Boy Toy by Sarina Bowen & Tanya Eby

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: Boy Toy
Author: Sarina Bowen, Tanya Eby
Series: Man Hands #3
Published by: Indie
Release Date: August 14, 2018
Format: eARC
Pages: 451
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Comedy
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Finishing the Series Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Big Summer Birthday Bash 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

A brand new romantic comedy from your favorite snort-laughing duo!

Liam

The moment Sadie Matthews walks through the daycare center door, I feel my world tilt in her direction. Again. I fell for her when I was fourteen, and I'm still not over her. Problem: she still thinks of me as a teen she used to babysit. But I've learned a few things about pleasing a woman in the last fifteen years. I can't wait to show her how good it could be. I need to move quickly before I lose her again. This is more than a game to me, but I still plan to win.

Sadie

I've just survived the worst year of my life. As a single mom of twin toddlers, I don't have time for a man. I barely have time to finish a thought. Who knew that Liam McAllister would grow up to be so devastating? He's everything my husband was not: tall, built, and willing to have a tea party with my girls.

I can't possibly get involved with him. He's too young for me. Too handsome. But he's so persuasive...

My Review:

I received a free copy through the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4 stars — OK, this was a totally adorable conclusion to the Man Hands series.  Which, don’t get me wrong…you don’t need to read the previous two books to enjoy this one at all.  But given the glimpses of Brynn & Tom and Ash & Braht that we got, I have no doubt newbies will want to go read them as well.

I seriously loved so much about this story, I was completely sucked in and it made me excited to be reading again!  But I will admit there were moments where I felt like something was missing.  Like, occasionally it felt a bit slower, and even repetitive at times (though that might just be in the ARC, could be fixed in the final copy).

Both Sadie and Liam were characters that I mostly loved and adored, but with a few annoyances or reservations.

For example, while I understood Sadie’s reservations on the age difference, I was also annoyed with how long it took her to let that go…not to mention to realize that Liam was nothing like her ex, Decker.  It occasionally made me feel like Liam could do better, you know?  I think I just only understood her insecurities up to a point.  Perhaps I needed a flashback to an actual scene with Decker in the past so I could better feel how much he truly damaged her.  Now saying all that, I really did appreciate Sadie’s struggles in this book: with her own insecurity, with accepting that her girls would have to go to daycare, with missing out on parts of their lives, with dealing with her prick of an ex and the realizations she came to about her first marriage (even if it took a while).  I appreciated that we got to really feel the struggle of a smart, successful woman juggling her career with being a mom.  I rooted for her, I just also lost patience with her.

And then there was Liam.  Liam was a total sweetie, and I loved who he was now and all the things he was passionate about.  On the con side of things, I got strangely tired of the 14 year old Liam references (but that could have been just me…sometimes my humour just doesn’t connect).  It just felt…not quite like him.  Or maybe it didn’t fit the rest of the picture *I* drew in my head of Liam, if that makes any sense.  But on the pro side, as I said, I absolutely ADORED his passion for childhood development, how smart he was, and how much he truly loved and cared about children.  He was so good with them, and I loved that his f’d up childhood led to something so wonderful.  He was just so comfortable in himself and so it made him really easy to love.

I LOVED the chemistry between Sadie and Liam, their first kiss was OMGOMGOMG…but I was also surprised by how many times the steamy scenes were cut short.  It just struck me as odd.  There’s nothing wrong with it, I just noticed it is all.  It’s probably because I was greedy and wanted more.

As I said, I loved the glimpses of Brynn/Tom and Ash/Braht, and particularly being reminded of how much I LOVED the women’s friendship.  They were hilarious together, and I loved seeing such strong friendships.

As I’ve often mentioned in my reviews, I’m not usually a kid person, but Kate and Amy were pretty adorable and definitely added to the story.  Occasionally it felt like the twins were older than their <3 years old…but I also don’t have children, just a 3 year old niece to base that off of.  So I’m chalking that up to my own inexperience.

So that’s my strangely up and down review.  As always, my 4 star rating speaks for itself — these two authors know how to give good romance, great characters with depth, and a heaping helping of giggles to go with it.

NOTE: qualifies for COYER Scavenger Hunt item #74: Read the last book in a series