Reckless Hearts Series, Book 1

January 9, 2017
Even fans of the aggressive, impulsive energy of damaged alpha men, hate-to-love story arcs, and romances centered on the exploits of postmilitary buddies may be turned off by the flip-flop of risk aversion and entitlement around women’s bodies in Van Fleet’s (A Long Time Coming) series starter. Former Marine Collin Montgomery, struggling to raise his late girlfriend’s infant daughter despite the help of his two best friends (both ex-servicemen), is distressed to find that the competent nanny his sister has recommended is Addison Booker, the hot woman who rejected his attentions at a bar. Addison is equally unhappy to learn that her last-ditch job opportunity involves working for the sexy but boundary-ignoring Collin. The three ex-military buddies trade fun, natural banter, but their incompetence when confronted with caring for a baby is unrealistic, and the parallels between Collin’s protective possessiveness of his daughter and his romantic interest in Addison are downright creepy. Awkwardly presented backstories of family heartbreak fail to add character depth while damping the sexual tension. Agent: Stacey Donaghy, Donaghy Literary.

February 1, 2017
An ex-Marine raising his daughter with the help of his two best friends meets the perfect nanny for his daughter, but when their mutual attraction creates tension in their business relationship, he's not sure how to handle it.Collin Montgomery didn't expect to leave the Marine Corps to raise his infant daughter, Chloe, but after his girlfriend dies in an accident, he's left with little choice and is grateful when his two Marine buddies Max and Gavin come with him to help. Their odd work schedules make it hard to have someone on call all the time, especially after Collin's sister, Lia, gets a new job that leaves her unable to fill the gaps. Lia introduces him to Addison, a currently unemployed preschool teacher who'd make a perfect nanny. Unfortunately Addison and Collin have already met at a bar, a meeting that was out of character for both of them and left them with really bad first impressions, so their ability to form a positive working relationship is in question and is hindered further by a smoldering yet unwelcome attraction. But when her desperation for a job matches his desperation for child care, they meet in the middle, learn to respect each other, and then become a couple--but they are continually burdened by their insecurities and personal wounds. Debut author Van Fleet starts with an interesting concept, "Three Marines and a Baby," and creates a set of characters who should be sexy and just flawed enough to make readers root for them but instead makes them immature, annoying, and so incapable of communicating in even the simplest ways that one wonders why they care about each other, much less why the reader should care about them. There's way too much fighting, jealousy, and misunderstandings that could be easily untangled if the characters would simply talk to each other; in other words, too much of the wrong kind of conflict to sustain a novel. A disappointing effort.

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