Stay for the bond

3.5/5

I love Lydia Michaels characters, Jasper Falls, the mash up of this huge family with all these interwoven stories and how they tie together. This book has all of that. In this book we follow Skylar, a 21 year old that's striving to get her degree to become a teacher around the insanity of her family and trying to do it all herself by slowly paying for classes out of pocket. After a fateful meeting with little Addison she meets her father, Rhett, who's the mayor and 15 years her senior, and he asks her to be Addidon's governess.

The first chapter can be a cluster of confusion if you haven't read any of Lydia's other books as there just so many characters introduced right out of the gate. Anyone who's read them, though, will be elated to see past characters make their appearances (and there's even one we love to hate in this book). From this first chapter I adored Skylar and wanted to know more about her.

Rhett didn't pull me in right away, but his Addison certainly steals the show. She's adorable and so sweet! Rhett did end up growing on me, but just didn't feel as deep as the other men that Lydia has gifted us with. He does have a story, don't get me wrong, but there isn't as much character build up with him as I'm used to there being in one of Lydia's books.

I'm all for a good age-gap relationship but this one didn't feel like it had any growth or chemistry. It almost had a "we exist in the same space so may as well" kind of feel vs growing to love one another. That growth is alluded to, but since it wasn't ever really shown to us outside of the physical attraction aspect it made it hard to feel they'd grown together. This made the end feel even more rushed than the characters joke about it being, and the family's reactions kind of understandable.

With all that said, Skylar and Addison really saved this book for me. I came for an age-gap book and stayed for the sweet bond between these two and the drama with Erin. You'll have to give this one a try yourself and let me know if it's just me feeling like something's missing!

Lucinda did a wonderful job on the audio book as always and I'll never hesitate to jump into something she's narrated. Her voice is prefect for keeping your attention and not being abrasive at the same time. Give her a listen if you haven't already!

1 person found this helpful

Such a great read!!!

I love this series because you can read as a stand-alone or read and binge, it all makes sense in the end.

Skylar finds herself struggling to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Being 21 and attending college, she just isn’t bringing in the income she needs to go to school more and follow her dreams of becoming a teacher. Her large family has too much on their plates as it is and she constantly feels like a burden.

She then happens to land a nanny job with the major, Rhett, and that alone gives her more than enough to start planning for a different kind of future.

OK Listen

Normally I love a good age gap romance but this fell short for me, which I am sad to say... Because up until this book, I have loved each book by Lydia Michaels that I have read, but this was missing something. I didn't feel that connection between Rhett and Skylar.

However, the writing style was good, as are all of Lydia's books.

Pining for You

Skylar Marcelli is one of the eldest grand child the Mckinnely family in a small town, Where the town knows of them as a loud ruckus group. Just about finishing her Associates degree in early child care development, she is offered to take a class for her bachelors. Though she can only take one class at a time due to finances she is more the accommodating one. Where as her siblings are off doing their schooling. Not wanting to put added pressure to her parents she keeps the schools finance hushed. But on her way home she sees a little girl by herself trying to get a balloon. She meets Addison a cute 4 year old, then meets her dad who happens to be the new town Mayor. Needing a new nanny quickly because he is coming up on a new campaign, Rhett Buchanan is quickly attracted to the young woman who found his daughter wandering and brought her back to him. To earn more funds for school and this new arrangement would only be until Addison entered Kindergarden. As the days goes by they secretly pine for one another. Rhett has his own reasons to put walls from his feelings. Will Skylar accept this? Or will she seek reassurances to vocalize her feelings all the time? Or will she seek guidance from her Nan the head of the family besides her grandfather. This is a cheer romance a bit on the cheesy side for me, but over all ok.

Pining for the End

Pining for You is prime example of when to let go of a world/cast of characters. The quality is still present, but as a narrative it doesn't offer anything new or fresh.

Another great Lucinda Gainey narration!

Skylar is at the Big House as is known is a primitive log cabin looked like something in a storybook and burst at the seams with both her Irish and Italian relatives. It is the week before Thanksgiving and her massive family was gathered at her grandparent's house for their weekly Sunday dinner. As she is helping all the aunts prepare dinner they listen to the men trying to school each other on the best way to deep fry a turkey. The turkey her uncle had named Augustus. Yeah, they would be having a vegetarian menu because there is no way he would cook something he had named and all the kids took turns feeding.

