Book Review: Make Me Yours

It feels like it  has been forever since I've been on my own blog but I feel like I really needed the break. I just feel overwhelmed with life right now in general and sometimes I need to just admit that and do something about it. 

So I took a mini break. Did I get rest and relaxation? No, but I was able to take a few things off my plate for a few days and in the life of a mom, I guess that's the same thing as rest and relaxation, am I right?

Make Me Yours - Melanie Harlow

He’s my brother’s best friend.

The hot single dad next door.

And one accidental sext later, my massive crush on him is no longer a secret.

It’s my own damn fault. I’m thirty years old, for heaven’s sake. I’m a kindergarten teacher and a (reasonably) responsible adult. I should know better than to get tipsy and draft a fake text listing all the dirty things I wish Officer Cole Mitchell would do to me.

I wasn’t supposed to hit send.

He wasn’t supposed to see it.

And he definitely wasn’t supposed to text back telling me to go on . . .

Because after that, things escalate quickly.

Cole is everything I’ve ever wanted. He’s sexy and protective. A devoted father to his little girl. A dedicated cop the whole town adores. The kind of guy you can trust to keep his hands to himself, even when you’re desperately hoping he won’t.

I’m not the girl he thought he’d end up with, but after all this time, I might finally get the chance to say the words I’ve always dreamed of . . . make me yours.

If you remember way back in August, I reviewed Drive Me Wild, which is book one in this series so this is book two. We pick up where Drive Me Wild leaves us (though this can be read as a stand-alone, don't worry), Blair and Griffin are getting married. Griffin's younger sister Cheyenne is a local elementary school teacher, living at home to regroup after a series of terrible breakups. Practically next door is Cole, Griffin's best friend, who is a single dad after his high school sweetheart wife died during the birth of their daughter, and is living at home to also regroup. 

Cheyenne babysits for Cole's daughter periodically so they've grown quite close and though Cheyenne adores her, she really adores Cole. She has since she was 13 and just never acted on it because it wasn't the right time and frankly, she's a bit of a chicken. What she doesn't know is that Cole is starting to see her differently but he feels like she's completely off bounds because he's best friends with her brother but also, he isn't sure if he's ready to move on from his wife and is hyper-focused on being the best parent he can since he's the only one his daughter has left. 

This is a trope I sometimes struggle with because it's a taboo/out of reach romance, they decide to get together, something happens to jeopardize it all, and then happy ever after. It's too cookie cutter and I just... I get bored. While this one almost had me bored, the fact that these characters were so... normal, I guess, really helped. They felt like real people, with real feelings and responses, and I could understand Cheyenne's feelings on not wanting to be the one to push. I could also understand Cole's fears about being alone, or going through the pain of loss again. 

Overall? I really liked this one, it was an entertaining read while on an airplane, though the guy next to me was CLEARLY reading over my shoulder and was pretty uncomfortable during the phone sex pages and serves him right. HA! I loved coming back to this greater cast of characters, I can't wait to see how the other relationships play out (I have an idea of what book three has in store and THAT is the one I'm excited for!), but I also love that this had real emotion in it, it made the ending so much sweeter. 

Thank you to Melanie Harlow and Social Butterfly PR for having me on this tour! I am so glad this is what I had as my traveling read, it made the ridiculous layover a little more bearable. 

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