Handle with Care

Nina Croft

Jul 2018 · Sold by Entangled: Amara

About this ebook

What if all you want is the one thing you can’t have?

First grade teacher Emily Towson always does the right thing. The sensible thing. In her dreams, though, she gets to enjoy doing deliciously bad, bad things with the town’s baddest boy: Tanner O’Connor. But when he sells her grandmother a Harley, fantasy meets a hard dose of reality.

Tanner can’t believe sweet Emily is standing in his shop—yelling, waving her hands, and looking so damn sexy that he’s having trouble focusing. He’s always had a thing for her. Even during the worst two years of his life, the thought of Emily was the only thing that kept him going. And it’s exactly one hot second before they’re both naked and naughty on Tanner’s tool bench...

Except that expired condoms aren’t exactly effective. Now the town’s resident Bad Boy has managed to knock-up the town’s “good girl,” and she stands to lose a whole lot more than just her reputation. But if Tanner steps up, it might just be the biggest gamble this town has seen...

Ratings and reviews

Safe. Sensible what a way to be described. It was true though, that's all she showed to anyone except him. He was angry, defiant, scared and the town bad boy. The problem is that's not who he is and why he came back. I have to say this was a well written story and yeah their story is a good one. I love that these two found what they needed and it really is a feel good story where you want them to succeed. This actually feels like a story within a story. The secondary story of Mimi and Josh is the thing that keep this story from dragging and being too long with the fight to be good enough between Tanner and Emily. The combination of the two couples makes this a wonderful emotional story of recovery and love, forgiveness and healing for everyone. This is the great start of a series from an author I haven't had the chance to read before. I love her characters and the issues addressed, they are passionate and quirky and utterly real. I can't wait to enjoy more of this series.

Emily Towson is the epitome of a good girl. First grade teacher, conservative dress, polite, well-mannered, thoughtful. But when her boyfriend Ryan proposes she recoils in horror, particularly when he compliments her on being so sensible. Emily grandmother Mimi might be close to 70 years old but she's young at heart and she sees the way that her buttoned up grand-daughter looks at Tanner O'Connor, the town's bad boy, and decides to engineer a fling. But when a school teacher and the bad boy have a one-night stand things don't go according to plan. I really liked the start of this book: the ex-con, bad boy, tattooed, hog-riding Tanner and the tiny good girl teacher Emily have both admired from afar but each felt themselves unworthy of the other, until a temper tantrum and a bad attitude combust spectacularly. However, about a third of the way through I felt the plot ran out of steam and it became a bit 'rinse-and-repeat', Tanner gets angry because the town treats him like a pariah, Emily worries that Tanner is slumming with her, Tanner worries that Emily wants him to change, blah, blah, blah. The plot hinged on neither Tanner nor Emily ever telling the other how they felt, despite the initial over-sharing about they had each been fantasising about each other. Overall, I thought the book was overlong for the plot. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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!

About the author

Nina Croft grew up in the north of England. After training as an accountant, she spent four years working as a volunteer in Zambia, which left her with a love of the sun and a dislike of 9-5 work. She then spent a number of years mixing travel (whenever possible) with work (whenever necessary) but has now settled down to a life of writing and picking almonds on a remote farm in the mountains of southern Spain.

Nina writes all types of romance often mixed with elements of the paranormal and science fiction.