Picked this up because it was on Miss Bates Reads Romance's best of 2017 list. Should have known better; Miss Bates has a higher tolerance for the gaps in character depiction and development common to short contemporary romance than I do. This one really felt dialed in to me; Jonathan Bear, the taciturn brother of a protagonist of an earlier book in the series, hires a "good girl" as his personal assistant, the daughter of the town pastor. And he immediately is attracted to her.

For her part, Hayley is so innocent it's hard to believe. Twenty-four and never been kissed? Never had an orgasm, even on her own? Although at book's start, she is beginning to try to take her own life into her hands, moving out of her parents' house into an apartment, and quitting her job as secretary to the church. She feels there's something missing in her life, and thinks that earning enough money to travel might fill that gap. But it turns out all she needs is love...

Jonathan is another of those self-loathing guys whom Yates loves to portray. But in Jonathan's case, the causes of his self-loathing were all told, hardly ever shown. Which made said self-loathing very hard to feel invested in. He's a Native American, from the "wrong side of the tracks," and says that people know he is bad because of both of these things. We hardly see anyone treating him badly, though. And all of his actions we've seen in earlier books show him to be a positive, loving character.

Please, please, don't talk me into buy another one of these books...