Ami's Hoard

Evan Downey is a widower, moving back to Evergreen Cove with his seven year old son for second chance, after losing his wife four years back. I found it easy to like Evan – the tattoo artist, who clearly loves his late wife and his son. He tries to be the best father for Lyon, and despite of having Alpha characteristics, he still welcomes help from others, including Charlie – who is long-time friends of his and Rae, long enough that he even has a nickname for her, and for Lyon to call her “Aunt Charlie”.

Anyway, yes, Evan is great – and I really liked the way he handled things when Charlie started to have doubts — “not going anywhere, Charlie!” that was what he said. And one of my favorite moments was when he dealt with Lyon’s questions about his relationship with Charlie and whether or not they will get married. Because clearly, Lyon’s friend thought that “it was illegal for my dad to marry my aunt” (yes, I found that quite amusing!)

I had a slightly harder time warming up to Charlie, though. I think reading about her muttering “Sorry, Rae” several times over did that to me. I understand where she came from. Rae was her friend and this man was Rae’s husband. I could definitely see why she thought it was not exactly ‘right’. However, it was dragging down the story a bit. I mean, she was reassured by several people, but it seemed like each time, she surrendered to the notion that it was wrong. Especially near the end, what with the accusation from her ex-boyfriend . Clearly, that man was an asshole, and I couldn’t understand why she chose to believe him over Evan.

I did have a personal complaint, which was more of MY own pet-peeve – this book has “baby” as an endearment (sorry, folks, I hate that endearment with a passion!), urgh!! Also, the nickname that Evan uses for Charlie (which is already short for Charlotte), is Ace, which is a bit too similar to Evan’s friend, Ash (or Asher). Ace, Ash … yeah, made my brain hurt *laugh*.

But, all in all, it is a nice start of a series, plus there are several secondary characters which could be back for their own stories in the following sequels. I’m sure Ms. Lemmon’s fans would like to savor it.