Liam

The moment Sadie Matthews walks through the daycare center door, I feel my world tilt in her direction. Again. I fell for her when I was fourteen, and I'm still not over her. Problem: she still thinks of me as a teen she used to babysit. But I've learned a few things about pleasing a woman in the last fifteen years. I can't wait to show her how good it could be. I need to move quickly before I lose her again. This is more than a game to me, but I still plan to win.

Sadie

I've just survived the worst year of my life. As a single mom of twin toddlers, I don't have time for a man. I barely have time to finish a thought. Who knew that Liam McAllister would grow up to be so devastating? He's everything my husband was not: tall, built, and willing to have a tea party with my girls.

I can't possibly get involved with him. He's too young for me. Too handsome. But he's so persuasive...

BOY TOY

by Sarina Bowen & Tanya Eby

I think most of my friends know by now how much I love Sarina Bowen. I’ve come to love Tanya Eby in equal measures. When they team up the result of their collaboration is always fabulous. Their writing style meshes so well and is so homogeneous that as a reader you don’t know where one ends and the other begins. It’s pretty awesome.

Anyhoo…Boy Toy is the third of their laugh-out-loud, thigh-slapping series. While I gobbled this installment up I didn’t love it as much as the first two. I think Sadie just wasn’t what I expected. Insecurities are a terrible thing and can ruin relationships. I hated it for her that her ex was such a douche canoe who made her think that she wasn’t attractive. But Liam…Gahd…this man…he was perfection. He could make the ugliest duckling feel beautiful. I loved how starry-eyed he was for his teenage crush.

For Sadie to hold on for so long on the fact that he was younger didn’t make sense to me anymore at some point and it was Brynn and Ash who broke it down for Sadie:

“Sooooo…let me get this straight. He loves you and he loves the girls…”
“Yes!” I cry.
“What a dickhead,” Ash says. “I mean how dare that douchenozzle recognize how awesome you are and love you for who you are!”

I thought her fears regarding the age difference were going on for a little too long, even after she realized that it didn’t matter. She had no reason to deny him and I felt at some point that she didn’t even know herself why she kept doing it.

He wants to stay and I want him to stay, but I’m forcing him to go. And I don’t know why.

That’s a cop-out and only serves to draw out the drama. Something a good guy like Liam didn’t deserve.

You may have guessed it but the character who made this story for me was Liam. He was so good, so hot, so sweet. And the way he was with Sadie’s twins was the sweetest thing ever. Speaking of…they gave me some really good laughs, especially Kate with her football helmet.

While this may not be my favorite in the series I still enjoyed BOY TOY a lot and was well entertained. It doesn’t have the endless string of punchlines of Man Hands and it doesn’t have the tension from Man Card but it’s still a lovely addition to this series. Tanya Eby and Sarina Bowen did well and I hope they keep going on writing in tandem.