She was so excited to share the news that she had received a scholarship for the winter session at a real college. She was almost finished with her Associates Degree and would be begin working towards her Bachelors and the thought of attending a college away from her family was both exciting and daunting. She wanted to finally do something for herself and felt like she was being selfish since she usually helped her mother with everything especially since he was so buried in trying to get a grant.

It is just before Christmas and as she is driving through town enjoying the decorations she notices a small child standing on a park bench trying to reach a red balloon that was stuck in a tree. When she pulls over to help she learns that Addison is the daughter of the Mayor Rhett Buchanan who is speaking in front of the bank.

When he looks up and sees that his daughter had wandered off he gently scolds her and when he finds out that Skylar was studying to be a teacher he asks if she would be interested in being a live-in nanny.

This is hands down my favorite of the Jasper Falls series. This audiobook is narrated by Lucinda Gainey who also narrated Lydia Michaels The Order of Vampire Series and Lucinda brought Skylar and Rhett's story to life and her portrayal of the aunts is hilarious.

This age-gap taboo romance is action-packed, full of family drama, sabotage and smoking hot chemistry. Although this is an ongoing series about Jasper Falls and can be read as a standalone I would suggest starting at the beginning so you can really immerse yourself in this small town and learn all the quirks of the recurring characters.

Another great book by Lydia Michaels! Highly recommend!

a cute holiday theme listen

this one will have you swooning,laughing and just loving the story that Lydia has writen and the narrator has brought to life.Skyler and Rhett first meet when Skyler brings his daughter back after she had wondered off.both right then get zapped with want for each other but instead of acting on it rhett offers Skyler a job as a live in nanny for him.this way she can continued with her online class for school. but like most there are onsticals in thier way to a happy ending. but she's doesn't kniw his pass and he doesn't know his assistant in teyingbto block his way either.but mix that with the holiday season a lager than life Irish/Italian family your going to love this book and akyler and Rhett's journey time a happy ending

Pining For You Review

Ladies and gentlemen she has done it again. Miss Lydia Michaels has once again give me another five star read audiobook with her Jasper Falls series. I cannot explain to you how much I love the series and in my last review of Love Me Knots I said that reading the books in this series really made me get back into why I love reading but now that I’ve read more of her series I’m definitely sticking to my statement. This series makes me happy in ways that I can’t even begin to explain. One after another I fall in love again and again. I’m just gonna say that the whole series each and everyone of them made me rekindle my love for reading. I’ve said it once I’ll say it again that the thing I love lost about her writing is how she brings together a variety of women and men from various backgrounds, conditions, and experiences to make the perfect couple. I love every single couple in this whole entire series and I’m not even done yet and I don’t plan to stop until I’ve finished the series and then after that I’m gonna head to the Mc series which involves the parents along with aunts and uncles of the Jasper Falls series. I’m just in awe of much a book or series can really boost your happiness. To sum up I’m in love Lydia Michaels so much right now. And like I said before buy every single one of her books right now. 5/5⭐️

Another great Jasper Falls story!

Skylar has just finished her first two years of college and is torn between family obligation and following her dreams. A chance meeting with Rhett, the mayor of their small town, opens up another opportunity. Sparks quickly fly between Skylar and Rhett and a bond is forged with his daughter. This book is well written, taking you through Jasper Falls during the holiday season. It’s the perfect setting for a heartwarming romance story. The narrator of the audiobook sounded older than I expected, but the story isn’t written from the point of view of 21 year old Skylar. Lucinda Gainey does a great overall job of reading the women, children, and men’s character lines. This is the first story I have heard with her voice and I’m very impressed.

Blossoming love

I enjoyed this book and thought it was very cute. There is a pretty decent age gap between the characters but it didn’t bother me. I did however have some trouble connecting to the characters in this one as to the characters in the rest of this series. I used to be a nanny and have taught pre-K for 7 years so I was surprised I didn’t have more of a connection to her character. But overall I did think it was a cute story and loved watching her stand up for herself in the end of it all.

I received a free audio for this book and am writing an honest review. I wrote this review willingly.