Ellie Snow likes bad boys, but she’s been burned by the best of them. Her friends, knowing her type, challenge her to find a good guy to date - just to try something a little different. Gabe Clements is a football player who has a guy next door persona and a blast from her past. When he tried to spice things up with his last girlfriend, she broke up with him immediately. Gabe is just what Ellie is looking for - the good guy, and Gabe could use the buffer at family events. But when they strike a deal to take up a little fake dating for their families, they don’t plan for the heat that also strikes between them.

There is nothing slow about these two. When they reconnect after both having left home for a while, the flirtation starts and sparks fly soon after. They move quickly, but just as quickly they discover that what they were looking for in a partner might have been a lot closer than they expected. Their kinks match and they challenge each other in the best possible ways. But having both been burned by past partners, it takes more than compatibility to let down all their walls.

This was a fun example of a friends to lovers, age gap romance. From the beginning they are friendly, connecting with their shared past and the family friendships that have kept their families close, even if they hadn’t seen each other in years. I had a moment where I wasn’t sure I was going to like the history of their age-gap (I often pause when one character is a teen, even if nothing happens at the time), but as most of the story is told when they are both adults I got over it quickly and it wasn’t until I was sorting through my reading notes again that I even recalled I had a hiccup.

This hits all my must haves when it comes to a Laurent Blakely book -- great tropes, fun characters, spicy scenes, and a sweet animal tie-in.