The One You Want (The Original Heartbreakers #0.5)

Kenna’s mom had a horrible reputation as a man stealer and by default, it was passed down to her. It didn’t matter that she was an underage, drunk teenager who was taken advantage of at a party. All that mattered to the town was that she was a teenage mother and trash like her mom.

The last time Dane saw Kenna, he remembers the look on her face when he screamed at her. But he’d just found out her mother was sleeping with his married father and Kenna was the easiest person to lash out at. He’s older now and he intends to apologize. After all these years, his father is going to marry her mother. Unfortunately, he didn’t intend to be so drawn to and attracted to Kenna. He can’t get her out of his mind no matter how hard he tries. All these years, he’s lived without making commitments to anyone, especially women with kids. But something about Kenna keeps him going back.

I liked both characters well enough. At first, Kenna is fairly immature and speaks in hashtags. Very adolescent considering she’s a mother and no longer a teenager. The second half of the book wasn’t as annoying. Dane goes back and forth with his feelings which got a little tiring. I despise when female leads do it, and yep, I dislike it just as much when the guy does. Not a whole lot else happens. His mom causes some problems with Kenna’s job, but she is never confronted and it’s never solved. Kenna gets kicked out of school, but we are never told why, yet she did mention it was important.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad book, it just didn’t read smoothly throughout and felt a little choppy in places. But these are my thoughts and you may love it. It’s currently free on Amazon, so go for it. You’ve got nothing to lose.

This book and series is ok. I downloaded the series to pass the time between releases of books in my 2 fave series. Unfortunately they all follow the exact same storyline, just different people in each book. Which is: Couple meets, they’re attracted but have some sort of hang up, they end up making out, they avoid each other and fight, they make up and then have sex, they fight, life or death scenario happens and then they have sex again and then it’s the happily ever after. Pros are that most of the characters are funny and I did “lol” quite a few times, the sex scenes are super descriptive and steamy without being crude, and most of the women are relatable in some way (although a tad annoying). Cons are that it’s super predictable, kind of cheesy and just really didn’t have a lot of substance. If you’re looking for a light and breezy feel good romance to pass the time and don’t have a lot of expectations, then this series fits the bill.

The One you Want by Gena Showalter is a 2015 Harlequin publication.

I snapped this one up for free in the kindle store without even reading the synopsis. I couldn’t believe there was a book by this mega popular author for free!

Well, it would seem this is a novella, one of those prequels which is designed to launch a new series. I was curious since this is most definitely not the genre most people know this author from. No paranormal elements here. This is contemporary romance featuring rich bad boy Dane and struggling single mom, Kenna.

Dane and Kenna knew each other as children but were put in a most awkward position when it came to light Kenna’s mom was having an affair with Dane’s father. Harsh words were spoken, but the two never crossed paths again… until now.

We all know this author from her paranormal series and so when an author tries on a different hat it may meet with mixed results or feelings. I’m sure she will receive a few harsh critiques , but she is brave for taking the risk anyway.

The thing with this novella is that perhaps it was just too ambitious. There were too many big issues at play and not enough time to address them all fully. But, I did appreciate the effort being made to bring attention to the plight of young women who found themselves raising children alone, the stigma they are still met with, the difficulty involved in trying to better oneself with work and education, and if the single mom wants to date… well, there are many men who are not keen on dating women who have children.

Although, the story is uneven at times, there were several things that really impressed me about it.

Sex had to mean something, not just to her but to the man she was trusting with her body and her reputation. And okay, yes, that made her an oddity in today’s society, but she didn’t care.

Yes… this! This is what I wish more romance novels would create with their characters. Too often these days romance novels feel more like ‘hook up’ novels to me with no emotions, feelings. or self respect on either side, and I loathe that HFN ending.

With all the issues on Kenna’s plate, it’s Dane’s issues that the couple will have to overcome so his character is the one we see develop the most. He is angry, feels enormous guilt, and is terrified of commitment.

Naturally, Kenna has to be the mature party, standing up for herself and making the hard choices, which in turn forces Dane to make some hard choices too. But, what I liked about this was not just that Kenna did the right thing, no matter how painful it was, but it gave our hero the wake up call he needed and he manned up. He got his crap together and went after his woman and showed her what he was made of. I loved that!! And…. there was a HEA!

This book gave me just what I wanted today. No it isn’t deep, no it isn’t long, yes some points of the story failed to be resolved and yes I had a great time reading it. There are times you just want a light hearted laugh in a book and nothing mysterious or deep. This is the book that fits the description of “fun” and you move on. “It is what it is” and that is it! Fun. I laughed and laughed at some of the dry humored statements; I laughed some more at the tangled webs people weave in life; I laughed at the funny little girl in the book and I laughed when Kenna stood up for herself and remained strong even though she loved Dane to death. No one and absolutely no one was going to offend her daughter and she was firm about that. Yes, I had a good day reading this light book and enjoyed every minute of it.

Kenna is the single mother to her six year old daughter Norrie as a result of a drunken night at a party when she was sixteen. She now has a bad reputation in her community but she just gets on with her life by working hard as well as putting herself through college, her priority being her daughter. Her mother doesn’t help with her reputation either due to some of her past history.

Dane left the small community sixteen years ago and is now a successful business man in the city. He attends his father’s engagement party to Kenna’s mother with the good intentions of apologising to Kenna for shouting and being rude to her before he left for the city. He is quite surprised by his reaction to her and he doesn’t do commitments, let alone mothers. His behaviour towards relationships is due to his past after what happened between his mother and father. The only thing is that he is unable to get Kenna out of his mind and when they are together, the chemistry is sizzling. Kenna on the other end, doesn’t want a casual relationship, if anything she doesn’t make time for a social life, least of all one night stands.

There are some other interesting characters who hopefully will make their appearances in the forthcoming series. I found this novella easy to read and I love the story line.

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