Single Dad Next Door

De: Cathryn Fox

Narrado por: Thurlow Holmes, Dash Coleman

Jaxon Hall gave up raising hell the day he became a dad - there’s no greater rush than seeing his little girl’s smile. Now if he could just convince his in-laws that he’s a responsible adult, fully capable of raising his motherless child.

Every girl in Rachel’s sorority wants the smoking hot mechanic next door, herself included, but a man is the last thing she needs in her life - especially a tattooed single dad with a reputation as a badass. A man like that draws attention, and a woman hiding out from an abusive ex needs to keep a low profile. But when her car breaks down and he comes to her rescue, it’s not just her spark plugs he gets firing.

Women hadn’t been on Jaxon’s list of do withouts, there just hadn’t been any energy left to even think about one - until the girl next door comes up empty on cash to pay for her car repairs and offers housekeeping and babysitting services to even the debt. It’s the perfect arrangement until number one - the in-laws mistake Rachel for his girlfriend, and number two - she moves into his home. Their agreement is hands off, business only, but being around her is a special kind of torture that quickly reminds him he’s still a man, and now, with more time on his hands, he’d finding it harder and harder to keep them off of her.

©2020 Cathryn Fox (P)2020 Cathryn Fox

one of the best

one of my absolute favorite books I just hope I find something similar to this

Happy to listen to a full length story from Fox

Enjoyed this story. Have listened to a ton of short stories by Fox and enjoyed them. I really liked the male narrator but the female sounded too old for the female character. Sometimes a story is made or broken depending on the narration but this one turned out okay. Though I admit I think I listened more closely when the story was from his POV.

Overall enjoyable. Story could have gone a lot of ways but was happy with how the author decided to go.

The story came up short

It was a great book….. except it needed another chapter or two to finish out the story.

Jaxon and Rachel good together

Narration was horrible !! but story impressively beautiful. All the character impressive Jaxon, Cassie and Rachel make the perfect family

More sex than storyline; SPOILER ALERT

This was a very short, simplistic story. While it had some minor elements of romance it focused more on the physical relationship between Rachel and Jaxon. His daughter, one of the main characters, barely made an appearance in the story. There was no build up to the actual romance to go on. She was sorority girl/college student neighbor on the run from an abusive relationship and troubled past with trust issues. He was tragic ex-bad boy, heroic abandoned single dad devoted to his one and only child, his daughter working as a mechanic out of his home. Side characters; drug addicted mother unable to kick the habit, nosey interfering parents of drug addicted mother in denial of their daughter's shortcomings determined that they know best because they have money and the atypical rich person attitude of entitlement and no boundaries.

***SPOILERS***
Now for the storyline. Rachel is awoken by her roommates, who also have no boundaries, in her room ogling "hot dad" next door as he goes about his business and discussing him at great volume while standing at an open window. Rachel climbs out of bed, shoos them out, shuts her bedroom door, and slams the window shut closing the curtains. Next scene, she's in her car trying to start it and it won't start. Single dad to the rescue! He agrees to fix her car and she offers her services as maid/nanny to pay him back because she doesn't have the funds. He accepts her offer then gives her a ride to class after dropping his daughter at school. Later she comes home to a party in full swing, makes her way up to her room, finds out she has pizza sauce in her hair (of course why wouldn't she, she waits tables part time in a pizza joint. Kind of made me wonder if they'd fling the pizzas to the tables like frisbees if she got pizza sauce in her hair on a regular basis according to the book) and the only bathroom is occupied with people shagging. What's a girl to do? Hit up hot single dad with a request to use HIS shower. (at this point the story was starting to give off porn vibes) Of course once out of the shower she realizes she didn't bring any clean clothes to put on afterwards, her work uniform was on the bathroom floor and still dirty. Again, what's a girl to do? She hits up single dad for something to borrow, next thing you know they're in bed. *smh* from there it was pretty much lather, rinse, repeat (no pun intended) with a few non sex moments thrown in here and there to keep the story going. One of the things that I found a little disturbing was there seemed to be no discussion or practice of safe sex. However there were repeated mentions of single dad leaving his donations and how much THAT turned him on. Like I said, more sex than romance, not necessarily a bad thing but I'd prefer it the other way around. Just my personal preference. Also the synopsis says Rachel moves in with Jaxon which isn't quite true. She does spend a lot of time there but she still maintains her own room over at the house next door. Even at the end of the book.

I feel the writer did not take much time coming up with this story and was just cranking out a quick book with everything she thought would make it sell rather then enjoying it's creation. Such as the main characters: Silly girl, single dad, motherless daughter. Followed by girl's haunted past with violent, abusive stalker boyfriend. Joined by MIA mother making an appearance in a brief half hearted effort to claim her family back and mother's parents sticking their nose in where it doesn't belong introducing the "danger" element by alerting said ex-boyfriend of girl's location sending her bolting like a scared rabbit. Following the angst all around as they all pine for each other but figure it's for the best until eventually culminates in a HEA.
It has the potential to be a good book but it needs to be fleshed out with more effort to put an actual story together rather than a product to sell to the masses.

NARRATION:
I actually had to google the narrators because I could not tell which was the male and which was the female.
Thurlowe Holmes:
For the most part she did a good job narrating Rachel but suffers from an unfortunate condition of not realizing how painful a loud, shrill voice while reading a character is to an ear drum located mere centimeters away from an ear bud inserted into an ear canal. Which is what she used any time she spoke as on of the room mates. For this reason I'd recommend not listening to this book using ear buds.

Dash Coleman:
He was excellent as Jaxon but struggled a bit during the more intimate scenes. His reading made him sound like he was giving the play by play of a football game. It could be he was not entirely comfortable with those parts which a lot of male narrators have in common when reading romance.

This is the end of my review. I'll round things up by saying that this was not a bad book. It just wasn't my personal preference. It has potential. If you enjoy a romance with more sex than plot then this book would be perfect for you and I'd definitely recommend it for you. If you like more storyline in it, it may not satisfy.