Review Tour: The Rules of Dating: A Younger Man: Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward
I was the last of my group of friends to find “the one.”
The guys would always tease me that I needed to hurry up and settle down.
But I was in no rush.
Until I met someone worth rushing for.
Alex was one of the weekend volunteers at Ryan’s House—a charity I founded to build housing near hospitals.
Little did I know she was the same person I’d been arguing with over email before the project started. At the time, I’d thought Alex was a dude.
In reality? She was a smoking hot blonde who captivated me from the moment we met in person.
Our chemistry was off the charts, and I fell hard pretty fast.
Unfortunately, Alex insisted I was too young for her. I hated that she felt that way. Because age was just a number.
Not only that, her words didn’t match the way she looked at me—like she was very interested.
I lived for the weekends we’d spend out of town volunteering. Alex and I side-by-side hammering during the day, while sharing intimate dinners together at the hotel at night.
Eventually, the walls she’d put up to protect her heart began to crumble.
Until fate threw us a doozy that I wasn’t sure we could come back from.
If I’d thought our age gap was the biggest hurdle, I didn’t know anything yet.
Rule number one for dating an older woman who insists you could never be together?
Don’t fall in love.
This rounds out this group of four friends finding their love matches. Brayden Foster is an engineer who makes unique prosthetics and also runs the Ryan's House charity to build housing near hospitals. He is motivated to assist cancer patients since they lost their fifth best friend in the past.
Alex is a widow, owner of a medi spa, and volunteering for Ryan's House build. Their initial meeting is a bit interesting but they have chemistry and find their way to enjoying each other's company. And the weekends become more and more about seeing each other.
Brayden knows what he wants and is willing to be patient but also willing to go after it. I loved seeing him so ready to take a chance and falling for her. But she is older, cautious, insecure, and worried about perceptions including what her daughter would think.
Their story has ups and downs, separations, angst, a bit of drama, miscommunication, and a lot of conflicting emotions. The age gap, the insecurities, and the fact that they seem to be in different places in life make the situation difficult. It was a slow burn, frustrating at times, but also sweet and emotional. Poor Brayden goes from the last single man standing to a man not afraid to fall. But she is stubborn, fearful, and hard to crack. And there are some challenging circumstances.
I enjoyed being back with his friend group and their significant others and I liked her nosy and energetic best friend, Wells.
Alex is a widow, owner of a medi spa, and volunteering for Ryan's House build. Their initial meeting is a bit interesting but they have chemistry and find their way to enjoying each other's company. And the weekends become more and more about seeing each other.
Brayden knows what he wants and is willing to be patient but also willing to go after it. I loved seeing him so ready to take a chance and falling for her. But she is older, cautious, insecure, and worried about perceptions including what her daughter would think.
Their story has ups and downs, separations, angst, a bit of drama, miscommunication, and a lot of conflicting emotions. The age gap, the insecurities, and the fact that they seem to be in different places in life make the situation difficult. It was a slow burn, frustrating at times, but also sweet and emotional. Poor Brayden goes from the last single man standing to a man not afraid to fall. But she is stubborn, fearful, and hard to crack. And there are some challenging circumstances.
I enjoyed being back with his friend group and their significant others and I liked her nosy and energetic best friend, Wells.
Brayden is the last of his friends to still be single. He spends as much of his free time as he can spare working with Ryan’s House, the charity he and his friends started in their friend’s memory.
Alex decided volunteering for Ryan’s House would be a good way to give back and help other families going through difficult times. She has a full schedule running a med-spa with her best friend and doesn’t know much about construction, but figures her eye for design will serve her well.
These two had a bit of a rocky start, with a mistaken identity and some miscommunications off the bat. But they soon found a rhythm working together and the weekends they spent working with Ryan’s House were building into more than just a volunteer opportunity.
This had a few twists I was absolutely not expecting, but for the most part was a steady, easy read with a good bit of angst about the age-gap thrown in. I enjoyed getting to know these characters -- Brayden might be my favorite guy from this series. There were times I wished the age gap wasn’t brought up so many times, but it was also a pivotal element that drove the tension between them. The inclusion of a few additional barriers to their relationship later in the book had my attention piqued again and rounded out the end of the book nicely.
