Author: Rina Gray
Genre/Age: Contemporary Romance/Adult
Series: Crush on You Series (Book Three)
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Format: ebook via Edelweiss
Rating: ✺✺✺✺
Links: Goodreads
Synopsis: Baseball hotshot Jake Ross isn’t looking for love, only a good woman to come to his rescue. His bad boy rep lands him on the covers of gossip rags instead of sports magazines and could cost him a multi-million-dollar sponsorship deal.
Enter Charlotte Jones. The shy media coordinator is determined to lose weight and avoid the health concerns that run in her family, but after months of middling results, she needs someone to talk her out of throwing in the towel.
If Charlotte pretends to be Jake’s girlfriend, he’ll coach her on how to hit her numbers on the scales. It’s a home run of an idea … until sparks begin to fly. But has Jake really forsaken his playboy ways?
When a fake relationship stirs real feelings...
Charlotte's life is taking a new direction. After the loss of her grandmother and her own scare with diabetes, Charlie is determined to get her weight and stress eating under control. She starts to diet and exercise more. The results, however, cause more trauma to her body than it helps. And when she crashes from dehydration, she's surprised to find her crush is there to save her.
Jake's heart plummeted when he saw Charlotte faint. He's been watching her for a while and even though she's too good of a woman for the likes of him, he feels instinctively protective of her. Enough to lie to the doctor and pretend to be her boyfriend just so he can watch over her. But when the public catches wind of the famed baseball player with a good girl, Jake finds himself in a fake relationship with the sweet woman of his dreams.
Unfortunately, nothing goes according to plan and soon our couple have become closer than either of them had anticipated. But Jake isn't ready to settle down, Charlotte won't settle for less, and an outside source has a score to settle with the both of them. Danger lurks in the most unsuspecting of places and the couple must decide if they are willing to live without the other.
This book was a quick read with a lot of ups and downs. I loved the gradual friendship development between our couple that slowly turns into something more. With all of the sensual thoughts going on, I was surprised to see how long it actually took for the love scenes to start. However, it gave our characters time to really bond and come to grips with some of their problems.
Don't get me wrong. There are still a lot of issues for Jake and Charlotte to work through. Almost too many. I won't give anything away but I can say that this has at least three major tropes thrown together whereas most books survive with just one. It didn't necessarily feel contrived but it did feel busy. It seemed like our couple just couldn't catch a break and as soon as progress was made, it was crushed, again.
But that ending, with the comic book? Fantastic. In fact, I think the author did a great job of giving both characters a lot of solid development. Their quiet moments together were the best for me. I also really enjoyed the visit with Jake's family. That bunch was a hoot!
In closing...
This was the final book of the series. I thought it was a nice and satisfying way to end the story. Four suns!
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