4.5 stars

I am not what one would consider a girly-girl. Never really have been. I didn’t have Barbies and didn’t really want them. I enjoyed playing with my cousin’s once in a while, but usually I preferred my stuffed animals or (even better) my Tonka trucks. Pink is my least favorite color, followed closely by purple. I never went through a Disney Princess phase like many young girls, but I have always absolutely loved Disney movies. Still, I was surprised by how much Charlotte’s fantastical dreams caught my attention. It’s almost as if she’s the anti-me, but I guess at heart all (most) women are still suckers for the fairytale.

What better hero to make a heroine’s fairytale come true than one of the Braden boys? Beau is all you would expect from the men in that family. Rough, rugged, protective, gorgeous, kind, loving, and all smooshy on the inside. It’s partly due to his sense of honor and his protective nature that he carries such a huge burden of guilt about the death of his first love. Charlotte is so wonderful with slowly bringing Beau out of his self-imposed exile from real love without being pushy.

Charlotte has all but given up on love and sequesters herself up in her family’s old inn to write by herself day in and day out. Rarely does she venture into town or have much human interaction beside the phone calls to her best gal pals. How can any real life man measure up to the fantasies she creates in her erotic fiction writing? How can any relationship live up to those she saw between her parents and grandparents? Beau is the perfect foil for her self-imposed ban on relationships because he understands her need to write and immerse herself in her fictional world, but he’s also able to show her that real life can be just as fantastic, if not even better, than her stories.

See my full review at https://allingoodtimeblog.wordpress.com/2018/07/12/anything-for-love-book-review/