Book Review: Only You by Denise Grover Swank

Book Review: Only You (Bachelor Brotherhood #1) by Denise Grover Swank

Rating: 5 Stars

 

Published October 25th 2016 by Forever
Summary: Never say never . . .

Romance isn't an option for Holly Greenwood. With her wedding planner career on the line she needs to stay focused, and that means pleasing her demanding boss, not getting distracted by her mind-alteringly hot neighbor . . .

Ex-Marine Kevin Vandemeer craves normalcy. Instead, he has a broken-down old house in need of a match and some gasoline, a meddling family, and the uncanny ability to attract the world's craziest women. At least that last one he can fix: he and his buddies have made a pact to swear off women, and this includes his sweetly sexy new neighbor.

After one hot night that looks a whole lot like a disaster in the light of day, Kevin and Holly are about to learn that true love doesn't play by the rules...
(from Goodreads)


Review: Only You is the first book of The Bachelor Brotherhood series, but it strongly features characters from the first book in another of Denise Grover Swank’s series, The Substitute (The Wedding Pact #1). While you can definitely read Only You on its own, I strongly recommend reading The Substitute first, both because it gives the reader a better background for Kevin, Megan, and Nicole, and because Only You does have some spoilers for The Substitute.

I was feeling really wishy-washy and picked up three other books as well as starting to watch two movies before I started reading Only You, and then it was like Cinderella’s glass slipper. This was exactly the book I wanted to read, and I didn’t want to put it down. I woke up with my 1 year old at 3 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I actually sat down and read “one more chapter” of this book for an hour and a half before I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any more!

I liked Kevin a lot from The Substitute and was excited to see Megan’s protective ex-marine older brother get his own book. Holly’s character is also adorable as well as being multi-dimensional, and I love her relationship with her grandmother and the plot that revolves around that and her cousin. Nicole drives me batty, just like she did in The Substitute, but even she has her moments. While the timeline was pretty fast-paced, I feel like the leads acknowledge that and it doesn’t require a complete suspension of reality. The story was beautifully and compellingly written, as I’ve come to expect from Ms. Swank, and I’m really looking forward to reading the next two books in the series about Kevin’s buddies Matt and Tyler.