Open Hearts

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Title: Open Hearts
Author: Eva Dangerfield
Publication date: 04/25/2017
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No
Rating: 4 out of 5
 
Amazon blurb
Ash Bennett’s had enough. She’s not wasting any more time longing for Prince Charming and getting stuck with Prince 'Babe, What’s For Dinner?'

If she can’t find a respectable, self-sufficient man to start a family with she’ll just do it by herself. It's better than pinning all your hopes on a guy who's never going to make you happy. Take Dean Sherwood, sure he’s stupid hot but that doesn’t pay the bills or remember to pick you up from the airport. No, they’re just having a little fun until Ash can find a donor. Right?​

If only it was that easy... 

Everyone loves Dean. He’s easygoing, a great footballer and always up for a beer or sixteen. He also has the attention span of a Cocker Spaniel on MDMA, but that’s never been a problem where the opposite sex is concerned. At least it wasn’t until he met Ash. Beautiful, driven and wild in bed; she's all he's ever wanted in a wife. 

Unfortunately, he's far from what she wants in a husband, what with his perpetually empty bank account and inability to cook anything other than bacon. When she tells him he’s not baby-daddy material, Dean vows to become the man she needs, whatever it takes.

My Review
I have to start by saying I liked this book. Because if I don’t say that right up front, you’ll end up thinking I hated it based on the review that is to follow.
 
There were about three times that I almost stopped reading. Why, you ask? Well, it wasn’t the writing. The writing is great. I love the Australian slang, I love the humor, I love the secondary characters, and the hero is pretty damn adorable. What almost made me set my Kindle down (gently, because I adore my Kindle) and add Eva Dangerfield to my list of “never to read again” authors was the heroine, Ashley.
 
I will admit that I started off with a bit of a prejudice against the heroine. I once worked with a quarter-wit little twit named Ashley who I wanted to punch in the throat on a daily basis, so I had to force myself to keep reading and stop sneering every time I read her name. But while I got past my natural aversion to the name fairly quickly, (I apologize to all the nice Ashleys in the world...sorry. It’s not you, it’s me.) I couldn’t get past the way the character acted.
 
Oh, Ashley, how I hated you. Let me count the ways:

• The fact that she considered, even for a moment in the beginning of the book, staying in a relationship with Zach, a mildly abusive asshat, because she wanted a baby immediately turned my stomach. So, you don’t like the guy, you have a crappy relationship, but you’re willing to bring a child into it because of your own selfish desires? Yep. Sounds like mother of the year material to me.​

• The way Ashley used Dean was deplorable. If a hero in a romance novel used a heroine like this, readers would string him up in the reviews. Somehow Ashley manages to get away with it with most readers. Well, not with me she doesn’t. To Ashley I say (see photo at right): 
• I understand Dean’s particular kink and that’s fine, but I also HATED the way Ashley treated Dean outside the bedroom, as if he was unworthy of her time (and unworthy as even a sperm donor) because he wasn’t a wealthy, stodgy old doctor.
• And HOW DARE SHE hold his drunken past public nudity against him when she pretty much admitted that she’d gone through an extended drunken slutty period of her own in her youth? Hypocrite much?
• How about you ask Dean why he doesn’t have much money, Ashley. It’s not because he’s bad with money. It’s because he’s taking care of his sick mom, you judgemental biatch.

​So, what kept me reading, you might ask? Well, pretty much everything BUT Ashley. Here’s all the stuff I loved:

• Dean. What an adorable, sweet-natured, completely selfless hero. I generally prefer alpha heroes, but Dean was so well-written that he won me over almost from the beginning. I found myself wishing I could fix him up with a heroine from another book. But he wanted Ashley, so I kept reading so that I could see him get his happily ever after, even if it was with a heroine that I hated. Sigh.​

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• ​And in the beginning, Dean reminded me so much of Doug from Up that it was almost silly.
  ​(I LOVED Up, folks)
• Max, Dean’s roommate and Ashley’s sister’s boyfriend, was also adorable. His interactions with Dean were hilarious and I loved every minute of them.
• Ashley’s sister was great, too. Funny, smart, cool, quirky, and a little bit messed up, she was a super-interesting, flawed and genuine character.
• The Epilogue was very satisfying, even though I REALLY wished Ashley would’ve groveled a bit (OK, a lot) to get Dean to forgive her for her general asshattery throughout the book.
• The author has an AWESOME sense of humor. Parts of this book are laugh-out-loud funny.

So, Ashley notwithstanding, this was a great read. It would’ve been a 5-star read if I would’ve been able to fix Dean up with a better heroine from another book. But I digress...
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Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s unique enough that it avoids contributing to the stigma.
 
Other reading suggestions
I’m willing to read other books by this author. It’s only a truly gifted author that can make me keep reading when I hate a heroine as much as I hated Ashley. But for other reads about smart, quirky heroines who are very LIKEABLE, I recommend anything by Penny Reid.  For another read about a sweet, adorable man-boy, read Good Boy by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy.

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