Play Dates by Maggie Wells
Play Dates #1
Contemporary Romance
October 3, 2017
Lyrical Shine
Reviewed by Kini
Favorite Quote:
He yelped when she yanked, pulling his hair until she could look him in the eye. “Come.” One word and the woman completely unraveled him. Biting his lip, he closed his eyes and emptied every bit of loneliness and longing built up over the week into her.
I stumbled upon this author earlier this year when I joined a Facebook group for Seasoned Romance, aka romance that features characters over 40. I don’t think either MC in this book were over 40, possibly in their 30’s, but I don’t recall it being stated, in case that matters to you. What mainly had me interested in this book was that the hero is a single father. I think we see a lot of single moms in romance, so this was something a little different.
The hero, Colm, is raising his son Aiden alone after Aiden’s mother died right after giving birth. Aiden has been his primary focus for six years and as a result hasn’t dated. When he meets Monica at the park they have instant attraction and he asks her out. Colm is a great dad to Aiden, he is the type of dad that doesn’t mind that his son’s favorite toys is a princess.
Monica is at the park with her niece and she spies the “Saturdaddies”. The group of women mistakenly think these guys are part time dads, but when she meets Colm, she learns he is in fact a full time dad. When they first meet, Colm wrongly assumes that the little girl with Monica is her daughter. She tries to correct him, but it doesn’t work.
Colm is very family focused and because of this, thinks that Monica will also understand the plight of the single parent and he asks her out. Monica decides since this is going to be a one and done situation, she isn’t going to correct his assumption. They go out but fast forward to the sexy times. I didn’t do a page count, but I felt like this sex scenes were pretty long and detailed, but not too graphic. For a non-erotic romance, I thought the scenes were lengthy and it felt different, in a good way.
This book had a fair amount of humor in it and it worked for me. Monica is reluctant to enter into a relationship with Colm but I never really understood why. There was no big or traumatic event or breakup in her past or anything else, so I didn’t quite get her hang ups. The first half of the book is heavy on the physical relationship and then quickly the MCs are in disagreement and then love. It felt a bit rushed to me. I wanted a little more of them exploring an out of the bedroom relationship so I could truly believe in their love story. Looking at the description it comes in at 160 pages, so no wonder it felt like something was left out.
The author definitely sets the stage for future books in this series, with Colm’s two best friends also being single, full time dads. I liked Monica, for the most part, she knows who she is and what she wants. She isn’t perfect, but flawed. I did believe in their story, I just wanted more. I will definitely check out any future books in this story. I also want to mention that Amazon seems to have this tagged under Romance >Inspirational, that is not correct. There is sex on the page. And lots of it. Don’t let Amazon’s weird tags scare you away. This book is heavy on sex and humor, but just a smidge shy of actual story.
Grade: C
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