Smooth Moves

March 15, 2019
Cash Griffith is navigating a lot of complicated emotions, so getting involved with a bold, sexy co-worker might be a bad idea since she's juggling a few stressors of her own.After losing his mother and watching his brother fall in love, Cash feels slightly lost. He knows getting involved with anyone right now is a bad idea, especially someone who works with him at the moving company he partially owns with his brother and cousin. Yet Jordan, the "sexy ex-Army MP," gets to him: "Just being around her heated his blood." When Jordan asks for help with her struggling teenage brother, he agrees to step in. Suddenly the two feel like partners, which gives them the courage to face a variety of challenges. Plus they can't keep their hands off each other. Jordan isn't used to someone fighting her battles, and Cash is convinced he doesn't deserve the fierce, beautiful warrior. Their feelings for each other are powerful, but overcoming a lifetime of independence and admitting to vulnerability are different kinds of conflicts. In an age of billionaire romances, prolific author Harte (Contract Signed, 2019, etc.) has staked a claim in the blue-collar realm and made herself at home. Her Movin' On series (The Whole Package, 2019) is another creative canvas on which to draw characters who fight to balance power, attachment, uncertainty, and tenderness. In Book 2, Cash and Jordan confront everyday obstacles as well as dangerous events, so the plot moves apace, but seemingly lifelong conflicts feel too easily resolved, and the time it takes Cash and Jordan to admit to themselves they're in love versus when they tell each other seems too long, dulling the tension.Harte blends action, heat, and emotion in mostly satisfying ways.

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