjoyable story. I loved so many elements of it. The characters for the most part were likeable, aside from Tanner's never-ending self-deprecating thoughts and Emily's limited attempts to not come off as judgemental and failing horribly. I especially enjoyed the side story of Emily's grandmother and her burgeoning relationship with Josh. Honestly, I think that was the best part of the story. And I cannot forget to mention Tanner's brothers. Their relationship was so genuine and loving and funny. Handle With Care was a small-town romance full of depth, warmth and feels.

I LOVED this book! It was one of those books that I had no expectations when I started but before long the awesome characters and the intriguing storyline had me fully invested and unable to put it down. Tanner is known as the town bad boy. He's one of the sons of the town drunk and after a car accident he was sent to prison after being convicted of causing the death of his friend. Emily Towsen is a school teacher and a good girl but she's always had a soft spot for Tanner and never believed he was responsible for the accident. Their worlds collide when Emily's meddling grandmother goes to Tanner's shop and buys a Harley. When Emily confronts Tanner about the motorcycle, things get real crazy real fast. After that nothing in their lives will ever be the same.

I highly recommend this one!

Handle With Care was a sweet and angsty romance. I really enjoyed this book, as it was my first one by this author I was truly impressed with her writing skills. Tanner and Emily were very lovable characters, they each had their own baggage from the past as well as in the present. To watch them try to overcome the problems and make a go at their relationship was just amazing. I loved the secondary characters and I'm hoping we get more from them.

I loved so much about this book! The plot and the story just flows perfectly and I couldn't get enough of this book. I read this one in one sitting and can't wait to read more from this fabulous author.

Everyone in town knows Tanner O' Conner, but not for the reasons he'd hope to be known, when you come from a family like his it's hard not to catch flack from the tight knit community. His father paved the way by being known as the town drunk, then of course his siblings found their fair share of trouble, and he too earned a bad rap by doing a little stint in prison. He's use to the looks, whispers behind his back, and the common displeasure he receives while dealing with the towns folk, heck he is almost immune to it these days, he knows he'll never be able to redeem himself in their eyes, so why even try right?

But when a disgruntled Emily Towson wanders into his shop one night, voicing her distaste in him selling her elderly grandmother a motorcycle, he has a hard time biting his tongue and taking the lashing Miss Prim and Proper is dishing out. She is just like the rest of the town, thinking he's up to no good and taking advantage of her grandmother, when in fact that couldn't be farther from the truth. But, instead of admitting that he already canceled the order for the hog, he decides to mess with her a bit, he's really getting a kick out of her standing in his shop all fired up and struggling the hide the lust in her eyes. It's all fun and games for him until the conversation takes an unexpected heated turn when he calls her sensible, and she literally jumps his bones... now he finds himself with a whole new host of trouble that he never saw coming!!

Handle With Care takes readers to Saddlers Cove, and front and center into the lives of two characters that learn the true meaning of opposites attract, Emily and Tanner couldn't be more different, but love knows no bounds! This sweet little small town romance tale had a lot to offer readers; a wonderful pairing with sizzling chemistry; an engaging plot full of humor and heart; and of course some endearing secondary characters that round out the story; and leave you wanting to return for more! I really enjoyed this one, it captured my attention from the first page and had me hanging on tight until the last; it's sure to be a hit with small town romance readers!

I requested an advanced copy of this title from NetGalley, and I am voluntarily leaving my honest opinion.

He's trying to outrun his past. She's trying to run toward her future. Who knew that they'd find what they sought in the most unlikely of places. In a town where image is your calling card, the good girl and the bad boy are a mismatch made in gossip that borders on heartache and strolls through heaven. Handle With Care is a calling card of the power that love has. A courageous tale of second chances, surprise romances and happy endings.

I really, really liked this!

Emily and Tanner have crushed on each other for years, each thinking they didn't stand a chance. Emily was the good girl, Tanner, the town bad boy. Things happen and they end up dating and getting to know one another and I LOVED watching them fall in love. There were interesting side characters and I can't wait to see what happens with them.

My only complaint is that Tanner's woe is me attitude went on WAY too long. Had he shaped up earlier, I think this would have been a five star read for me. But I still loved it ;)

Emily has always been a "good girl" but she is tired of being called sensible. She has a secret crush on the town "bad boy" Tanner. Tanner has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the sons of the town drunk. Tanner has come a long way and now owns his own business but he can't shake his past. He has lusted for Emily for years so when he gets the chance to make his dreams come true he takes it. Red hot sweet romance.

3.5 Stars
This was a strong start to a new series with good characters and excellent world building.
Ms. Croft has created two strong leads in Emily and Tanner along with an entertaining secondary cast. The various subplots were handled well, creating curiosity about where the series will go next, but still feeling complete for this book.
I genuinely liked Emily and Tanner and rooted for them to get out of their own way. I appreciated the emotional growth they both experienced and some of the humor that went along with getting them there.
Saddlers Cove is a character unto itself and the towns people had a great impact on the story.
I haven’t read much by Ms Croft, but after reading this series starter, I definitely want to read more.

I liked this how the author, Nina Croft, wrote this book. I enjoyed the 3 person POV, the twist with Josh included. I liked how smoothly and well she did that!

I enjoyed the story line! I always like the bad-boy/good girl combo. It was fun, and the supportive characters were great! There were some good descriptive sex scenes. The only thing I didn't completely care for was how Tanner throughout the whole story held his grudge, and was not self confident at all...kinda a pussy ;)

Overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it!

Wow this is the first one I've had the chance of reading from Nina and I must say I'm hooked.....

