There were a lot of things I wanted to love about this book. A blue collar MMC, with a need to protect the FMC who won't stand up for herself.

Unfortunately, there were just too many things that didn't work in the story's favour.

Starting with the positives, the plot was light and easy to follow. The sex/build up scenes were well written, with hints of dominance which was great. The MMC was rough and ready, with cropped head hair and abundant chest hair, which was a nice surprise.

However, beyond that, this was a lackluster read. The conflicts between MMC and FMC where petty, and took miscommunication to an annoying level. The MMC was self-admittedly chauvinistic, which can often be fine, but ultimately was a fight-inducing flaw. And the repeated plot of "I have to leave her now because I don't deserve her" after fooling around with the FMC, a naïve virgin, was painful to read.

The icing on the cake was the final reunion, when

after a 10 day break, FMC runs up the stairs in his house to make him chase, and when he does catch her, he literally crawls to her on his knees, at which time she unironically says they can date or get married, she didn't mind

. At this point, they had been apart much much more than they had been together after turning the relationship sexual. A HEA was quite a stretch to believe at this point.