It was fun to return to this group of friends one more time. Their shared childhood and the loss of the fifth friend bonded them as young adults, but their movements over the course of this series have solidified them as forever friends and found family, including the women and children they each brought into the circle.
The Rules of Dating
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It all started when I hosted a little party for a bunch of new friends.
Though “friends” might not be the right word since the invitees were all the women I’d found out my boyfriend was talking to behind my back. When the guest of honor walked in—aka my now ex—things took a turn…
Unfortunately, a stranger witnessed the whole blowout. I was in a mood that night and ended up giving this gorgeous guy an attitude, too. As if my night could get any worse, before he stormed off, he informed me he was actually my landlord.
Colby Lennon, along with three of his friends, owned the building where my tattoo shop was located. He and I were total opposites. He wore a tie, oozed confidence that came with years of women falling at his feet, and wasn’t afraid to say what he wanted, which lately—was me.
I hated that I found myself attracted to him. Especially since I was supposed to be on a self-imposed dating hiatus. Yet the two of us couldn’t seem to stay away from each other. We started hanging out, as friends. I even went as far as making rules for what he’d dubbed our “undates.”
But eventually, our explosive attraction became too much to bear, and we broke our resolve. I let my guard down and started to really fall for Colby.
Nothing could have prepared me for the ride he took me on. And I certainly wasn't prepared for where I'd wind up when the ride was over.
All good things must come to an end, right?
Except our ending was one I didn't see coming.
From New York Times bestselling authors Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward comes a new standalone romance.
Rule number one for dating your best friend’s sister: Don’t.
Just don’t do it.
Especially when your best friend is dead and the last thing he made you promise him was that you’d keep an eye on his little sister, but not too good of an eye.
As a musician whose longest committed relationship was six weeks, I, Holden Catalano, was the last guy on Earth who should’ve been messing around with Laney Ellison.
The super smart girl whom I affectionately dubbed Lala since childhood was always off limits.
Though that didn’t stop me from thinking about her over the years, especially those times when the two of us would sneak out onto the roof and talk for hours after my buddy fell asleep. It was innocent, but I’d always held a torch for her.
After Ryan passed away, I vowed to always protect Lala. That included protecting her—from me.
Now all grown up and a scientist, Lala needed a place to stay when she accepted a temporary research position in New York. I thought I did the right thing by offering her an apartment in the building I co-owned with my three friends.
Except having her close by reignited all of those old feelings.
And things started to get complicated.
Especially since she was engaged.
And especially since, lately, I’d noticed something more in her eyes. Desire.
Lala didn’t exactly look at me like the platonic brother figure I was trying so desperately to be, even though I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted anything.
Yet, I was being good—on my very best behavior.
But you know what they say…all good things must come to an end, right?
The Rules of Dating
My One-Night Stand
Rule number one for having a one-night stand: Don’t fall for the girl.
After a lengthy dating slump, I finally met someone who sparked my interest.
Well, first the sparks flew when we argued. Later in the evening those sparks ignited into something more.
I was drawn to Devyn, in a way I hadn’t felt in a really long time.
Needless to say, I was disappointed when she abruptly left after our amazing night together.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her. But she hadn’t even given me her number.
In a city with eight-million people, I figured I’d never see Devyn again.
So imagine my surprise when I knocked on the door of an apartment in the building I lived in, and none other than my one-night stand stood on the other side.
If I thought Devyn didn’t want anything to do with me before, that was nothing compared to how she felt after finding out I was the landlord and she was about to be evicted…
And that was just the first surprise that would rock my world when it came to the mystery woman in apartment 410.
VI KEELAND
Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles are currently translated in twenty-seven languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in the US, Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria and Hungary. Three of her short stories have been turned into films by Passionflix, and two of her books are currently optioned for movies. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.
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PENELOPE WARD
Penelope Ward is a New York Times, USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance.
She grew up in Boston with five older brothers and spent most of her twenties as a television news anchor. Penelope resides in Rhode Island with her husband, son, and beautiful daughter with autism.
With over two million books sold, she is a 21-time New York Times bestseller and the author of over twenty novels. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages and can be found in bookstores around the world.
1 comments
Nice reviews.
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