2 out of 5 stars
Ebook. Kindle Unlimited. 250 pages. Published March 21, 2019
Blurb:
“I won’t let you
go without a fight.”
After a painful divorce, Josh Ford is left fighting for his
son in a high-stakes custody battle. When he contacts the DADcademy for help,
he gets much more than he bargained for in the form of his college crush, a
deliciously sexy pastry chef who’s always set his heart–and his body–aflame.
Andy Perez is everyone’s knight in shining armor. He took
care of his family when they needed him most, and he’s more than willing to do
the same for his long-time crush, too. It’s not like anything could ever happen
between them. The sweet, sensitive artist was off-limits back then and he’s
off-limits now.
After a major setback in the custody case, Andy is right
there. Strong. Steady. And… kissing Josh. That one moment of vulnerability
reveals a decade of suppressed longing. But when old fears threaten to tear
them apart, they’ll have to cast aside their doubts and find strength in each
other–and the family they could build together.
The
DADcademy is now in session! Follow a group of well-meaning, lovable, but ultimately
clueless single dads as they band together to support one another in raising
their kids and finding their Happily Ever After. Every book in The DADcademy
series can be read as a standalone, but reading them in order is strongly
recommended.
Likes:
- Seeing more of the characters from the previous book.
- The instant support Eric and Julian give to Josh.
- Andy’s history living on the edge of poverty and how he doesn’t let it hold him back.
- Josh’s insistence on pursuing his art as a career.
Dislikes:
- The story didn’t hook me.
- I didn’t particularly care for either Josh or Andy.
- There weren’t a lot of scenes in the beginning with Josh and his son.
- Most of Josh’s personality, especially his wishy-washy attitude and low self-esteem.
- The issues between Andy and Eric about the business seemed tone-deaf.
DNF 28%
This book had none of the same magnetism of the first. Neither the characters or the storyline caught my interest. Even Josh’s interactions with his son only happened in chapter one (I gave up halfway through chapter eight) so there was very little parenting.
To give credit where credit is due, the one scene between father and son did make Josh seem like he genuinely loved Mason. But when Josh’s ex-wife showed up, I thought her concerns about Josh’s parenting style were reasonable. She complained about how Josh never disciplined Mason, and didn’t provide structure, like having a fixed bedtime. What made it worse was Josh’s attempt to defend his decision. To be fair, I think threatening to take away Josh’s parental rights was a little harsh, but I didn’t think she was some unreasonable bi*ch.
I did learn some things that made Josh a little more understandable, if not more likeable. Like how he suffers from anxiety and panic attacks. It at least helped make sense of his desire to run away, sometimes literally, from almost everything. Josh also doesn’t like confrontation, but decided to push past that if it meant keeping his son. That was great.
What wasn’t great was learning that Josh wasn’t happy with his ‘every other weekend and one week a month’ time with Mason, but he hadn’t done anything about it before. Why not fight for his son when the divorce happened? Why did Josh wait until his custody was threatened to do something? It made him feel like a character who just went along with things, only reacting when something massive went wrong. This point was only driven home by the two sentences that soured me to Josh completely. “School and doctors’ visits were something Kim had always handled. He’d never been asked to come along, so he just hadn’t.”
The only thing Josh seems really passionate about is his art. He refuses to take a “dead-end job, watching the clock all day” like his ex-wife and instead relentlessly pursues his art, bouncing from job to job as a freelance artist.
On the other hand, Andy was an interesting character, but he didn’t jump off the page. I liked his family backstory, as well as his desire to keep improving the bakery. But when Andy was trying to convince Eric to start a Facebook page and website for the bakery, and Eric resisted, I almost couldn’t believe what I was reading. In today’s world, social media for businesses is everything, especially with Instagramable things like baked goods. For a business owner not to want to take advantage of something as simple as a free Facebook page seemed very out of touch with the reality of 2019 marketing. It honestly made me lose a little faith that the author knew what she was writing about.
This book gets a 2 star rating because while there was nothing that made me want to keep reading, the plot seemed strong and the characters were consistent. I’m not sure if I’ll keep going with this series, but I’d be willing to try reading something else from this author in the future.
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