“Nothing worthwhile is ever without complications.” ― Nora Roberts
Title: It’s Complicated (Tucker Springs #7)
Author: L.A. Witt
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Pages/Word Count: 196 Pages
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Blurb: After their umpteenth breakup, Brad Sweeney and Jeff Hayden are living apart and starting over from scratch. The morning after a promising first date, they’re more optimistic than ever that they can make it work this time . . . until Jeff’s ex-wife and business partner calls to announce she’s pregnant with Jeff’s baby. Brad’s already competing with a demanding business for Jeff’s time. Now there’s a baby on the way, and worse, he’s afraid Jeff is still carrying a torch for the woman who’s carrying his child.
Jeff is desperately trying to keep his life together, but before he can even get his head around the news that he’s going to be a father, his ex announces that she wants to leave Tucker Springs. Now he either has to take over her role at the shop while ferrying the baby back and forth from Denver, or move the business—and himself—with her.
Brad and Jeff knew reconciliation wouldn’t be easy, but they’re rapidly running out of room for compromise. And sooner or later, something has to give.
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Review: Normally I begin my reviews with a short recap of the story, but the blurb truly covered the story well. I have read all of the Tucker Springs books, so I have seen Jeff and Brad here and there throughout the series, and I was excited to read their story. I was curious to get all the details of the pregnancy and when it happened, I also couldn’t wait to see how these three people would work all of this mess out.
I did something that I rarely do before writing a review for a book. I went and read through some other reviews to see what the consensus is around the genre. Some comments I saw I agreed with and some, not so much.
The conception of Jeff’s baby was pretty straight forward, thank goodness. There was no cheating, but it seems a major bone of contention is the lack of a condom. I can see both sides of this argument, but I find myself falling into the “not a big deal” category. These two were married and have remained good friends and business partners since their divorce. I can realistically see them skipping the condom, not a big hang up for me. On the flip side of that, when Jeff resumed sleeping with Brad, he never told Brad about the unprotected sex with the ex and that, in my mind, was a total deal breaker.
Another point of contention for Brad was the fact that he felt Jeff had some unresolved feelings for his ex, and he feared that them having this baby would drive him back into her arms. I believe Ms. Witt did a great job working this point out between the three of them. There was even a very poignant conversation between Brad and Christine about any residual feelings there might have been, and I feel that went a long way to settle Brad’s fears.
There were only two things that really bothered me about this book, but they were pretty big, in my opinion. For most of the book Jeff seemed to be trying to play the poor-pitiful-me part, and that just didn’t wash with me. Jeff made the decision to sleep with his ex without protection. When she turns up pregnant, he seems to be more worried about how this is going to affect him and his business than he is with how Brad and Chris will be affected. One other thing that just drove me crazy was the fact that Jeff actually got mad at Brad for wanting to use a condom after he found out about the sex with the ex. At that point Jeff lost a lot of ground with me, and he just never seemed to gain that ground back.
I find it hard to believe that the three of them would have been able to work out their differences so easily. Out of the three MCs in this story, I felt the worst for Brad. He really tugged hard on my heart strings. I tried to imagine myself in his position, and I have to say I don’t think I could have been even half as understanding as he was. The man really was a freaking saint.
When I read the final chapter of this book, I was not able to buy what the author was selling. Without giving any spoilers, I will just say that not only no, but hell no, would I do what these three did at the end. Overall, this was a good story but not very realistic. I will still read any Tucker Springs books and any other books Ms. Witt writes, but this one just did not do it for me.
You can buy It’s Complicated (Tucker Springs #7) here:
