Grumpy Jake Cover
Synopsis from the Creator:

Bailey Thorne doesn’t hate Jake the Rake, just despises him. She blames the rumor mill at her school…and, okay, him. His adorable son has only been in preschool, but Jake has already made an impressive dent in dating the unmarried faculty. She’s had to hear of his every exploit from the broken hearts he’s left behind. She was fine to loathe him from afar, but now his son has entered kindergarten—and she’s the teacher. It’s going to be a very long school year.
Jake Polaski was more than fine to avoid Ms. Thorne after it became clear she was not amused by his very existence. But then they get stuck in an elevator for an evening. He finds out that underneath that baleful glare she always gives him, lies a warm, funny and sexy as hell woman. He does his best to not be smitten after every exchange afterward. His son needs him rational, steadfast...and love is the most uncertain thing.
It was the elevator’s fault. Had it worked like it should, Bailey would have gone on with her life without seeing why so many of her co-workers had fallen for the grumpy single dad. (It’s his dry wit, his playful teasing and the drool-worthy cut of his jawline.) And now she’s caught in the way he doles out smiles and the dark depths of his secrets. If nothing else, she knows from rumor there’s a clock ticking on their affair before it implodes because things always do with Jake the Rake, but she can’t seem to walk away first.

Review: Grumpy Jake, by Melissa Blue

[fa icon="calendar"] Nov 13, 2019 9:45:00 AM / by Ana Coqui

Melissa Blue’s latest novella, Grumpy Jake, is as fun and appealing as its bright cover. In this light-hearted enemies to lovers romance Jake, a handsome but gruff White single father has gotten off on the wrong foot with his son Jayden’s Black Kindergarten teacher. Bailey has heard way too much about Jake’s dating misadventures thanks to the faculty’s breathless gossip mill. Despite her undeniable attraction to the tattooed nurse, Bailey does not want to be his next conquest. Deeply wary, the usually warm and effusive Bailey succeeds at freezing out the seemingly bad-boy playboy until they are trapped together in an elevator and she discovers his playfully disarming self-deprecating sense of humor and Jake is enchanted by her frankness.

The world-building is surprisingly robust for a novella, as Blue encircles Jake and Bailey with a rich assortment of friends and family. At the heart of the novella is Jake’s charming biracial son, Jayden, who is deeply loved by both of them. Blue is able to develop a complex push/pull relationship between Jake and Bailey that clearly establishes the risks both of them must consider as they get caught up into each other. Although the book could have benefited from one more pass with an editor due to a few word substitution errors, the book is eminently readable and it sucked me right out of a reading funk.

Filled with sexy banter and low-key angst, Grumpy Jake is as irresistible as Jake and Bailey find each other. If you have not yet discovered Melissa Blue, I strongly encourage you to take a chance on Grumpy Jake, and just like Bailey you will not be disappointed by the novella's mix of intense sexual tension and playful sexiness.

 

 

Content Warnings: Grief, Past Trauma (death of siblings)

Ana purchased this book.

 

Topics: review