Title: Facing West (Forever Wilde: Book One)
Author: Lucy Lennox
Publisher: Self-Published/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 300 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: Oh my! The chemistry between these two, from hate to love to everything in between, is freaking off-the-charts!
Reviewed By: Carrie
Blurb: Nico: I left my family and tiny Texas hometown fifteen years ago to escape small-town gossips and to give my mom and sister the chance at a better life. But when a phone call from an attorney back home informs me that my sister passed away, leaving me custody of her newborn baby, I’m shocked out of the steady life I’ve built for myself running a tattoo shop in San Francisco.
The thing is: I don’t do babies. And I don’t do small towns. Or commitment. And I especially don’t do family. My plan is to go back to Hobie just long enough to sign adoption papers, giving my niece the kind of stable, loving family I could never provide.
But the moment I meet my niece in the arms of Weston Wilde, my sister’s best friend and the town’s handsome doctor, my plans begin to change. Because suddenly, I see a different future. One with the very thing I thought I never deserved: a family. If only I can convince West that I’m not the same good-for-nothing kid ready to bolt when things get tough.
Weston: There’s one thing I know for sure about Nico Salerno: he was a good-for-nothing as a kid and judging by the purple-haired, tattoo’d punk who shows up at his sister’s funeral, he hasn’t changed. There’s no way I’m letting him take custody of my best friend’s baby.
But the more time I spend around him, the more I realize that his rough exterior is just a shell and that beneath all the tattoos is a scared, insecure man searching for a place to belong. And pretty soon I know exactly where he belongs: in my bed and by my side.
The problem is, he abandoned his family once before, how do I know that if we become a family he won’t do it again?
Review: Facing West is the first book in a new spinoff series from Lennox’s Made Marian series. Once again she has created a world of sexy men who all need someone to love, and someone to love them. If you were a fan of that series, then this one will be right up your alley. I really felt like the Made Marians got better as they progressed, and now, with this new series, Lennox has hit her stride and it is a pleasure to read and experience. The crossover in this first book is Nico, whom we met in Grounding Griffin. Nico is Griffin’s best friend, and lived with him on the streets. I loved Nico in that book, and I am so glad Lennox decided to start with him as the segue into this new series.
Nico breaks your heart. Faced with an untenable situation when he was fifteen, he made the only decision he thought was viable at the time and left home so that his mother and sister could, in his eyes, have a better life. He’s taken a winding road to get to where he’s at, and frankly, he makes your heart hurt. It’s Nico’s stoicism in dealing with the tragedies in his life, and a sense of coming full circle with life dumping him in the same kind of situation he had before, where once again people’s lives would be so much better off if he’s not around. He’s made something of himself in spite of the choices he made when he was fifteen. He owns his own tattoo parlor and it’s a success. He has good friends and is an honorary member of the Marian family. He has everything he needs…doesn’t he? What makes Nico so relatable is that he hasn’t lost his sense of humor, that with all life has thrown him he is still vulnerable and somewhat self-effacing.
West Wilde is part of the Wilde clan. You can’t spit in Hobie, Texas without hitting a Wilde. West is the town doctor. He has a strong sense of pride in his town, in his family, and in his service to the community. He has a caring and protective streak which runs a mile wide with the people he considers “his”. When a purple-and-blue-haired dude covered in tattoos shows up at the funeral of his friend Adrianna, who was a patient he got to know when she was in labor with a beautiful baby girl, well, West’s instincts scream at him to protect the baby at all costs. And that cost is Nico. But sometimes, especially in a small town, what you think you know about someone is not always the truth. And learning that truth is paramount to knowing that person. West has to get over himself and knock the chip off his shoulder to see the person Nico is, underneath, to see the sacrifices Nico has made and the cost Nico has had to pay for his selfless decisions.
Oh my! The chemistry between these two, from hate to love to everything in between, is freaking off-the-charts! Nico and West’s road isn’t a straight one; there is no insta-love here. Lennox creates believable, real world scenarios in her books, and every question you think up, she answers in the dialogue. You WANT these two men to work it out because Nico NEEDS someone to be a champion for him for once. And when West turns all of his love and attention on Nico and really sees the man, whew! ::fans self::
But with Nico? I didn’t want to give, I wanted to assault. I didn’t want to take, I wanted to command. My muscles thrummed with the need to overtake him. To grab his shoulders and force him to his knees in service of my raging hard-on. My teeth wanted to bite and nip every last inch of him, and my tongue wanted to slide into places on Nico’s body I’d never even laid eyes on before.
I didn’t want to sleep with the man.
I wanted to own him.
I am soooo looking forward to Felix’s story. Frankly, the setup for it was the perfect hook with a nerdy bookworm who has mommy issues, and a possible Scottish hunk. This book cannot get here fast enough!
Yes, I recommend Facing West; isn’t it obvious? It’s got a feisty rainbow brite of a guy mixed with a hunky cowboy doctor guy who each truly learn to see the other and fall in love.
You can buy Facing West here:
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