Trick

A Single Parent, Second Chance Romance

By: Laramie Briscoe

Narrated by: Ariel Royce, Christopher Rourke

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

From USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author comes a heartfelt second-chance romance featuring a swoon-worthy man, a single-mom, and an adorably cute little girl.

"I loved this one by Laramie Briscoe. Action packed and a strong damsel in distress. This was a page turner and had such a great sigh-worthy ending. Definitely recommend!" —USA Today bestselling author Susan Stoker

A forced sentence leads to a reckless passion….

Hadley

When my husband walked out on me over a year ago, it devastated me. When the divorce papers came, it killed me. When we had to sell our house, it broke me.

But then he moved in with his new flavor of the month and told our daughter his new woman wasn’t into children. That pissed me off.

Now Riley feels abandoned, and I can’t make it better; no matter how hard I try. I’m desperate to help her adjust to the loss of a male figure in her life. The companion program that matches adults up with children who have loneliness and abandonment issues is my last hope.

The counselors tell me he’s doing community service hours, and I ask to sit in on his meetings with Riley. The minute I see him astride the matte black Harley, I know neither my nor Riley’s life will ever be the same again.

Trick

Community Service. Two words I should be thankful for, but I’m not. I resent the hours it’s away from building my business. The two previous kids I'd been paired up with didn’t work out because their mothers were more interested in getting in my bed. This next match with a little girl is my last hope. Unless this kid works out, I’m destined to serve time.

When they push her into the room wearing pink converse with a black dress, her crazy curls barely held back by the barrette in her hair, and studious glasses on her face, I can tell she’s scared—of new people, of change, of being pushed aside. Something inside of me breaks, and I want this girl to feel wanted again.

What I’m unprepared for is meeting her mom. The second our hands touch, there are fireworks, bright lights, and a picture of the future I could one day have. The future I’ve never allowed myself to wish for.

Community service becomes more than a chore, more than time I resent for being taken away from me. In the months that follow, I realize they’re just like me: they’ve been abandoned, left behind by the world, forgotten by those who should love them.

Thanks to the one last hope in both our lives—we found the light in the darkness we’d been searching for.

©2017 Laramie Briscoe (P)2022 Laramie Briscoe

Interesting Boring Lovely

The beginning was an interesting set-up, one I hadn't read before. But as the story progressed, the focus shifted pretty fast from Rhiley to Hadley. I would like to have seen just a few more interactions/conversations/activities between Rhiley and Trick before moving on so quickly to the romance. I'm always fascinated with how a grown man can be mystified and charmed and surprised by a little girl.

Except for Rhiley, the middle of the story kind of bored me but I can't quite figure out why. Some kind of tension...or humor/wit...or something... was missing. I liked Trick more than Hadley. He was an unusual man, and Hadley just seemed so ordinary.

On the one hand, there was such confident candor between Trick and Hadley, just laying it all out there... On the other hand, there were constant, repetitious doubts about everything they had just laid out there! If either one of them asked "Are you sure?" one more time, I swear I was going to scream out loud, "Yes, I'm sure!"

The ending, however, was lovely and poignant and satisfying.

Pretty good

I liked the story and I loved the characters, especially Riley. I thought the narrators did a good job. The sex scenes were too long if you ask me but I know that it doesn't bother some people. One thing that really annoyed me was that she received a phone call but didn't answer it and she never listened to the voice message and it was never mentioned again. We can guess who it was and what it was about but that just annoys me to know end. Over all a good story though.