Hot Single Dad

Book Boyfriends, Book 3

By: Claire Kingsley

Narrated by: Savannah Peachwood, Rock Engle

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

Reasons I need to stop fantasizing about Linnea:

One: She’s too young for me.

Two: She’s my daughter’s nanny.

I could stop there, couldn’t I? I’m already a cliché. The single dad who’s hot for the nanny. But it gets worse.

Three: She’s my sister-in-law.

My wife died when our daughter was a baby, and Linnea was just a quiet teenager. I barely knew her. When my in-laws insist she move to Seattle to be my live-in nanny - after a string of caregivers who didn’t work out - I reluctantly agree. 

I wasn’t counting on the smoking-hot blonde with sinful curves, kissable lips, and a shy smile. 

Linnea is perfect for my daughter - fun, patient, and kind. She might be perfect for me, too, but I can’t think that way. She needs to live her own life, not be saddled with my insta-family.

Being around her is a special kind of torture, but I have to keep this infatuation to myself. I can’t fall for my daughter’s nanny. But it might be too late.

Hot Single Dad is a stand-alone romance with a make-you-swoon HEA. It contains explicit language and content and is intended for a mature audience.

©2017 Claire Kingsley (P)2018 audiOMG!

DILF Indeed!

Overall 4.5 stars
Performance 5 stars
Story 4 stars

I've been waiting for Caleb's story since meeting him in Book Boyfriend. Thanks to whispersync, I both read and listened to the audiobook, narrated by Savannah Peachwood and Rock Engle. You don't need to read the previous books to enjoy this one, but the series is interconnected, so previous characters do appear.

Caleb was just as sweet and loving as he was in the previous books, but getting to finally be inside his head helped to understand how he struggled to balance his home and professional life. I loved his relationship with his daughter Charlotte and his family. His confusion and hesitation regarding pursuing a relationship with Linnea was honest and realistic. I was amazed that it was Weston who actually gave the best advice in the book. I also really liked Linnea and felt that her kind and nurturing personality complemented Caleb very well. She definitely grew throughout the book, but sometimes her age and naivete were very apparent.

One of my favorite moments in the book was their first kiss. Emotions were running so high and this is where listening to the audio really took it to another level. Rock Engle was amazing as sexy and vulnerable Caleb! He gave such an emotional performance and I could feel all of Caleb's confusion, anger, longing, desire, and love. Engle's enthusiasm during the more intimate scenes will have you fanning yourself too! I also really enjoyed Savannah Peachwood's performance, and her narration as the shy and youthful Linnea was excellent. Engle and Peachwood complemented each other very well and of the three books in this series, this was my favorite narrating duo.

I will admit that though I really enjoyed the book, it took me a bit to wrap my head around a few things due to personal preference/feelings. First, I'm not usually a fan of the dead spouse trope. It takes me longer to be on board with the romance when I know in the back of my mind that the previous relationship/marriage either wouldn't have ended or wasn't given a chance to end naturally. Second, the heroine happens to be the hero's former sister in law. Linnea is Charlotte's aunt, but will Charlotte call her mom? Will it be confusing for Charlotte that her future siblings will actually be her cousins too? Having sisters myself, this was a really tough pill to swallow. Third, the heroine is about a decade younger than our hero. The ten years isn't as big of an issue for me, as the actual age of our heroine is. It's just hard when the characters are in different stages of their lives (especially with Caleb settled with a daughter and Linnea a recent college graduate). Many readers/listeners will have no issues with these items, but for me it definitely gave me pause. I think what helped me understand the story most was the Afterword at the end of the ebook. Honestly, it is such a shame that these Afterwords from the author are not included in the audio versions. They give so much insight into the thought process of the character and that, coupled with the advice Weston dispenses in the book to Caleb, really helped me put my personal feelings aside and just enjoy the story.

The epilogue brought a huge smile to my face and seeing all the former couples as well as Mr. Lawson a little into the future was perfect. The end of the ebook also includes a bonus chapter from Weston's POV and his adjustment to fatherhood (Gah! I love him so much!), as well as a link to a short story featuring Caleb's daughter Charlotte and her friend Noah in the future. Definitely recommend this series and I'm sad that it's come to a close.

