Blind Date Bet

Nicole Flockton

Jan 2019 · Man's Best Friend Book 1 · Tule Publishing

About this ebook

 Never say never… 

After loving and losing a soldier once, Isabella Knowles made a vow: No more military men. She’s rebuilt her life and has a classroom full of fifth graders to love, which is more than enough even though her father doesn’t agree. When he sets her up on a blind date, she only goes to humor him -- never dreaming that the man she meets will tempt her to break her one rule.

In theory, Ethan Masters is not opposed to the wife, kids and house with a white picket fence. But he loves his career as a K-9 handler in the air force, and a dream promotion dangles before him like dog tags. While contemplating his future, he accepts a drunken bet for a blind date, never dreaming that the captivating woman fits perfectly into his ideal, all-American dream. Only one problem. She's gun-shy about all things military.

Can Ethan prove to Isabella love is worth the risk?

Ratings and reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed the building relationship of Izzy and Ethan. Both have obstacles that they must overcome to go forward in their relationship. Izzy lost one husband to the military is she ready to take that chance again with Ethan. Ethan is everything military as a K-9 handler in the air force. Sam is right hand dog, until he meets Izzy on a blind date and his priorities may soon change. Loved these characters, great character development. I only wish Sam was more part of the story. Looking forward to reading more in this series.

Isabella Knowles is the daughter of a military man and the widow of a military man, she has vowed never to date a man in the military. But then not only does she run into Ethan Masters when he is evacuating a shopping centre but her father dares her to go on a date with a military man who turns out to be none other than Ethan Masters. Despite their obvious attraction to one another Isabella keeps pulling away as everything Ethan does triggers a deep rooted fear. Can she learn to love again? Oh dear, where do I start? First, I think the cover is a misdirect because although Ethan is a K9 handler we never get to see him at work frankly I think we only see his dog Sam once and that was in a social situation where he didn't do anything. Secondly, we saw nothing about Ethan's career, we hear "he got deployed", "he was on a training exercise" but nothing more, other of course than how sad he is being away from Izzy yadda yadda. Honestly he could have been a used car salesman or a hockey player for all the story we got about his career. Third, Isabella was frankly irritating, she yo-yo'd backwards and forwards with Ethan, going on dates, then storming off, apologising and then asking him to leave. Ethan on the other hand had 'protective' instincts which seemed to consist of insisting on checking that Izzy's doors and windows were properly locked before she went out. Fair enough but does he do it to his male friends and family? My guess is not, it's a sexist belief that women (even his mother who was career military) can't lock a door properly, gah! But mostly my beef with this novel was that it was all about Ethan and Izzy's feelings, nothing really happened, there was no big emergency just page after page of Izzy moping around because she loves him (but won't admit it) but can't face him being in the military. My final criticism is that this was an odd mixture of frequent sex combined with fade to black - some might say all left to the imagination but I just found it odd. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Fantastic book that I thoroughly enjoyed. My only complaint is that I would have liked Sam, Ethan's K=9 companion, to have more of a role in the story but his lack of mention doesn't take away from the story so that's no biggie. Ethan and Isabella are terrific together and I wanted this to work out for them right from the start. The have obstacles to overcome. Major ones! Yet you can't help but hope they find their way. The book is wonderfully written with a nice easy pace and characters that will win your heart. I definitely recommend this one.