The Two-Date Rule

Tawna Fenske

Feb 2020 · Where There’s Smoke Book 1 · Sold by Entangled: Amara

About this ebook

"Complete with hot sex scenes, snarky double-entendres, slapstick humor, and quirky girlfriends, this comedic romp through modern-day dating checks all the romance boxes." —Kirkus Reviews

Willa Frank has one simple rule: never go on a date with anyone more than twice. Now that her business is providing the stability she’s always needed, she can’t afford distractions. Her two-date rule will protect her just fine...until she meets smokejumper Grady Billman.

After one date—one amazing, unforgettable date—Grady isn’t ready to call it quits, despite his own no-attachments policy, and he’s found a sneaky way around both their rules.

Throwing gutter balls with pitchers of beer? Not a real date (bowling doesn’t count).
Watching a band play at a local show? Not a real date (shared music taste is a coincidence).
Hiking? Not a real date (exercise is definitely exempt).

Willa’s admittedly having fun playing along. But with each non-date, Willa risks losing her much-needed focus. Especially when finding the balance between “all work” and “no play” feels impossible without the perfect shade of Grady.

Each book in the Where There’s Smoke series is STANDALONE:
* The Two-Date Rule
* Just a Little Bet
* The Best Kept Secret

Ratings and reviews

Spectacular start to a new series! Come meet Grady and Willa, and the rest of the smokejumper crew and good grief I hope they all get their own books! Willa is one stressed out woman, she operates on overdrive every moment of the day. She'll date, but has a two date rule. No more. Anymore means involvement and she doesn't have time for that, she's too busy working herself to the bone and worrying about money. Her backstory fills in those details with a father who is still hitting her up for money and her caving in and giving it to him. Grady is a smokejumper, comes from a large family of the same, father and his brothers are all involved in some sort of firefighting. You get great insight into that life reading this story. Grady is now stationed with the local crew in their town in Oregon, always on call and can be gone for however long it takes. When he meets Willa and finds out about her two date rule, he contrives things to do with her that aren't "dates" and pretty much lures her out of her routine. Provides the reassurance that she doesn't have to always be "on." Willa's problem is that Grady isn't a planner, he has no idea what he'll do when he retires and doesn't have a plan in place. He's never needed one. Until he meets Willa. One of my favorite scenes is when Grady takes Willa home to his parents for the weekly Saturday dinner and she gets full on the chaos of growing up in a family of 10 children, now with their spouses as well as kids and his parents. It was organized chaos and I loved it. Willa finally feels like she belongs to a family and what that normal life is like. She likes it. Scratch that, she loves it. While Grady is getting Willa to loosen up and their relationship goes to the next level the two hit a major snag. Willa looses her proverbial sh** and Willa retreats back into her safe place, but not before a few choice words were slung by both. How will these two opposites ever work? Can Willa learn to relax and let go? Can Grady find a way for himself that includes Willa? Damn good questions. Damn good book! Yes you should read this book. I love Tawna, she's the bomb when it comes to writing stellar characters and tight plots. Oh to get a glimpse inside her head, what I wouldn't give!

A hilarious rom-com with a lot of heart! Fair warning - this book will make you laugh out loud enough that onlookers will question your sanity. There were more snort-laughs just in the meet-cute scene than most books have altogether. Willa and Grady engage in perfectly-synced banter throughout the book, and it's one of the best rom-coms I've ever read. But it's not all humor and heat. There's a serious layer of heartfelt emotional depth underneath all the sizzling attraction and next-level witticisms. The reasons behind Willa's two-date rule are nearly heartbreaking in their simplicity, and Grady's struggle with his own vision of the future revealed an unexpected vulnerability. We get all the humor and heat and scalding-hot smokejumpers that a reader could ask for, all packaged into a charming, poignant, life-changing romance. Their HEA was simply beautiful, right down to the smallest detail. This is the first book I've read by this author, and I'm looking forward to reading more. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

If you are looking for a quick , fluffy, rom-com, this one is not for your. But, if you are looking for a romance with depth that at times is heartbreaking but also heartwarming, this one is definitely the one for you. Willa Frank is a web designer. To say that her childhood was not easy, is an understatement. With no mother and an alcoholic father, she never knew if she would have the bare necessities in life. This has made her a worrier and a workaholic. She doesn’t want a relationships and has a two date rule. Meaning, she doesn’t date anyone more than twice. Then she meets smoke jumper, Grady Billman. A man fascinated by her, and one that lives one day at a time, without plans for the future. In order to spend time with her, he decides to create non-dates. But what happens when feelings develop between these two seemingly opposites? Can they help each other overcome their obstacles, or are they so set in their ways, that their HEA is nowhere to be seen? The plot was engaging, the characters perfect in their imperfections, and the secondary characters were ones you would hope had their own stories in the future. I was entrusted a copy of this book by Entangled Amara. The opinions expressed are solely my own.

About the author

When Tawna Fenske finished her English Lit degree at twenty-two, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA® Award finalist and USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. She lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, step-kids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets, where she loves hiking, stand-up paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year.

tawnafenske.com