Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Release Day Review ~ Open Hearts by Eve Dangerfield


Book Description:

Ash Bennett’s had enough. She’s not wasting any more time longing for Prince Charming and getting stuck with Prince 'Babe, What’s For Dinner?'
If she can’t find a respectable, self-sufficient man to start a family with she’ll just do it by herself. It's better than pinning all your hopes on a guy who's never going to make you happy. Take Dean Sherwood, sure he’s stupid hot but that doesn’t pay the bills or remember to pick you up from the airport. No, they’re just having a little fun until Ash can find a donor. Right?
If only it was that easy... 
Everyone loves Dean. He’s easygoing, a great footballer and always up for a beer or sixteen. He also has the attention span of a Cocker Spaniel on MDMA, but that’s never been a problem where the opposite sex is concerned. At least it wasn’t until he met Ash. Beautiful, driven and wild in bed; she's all he's ever wanted in a wife. 
Unfortunately, he's far from what she wants in a husband, what with his perpetually empty bank account and inability to cook anything other than bacon. When she tells him he’s not baby-daddy material, Dean vows to become the man she needs, whatever it takes. 
Open Hearts is the sequel to Locked Box. It features angst, bogans, hot sex, naked snowboarding and the triumphant return of Max and Julia who are dealing with a romantic dilemma of their own.

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Our Review:

Reviewed by Donna ~ 4 stars
***ARC received for an honest review***


“If I’d known you were coming, I would have lived differently.”


Eve Dangerfield takes me back once again to my favourite bunch of Australians with Open Hearts, this time it is the story of Ashley Bennett, Julia’s sister. If you want to read Julia’s story first then read Locked Box as Julia and Max do appear in this one.

Ash is nearly thirty and a midwife, she works hard and in her past…played harder. Ash was an ex-model and her youth was quite promiscuous but now with her biological clock ticking down she is devastated that she cannot find a man to settle down with and start the family she desperately wants to start. With early menopause hereditary in her family, she needs to start sooner rather than later and so she starts exploring sperm donors.


“Out of all the things mum gave us, what do you think is the best; the hair, the legs, or the insane vodka tolerance of twenty-eight generations of Russian peasants?”


Dean is Max’s best friend and house mate, he is in his mid-thirties but is a child at heart. Irresponsible and immature are his middle names but underneath that childish persona is a man that no-one really understands. Dean keeps his private life private and maybe all is not what it seems.


“But take it from someone who’s also a little controlling and uptight, Dean has something people like us need. Something that’s rare as fucking diamonds.”


When Julia has her launch party for her latest game, starring Max of course, Dean and Ash’s paths meet and it is lust at first sight and the start of one of the most hilarious couplings ever. The dynamic between these two was perfect. Dean and Ash suited each other so much and the dialogue and banter between them made this book for me. Hilarious together and yet deep and emotional too, while superficial on the outside, Dean has depth and it was fantastic to read.

Ash has many hang-ups and the biggest one being money. Having lived on the breadline all her childhood and being one of the poor kids who lived on scraps and wore old clothes she is determined to never live that way again. While Ash and Dean have fantastic chemistry, he has no prospects so definitely not baby daddy material even though he had an extremely talented tongue...back to the sperm donor then…


“How did she ever think she had anything over this guy? He was leading her around by the clit like some kind of clit-farmer.”


I laughed hard reading this book and loved harder, Dean was a character that you couldn’t help but take into your heart. Dean’s personality was infectious but it was his innocent and vulnerable side that maketh the man. His determination to be a better man was admirable and the successes and failures made for entertaining reading. Ash was a little harder to warm up to. I understood where she was coming from but sometimes you need to step back and see the wood for the trees.

The comedic timing was perfect, the emotion was present and the character connection, especially to Dean was spot on. I loved that Dean was a little submissive and yet could be alpha when needed, it is this trait that really cemented him as the ideal partner to Ash’s domineering personality. Opposites definitely attract but would it be too little too late for these two? Another entertaining read from Eve Dangerfield.

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