Review: Hard to Handle – Jessica Lemmon

ONCE BURNED

Sadie Howard never dates a guy more than once-but Fate has other plans for her when it comes to Aiden Downey, the one that got away. Aiden loved her, left her, and broke her heart. Yet suddenly she’s bumping into him at every turn, driven to distraction by his wicked grin and rock-hard body. Now she can’t resist finishing what they started-as long as she doesn’t let herself fall in love . . .

TWICE AS TEMPTING

Aiden Downey threw away the best thing he ever had when he let Sadie go, and now he’s determined to win back the woman he’s always wanted. Sadie agrees to let him into her life-and her bed-as long as there are no strings attached. But Aiden’s not about to make the same mistake again. Can he convince her to take a second chance on a once-in-a-lifetime love?

Series: Love in the Balance #2
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Publisher: Forever
Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Shannon
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

I fell for Aiden and Sadie in their novella CAN’T LET GO.  Their story picks up a year after the novella with both Aiden and Sadie reeling from the decision Aiden made.  Both of them are miserable and all Aiden wants is Sadie back.  Sadie fights the attraction she still feels for Aiden and makes him pay each time she sees him for what he destroyed in her.  But when they are forced to work together, the can’t avoid how much they enjoy being with each other or hide their true feelings for one another.

You can’t help but love Aiden.  He made an incredibly hard decision when he chose spending out his mother’s remaining days with her rather than building a relationship with Sadie.  He regretted hurting both himself and Sadie, but he wouldn’t trade what he did for his mom.  You can’t help but love a guy who would drop everything for his mom or who wears his heart on his sleeve.  From the moment Aiden enters the story, you can tell that everything he felt for Sadie is still there a year later.  He doesn’t try to fight it, instead he tries to figure out just how he can get Sadie to trust him again.  He tries to navigate their relationship so he can get a happily ever after with Sadie, but he doesn’t count on just how stubborn she can be.

Sadie has been burned:  by her now brother-in-law whom she was once engaged and by Aiden himself.  She allows her vision of the future to be completely tainted by events in her past.  She uses those events as an excuse to build a wall and push people away.  I could understand the whole Trey situation, but with Aiden it was frustrating.  She continued to push him away and use what had happened the year before as an excuse.  I get that she was hurt, but his mother was dying of cancer.  Could she not cut him some slack?  She knew how she really felt about him, but her heart and her head were constantly warring with each other and her head almost had her losing out on the one man she was meant to be with.

Jessica Lemmon writes with a great mix of heart, emotion, and humor.   The storyline and the characters pull you into their world and make you feel like you have a front row seat to all the goings on.  This was a pleasure to read and Jessica is now on my list of authors to watch out for.