I read the second book years ago, so now I've caught up...

When I give a book three stars, that means I enjoyed it, it's good. Four means I really liked the dynamics between the characters, too. Five means all that, plus exemplary plot and prose and polish. This has a good plot, and I saw just one or two typos. I can't give it the fifth star because the sentiments are over-written. The end in particular come off as overstated both in repetition and verbosity. It felt a bit like padding to make the word count. It could've been better, but I'm glad I read it. ( )

Ceaton?
Like Keaton but with a 'C?'
Gotta love romance novel hero names.
ETA:
I've been reliably informed it is pronounced like "Sea-ton." Not that that changes my opinion of romance novel hero names, but good to know!

So... what to say about this?

Overall I enjoyed it, though I'm not as accepting of the insta-love aspect like so many other readers. I tend to reserve judgement about insta-love if the book is paranormal (who am I to roll my eyes at the 'destined mates' trope) but I don't buy it in contemporary romances, no matter what real life experiences have proven otherwise.

Readers have said this was a pretty typical Mary Calmes book with lots of her 'usual.' I might have to disagree. The first book I read by MC was , quickly followed by [b:All Kinds of Tied Down|22402178|All Kinds of Tied Down (Marshals, #1)|Mary Calmes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1401888434s/22402178.jpg|41827079] every Sam & Jory book I could get my paws on, and every single one of them felt very similar. She had a formula to those, and I liked it. There might be some of this in [b:A Day Makes|34568448|A Day Makes|Mary Calmes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1489456803s/34568448.jpg|55713122] but I never once thought to myself, yup, this is definitely a Mary Calmes book...after all, I think I only saw the phrase “golden skin” once in this book. (A search in [b:Change of Heart|7129023|Change of Heart (Change of Heart, #1)|Mary Calmes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1257956449s/7129023.jpg|7391115] came up with the word “golden” 14 times.)

I also thought Brin was slightly annoying in his enthusiasm and determination to 'keep' Ceaton. Just weird.

I don't think I actually have an opinion on Ceaton one way or another, which as the main character I probably should?
( )

Story: 7
First MC: 7
Second MC: 6
Secondary characters: 7
Mystery: 3
Sexual tension: 3
Humor: 6
Hotness: 3
Product placement: 7
Ridiculousness: 8
Annoying: 6
Audio: 9 (6h 33min)
To re-read: 3

("Which is interesting because that doesn't seem doctoral at all" I said playfully, leaning back, getting comfortable...and then sitting up fast, rigid and straight. I had to be on guard-we weren't on a date)

First thing first, this is a Mary Calmes book: So there is the MC whom everyone wants to sleep with etc. The mother/figures who want to feed him and find him a husband. Characters from Europe or East Europe.
For 3 hours we drift in the story. There is no romance, or even sex insight. No mystery to be solved. And I wonder what is the point. Establish his world? Yes but I don’t know what his fav food/color/shows or even his type of guys. What happened to his family? I don’t know him. I like the mafia bit, sounded promising.
And then bam! Insta-love…*groan* the word “fate” was thrown in there. The book dragged for a while, long ramblings about how amazing and hot our MC is. Then pop pop dead people all over. The end.

Mafia, women who cook, pretty boys, ramblings, self importance, and my sulky disappointed face. ( )