You have the town bad boy and the town good girl who in one night find each other and things break out into amazing things from that point forward. The story is beautiful and really makes you want more from Nina and the crew she introduces you too in this book.

I want to spill everything about it to you but that would spoil the love story that's there. Though I will hint and nudge for more from the Sadler cove group.

I can't wait to see what may come next from Nina

This book is a little hard for me to review because, for the most part, I enjoyed it a lot. I found it sweet. It was pretty low angst. The hero had been celibate for three years. The heroine wasn't a virgin. There was no OW drama. A little OM drama (but nothing bothersome). It was mildly spicy. It had excellent secondary characters. I especially loved Mimi and Josh, and their secondary romance. I want to read more about Tanner's brothers. I found the heroine quite likable. And the ending was sweet and had me shedding a few tears.

So why the 3-Star rating? Tanner...good lord the WOE IS ME attitude was strong in this one. And it lasts until 90% into the book. The chip on his shoulder was the size of the Titanic. Yes, he had a more than his fair share of shitty things happen to him. Yes, the town was made up of judgmental twats. But instead of working to prove them WRONG by being a decent human being, he spent YEARS acting like a douche. He was surly. He was arrogant. He was nasty. He was an a$$hole. He was a self-fulling prophecy. And...ultimately, for me, he was a giant whiny pussy right up until the END. Because of that, I just couldn't bring myself to give this a higher rating.

Intetesting small town romance

Nina Croft's Handle with Care was a very enjoyable read.
I liked that Emily and Tanner were both strong characters with serious chemistry. They both had baggage they had to deal with before they got to their HEA. I thought the supporting characters added to the story especially Emily's grandmother Mimi. This is the first book I've read by Nina Croft and I look forward to reading more of her work.
I received an advance reader copy from Netgalley.

This was an enjoyable read. That had enough about it to hold my interest and I liked the two main characters Emily and Tanner. Even if they did frustrate me, especially when it came to their relationship which had a will they, won't they quality to it and to be honest I'm not a huge fan of those. Plus, this one did drag on a little too long, particularly when one honest, proper conversation would have solved a lot of their problems.
Yet, the story itself was sweet, fairly angst free and I did particularly enjoy all the secondary characters including Tanners two brothers and niece. As well as the additional romance between Emily's grandmother Mimi and Tanner's friend Josh. And so I would certainly read more from this series in the future and I would recommend Handle With Care to others.

3 stars
A Story of the very good girl tired of being so very good...has naughty dreams nightly of the very studly town bad boy...When both cross paths and he tells her she is always sensible in every situation, it is like a red flag being waved...Naturally, she shows him she is not such a prude and a good girl gone bad... bad with him!

So I chose to read this book based on the synopsis and the cover of the book. Both looked/sounded great.
I like Tanner.... thought he was a wonderful character. A character who was a great guy, but because of certain things that happened was considered the town bad boy. Emily was boring and not at all I very enjoyable character in my opinion. Too square. I cannot see how Tanner was even remotely attracted to her. Because of this, I couldn't get into this book. I skipped to the end to see how it ended (sometimes this makes me want to go back and read what I missed - this book did not).

This was my first book by this author.

Cute
This is my first book by Nina Croft.

What I liked:
The writing style
The characters
 Several POVs
Part of a series: Saddler Cove
Standalone
HEA
Epilogue

I look forward to reading the other books in this series.

Emily and Tanner have both been fantasizing about each other for years, and when the opportunity presents itself to turn their fantasy to reality, they are all for it.
But their reality has repercussion, in the form a baby.
Handle with Care gives you 2 stories in one. The primary being Emily and Tanner and the second one is a beautiful surprise. Handle with Care is a perfect balance of steamy and fun and second chances ,forgiveness, and family. I loved the bond between Emily and her grandma and the one shared by the brothers and hope we get books about the brothers as well.

I'm a sucker for a romance with an unplanned pregnancy. I really liked how Emily needed to be convinced that she and Tanner were meant to be together.

4 - "Show me how wild you can be…" Stars!

Handle With Care takes us to the town of Saddler Cove and its residents. In particular the Tanner family, teacher Emily Towson and her grandmother Mimi Delaney. We are basically talking about your A-typical small American town, particularly when it comes to it's small-minded, judgemental bigoted residents, who have long memories and little to offer in the way of forgiveness.

She’d had secret fantasies about Tanner since she was old enough to know what boys were for…

On one hand this is your typical bad-boy sleeps with good-girl and oops! Knocks her up type of tale, but the author split the story into four separate POV’s by including Mimi and recently released from a forty year prison stint Josh Simpson’s story into its telling.

"You’re not the only one who has fantasies…"

I’ll be honest I wasn’t sure how I was going to get on with two OAPs opinions being put into the mix, but as the story between Tanner and Emily develops, the same thing happens for Mimi and Josh. All four of them are dealing with their own issues, and parts of Emily's story overlaps with Mimi’s as does Josh with Tanners, which connects everything up eventually.

Give it a go…

I think the best thing was the fact that Nina managed to give them all their own personalities as well so it was easy to move between each ones thoughts. The plot was pretty predictable in the course it took, and the actions that were taken as a result of what happened didn’t really offer up anything new either, but I liked the characters, and as I have come to expect with Nina’s writing everything flowed along beautifully, it kinda reminded me of Footloose the Kevin Bacon version obviously.

One little walk on the wild side... and she'd be paying for the rest of her life.

The fact that Tanner has two equally delicious brothers makes me think we will be returning to the town and its people again in the future too, and I look forward to it immensely.