Not my favorite

I have to say that this is been my least favorite of this series. I think that this is partly due to the narration, but also a little bit due to the story itself. I know the narrators are very popular however, for me, their voices doing the opposite sex parts wasn't a good fit, and it really ruined the story for me. As for the plot itself, I found that to be okay, it just really bugged me that for pretty much the entire first half of the book, Linnea was referred to as the nanny when it seems like being Charlotte's aunt would have trumped the nanny status and should have been highlighted more. I know I've seen a few reviews where people were not impressed by the age gap, nanny or sister-in-law plotlines, though none of those really bugged me for this story.

Was this written for teenagers?

I can’t believe I wasted a credit on this book😡
The writing is juvenile, trite, and boring. The “dad” in the book agonizes over his crush on the nanny like a 15 year old girl writing in her diary! Seriously??? This book isn’t even good enough for the Romance package! Audible, you not only dropped the ball, you flung it into the swamp!

Love Book Boyfriends

I've listened to all 3 books in the series & this was as good as the others. Although the other books caused me to laugh more, the story plot of this book was well written & performed.

Light hearted story

This poor guy doesn't know which way is up. He seems to be out of practice in the romance department, but his heart is in the right place.

This pair is as different as can be, however slowly but surely, they make things work.

They get their sweet HEA!

I liked the story. Easy to listen to with no excess drama.

Cute story!! 😊😊👍👏💋😂😊

This was a really sweet story. Funny, some hotness and an adorable little girl. Savannah Peachwood always shines when she narrates. This is the second book by this author that I've enjoyed.

So sweet and so hot

So this book was a slow start for me. The fixation on a certain body part of the h got a bit old for me. But as the story progressed, we got into the good stuff. This was a very sweet read for me. And the hot scenes were HOT.

I loved both of the characters because they were just good hearted people 🥰. We still got to experience Weston, Kendra, Alex and Mia too.

Narration was fantastic!! Rock Engle must be a narrator I haven’t heard very often. At first I was on the fence. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But as the story unfolded, he was perfect for this character and I will definitely look for more of his work in the future. Savannah Peachwood is one of my favorite female narrators so I really enjoyed the performance of this book.

Oh my gosh yes

Perfect narrators to tell this awesome single dad who falls for the last woman he should want romance novel.

Great story!

I loved everything about this story! I really wanted to know Caleb’s story and see him have his HEA. Two things bugged me: I REALLY didn’t feel that the male actor’s voice was appropriate for Caleb, though he did a great job with female voices. His Caleb voice was too “old-man” for the character. The other thing was the fact that the author uses the word “tummy” instead of stomach. She has used it in all of the books so far, but it was WSY overused in this one and made the character seem childish rather than a young woman. Great book overall!

Hot Single Dad

Audio: Savannah Peachwood is quickly working her way into my favorites list, she does such an amazing performance with every narration and although this was a first listen with Rock Engle, he did a wonderful job with the narration. I felt like they each gave the characters extra personality.

Story: I absolutely LOVED Caleb, Linnea, and Charlotte. Caleb is not only a widowed single dad trying to make sure his daughter has everything she needs and doesn't feel like she is missing out on anything, but he is also a doctor in emergency surgery. Linnea was Caleb's sister in law, and is Charlotte's aunt. She is also much younger than Caleb.

One of the best things about Linnea is that even though she is young, she knows what she wants. She may not be able to get that across to her mom, and struggles through the majority of the book trying to stand up for herself, but she's never portrayed as naive, or anything similar just because of her age. The only thing I didn't like was that throughout a lot of the book she was described as the nanny first and then if it was brought up she was the aunt second. I felt that it kind of put a damper on the connection between her and Charlotte. It was a minor thing that didn't really change my love for the book and the series but it was sort of a huh ?!?!? thing that kept popping up in my mind every time it happened.

My first less than average review

First of all, I've enjoyed every other Claire Kingsley book I've purchased on audible. I generally know what I would enjoy or not. I don't come down hard or pick on little things. I have this a chance, more than an hr in a and I still struggled. I did a quick scan through several later chapters and worked out the reason I couldn't continue this one. I think the male narration was not the best for this characterisation. Especially the sex scenes. This story has a few dimensions that require some finesse to execute (single dad, sex with younger sister of a dead wife... Who is the. Nanny...) all of which still had a chance to be romantic, sexy, heart throbbing etc, but not when the male narration sounds more of a one dimensional perv, sex deviant rather than balancing more layers of maturity needed to make this convincing. My disclaimer, is of course, its all subjective and personal, but I've listened to hundreds of books, with far more disturbing sexual content than this and this is the one that left an icky residue. Go figure.