REVIEW: Playing With Trouble by Joya Ryan

Playing With Trouble (Desire Bay #1) by Joya Ryan is a sweet, sexy story about coming home, finding love where you least expect it, finding acceptance, forgiving yourself and finding your place. This is the story of Jake and Laura.

Laura Baughman has spent her entire life running. After her mother died when she was in high school, the first man to turn her head she latched onto and in the process lost herself along the way. After a marriage where she was belittled, berated, and hung out to dry, she is now divorced and back home in Yachats, Oregon to revive her mothers flower shop and to try and make something of her life. But that might be hard to do when she arrives and finds that not only is the once beautiful flower shop is not open, but her father has turned it into a HUGH Home Goods story. Complete with Jake Lock, one time geek, but now, he is hotter than anything. Laura knows that she is in BIG trouble.

Jacob Lock has helped build something lasting here. Wanting nothing more than to take over the Home Goods business when Mr. Baughman retires, he has made something of himself. What he did not count on was Laura showing up looking like a drown rat and still as HOT as he remembered. He had it bad for Laura when they were in high school, but the band geek and the cheerleader were worlds apart.

When Mr. Baughman gives Jake and Laura 1 month to see who can run the business and make a go of things, the one that does things the best will run the entire business. Laura and Jake need to learn to work together, but when Jake starts making decisions, only trying to help Laura, and she gets wind of it, she wants nothing but to run, now Jake will need to pull out all the stops to show Laura that she was meant to be here in Yachats, with him.

I loved the push pull between Jake and Laura. They were snarky, they were caring, and they really worried about each other. I loved how Jake really wanted Laura to succeed, and although he did go about it the wrong way, he did everything in his power to make sure that she did succeed at the flower shop. I love how Laura felt like she had something to prove to herself and to everyone else. She only wanted to make it on her own. I love that she wanted to learn about the Home Goods business, I love that she was worried that she did not know enough and might hurt her father and Jake because she did not understand the Home Goods business. But the best thing about this story is that the both tried. They tried for each other and in the end, the HEA was as sweet at the prettiest flowers in the shop.
 

Book Info:

Publication: March 21st 2017 | Montlake Romance | Desire Bay #1

Recently divorced, Laura Baughman is taking her life back. After a decade away, she’s returning to Yachats, Oregon—the small town she couldn’t wait to leave after graduation—to take over her late mother’s beloved flower shop. Yet once she arrives, Laura discovers the store has been neglected and her father has partnered in construction with Jake Lock. The once-scrawny high school band geek is now successful—and irresistibly sexy—and set to inherit her family’s business. That is, unless Laura can prove in the next thirty days that she has what it takes to run the company.

Despite the heat between Jake and Laura, romance is out of the question. After her last disastrous relationship, Laura has sworn off men—especially one bent on crushing her dreams. That’s just fine with Jake, who thinks the gorgeous blonde is a pain in the neck…though admittedly one he’d like to put his lips all over.

Jake has a proposal to mix business with pleasure. But when a deal goes south, Laura is ready to pack up and skip town all over again. Does he have what it takes to convince her to stay?