REVIEW: The Rules of Dating My One-Night Stand by Penelope Ward & Vi Keeland

In The Rules of Dating My One-Night Stand by Penelope Ward & Vi Keeland, Luxury realtor Owen Dawson has recently watched two of his best friends fall in love and settle down. And it makes him wonder why he feels nothing, date after boring date he goes on. That changes in an instant when Owen meets Devyn Marks in a local bar. Their chemistry is irresistible. And their night together is the best thing he can ever remember…right up until Devyn ghosts him the next morning. So, he’s pleasantly surprised to find out Devyn is staying in his apartment building with her potentially delinquent siblings, trying to keep them in line until she can locate her mom. As Owen gets to know Devyn, he decides on two things: he’ll do everything he can to help Devyn and her siblings, and he’s in it for the long haul to win her heart.

“My life is complicated enough without getting involved with someone while I’m out here. I’m only in town for a short time.”
“Okay. I get it.”
“Do you really?”
“Sure.” I leaned in to kiss her cheek and winked. “But it won’t stop me from trying.”

Devyn high-tailed it to NYC from her home in Los Angeles when her fifteen-year-old brother Heath admitted their mom had gone missing. Again. And that he and his younger sister Hannah didn’t have money or food. Something Devyn remembers all too well from her own childhood with their mom Vera. Owen was a lovely distraction when Devyn first arrived in the city, but she doesn’t have the mental bandwidth to start a relationship. If she did, he’d be the first guy she’d choose, though, because he’s seriously everything a woman could want in a guy. And that makes it doubly tough for Devyn when another big issue pops up in her life. Something Owen wants to help her with. But after a lifetime of only being able to rely on herself, she’s not sure she knows how to let someone in completely.

“Thank you for going out of your way to make me happy. I’m not used to that.”
“You deserve to be happy,” he whispered.

A flirty contemporary romance with a bit of a love triangle and heaps of conflicted feelings, THE RULES OF DATING MY ONE-NIGHT STAND is classic Penelope Ward & Vi Keeland all the way.

“I feel like you’re everything that’s been missing in my life, Devyn.”

CW: View Spoiler »Child neglect & abandonment, assault (not detailed). « Hide Spoiler

I’m probably not alone when I say that I love it when the hero falls in love first in a romance. Especially the way Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward wrote Owen’s portion of THE RULES OF DATING MY ONE-NIGHT STAND. From the moment he set eyes on Devyn, he was a goner–particularly after their meet cute and one blissful night together. So, it was an interesting complication that Devyn just happened to be staying in the building Owen co-owned with his best friends, taking care of her teenage siblings after their mom took off on Heath & Hannah (again).

As with the vast majority of Ward & Keeland’s work–this Law of Opposites Attract series included–I instantly liked the main characters and rooted for them to get together the whole time. But boy things were complicated. Between Devyn’s siblings wreaking havoc in the building (some of which was pretty darn funny), their mom being MIA and Devyn having to hunt her down, Devyn’s own issues with trust and feeling unlovable, plus a guy from her recent past being a pest, she had a whole lot on her plate. Thank goodness for Owen and his best friends who became like family for Devyn, Heath, and Hannah through all the chaos.

Owen was such a wonderful guy. He came across as a perma-bachelor in the previous two books in the series, but he was always there for the guys and their significant others. So, it didn’t surprise me when Owen stepped up for Devyn and her siblings, doing anything he could to alleviate some of their worries. As for the romantic part of the story? Owen and Devyn’s chemistry was off the charts every single time they were together. But with her life in such turmoil, she sadly had to put the brakes on pursuing anything with Owen for some time. It all worked out the way it should have by the end–it even had a Guardian Angel Ryan moment *sniff sniff*–and their hard-won HEA was all the more poignant because of Devyn and Owen’s journey to get there.

QOTD: Devyn’s teenage siblings pulled some memorable pranks in the building. Have you done any pranks or been on the receiving end?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: November 12th, 2023 | by C. Scott Publishing Corp. | The Law of Opposites Attract #3

From New York Times bestselling authors Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland comes a new standalone romance.

Rule number one for having a one-night stand: Don’t fall for the girl.
After a lengthy dating slump, I finally met someone who sparked my interest.
Well, first the sparks flew when we argued. Later in the evening those sparks ignited into something more.
I was drawn to Devyn, in a way I hadn’t felt in a really long time.
Needless to say, I was disappointed when she abruptly left after our amazing night together.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her. But she hadn’t even given me her number.
In a city with eight-million people, I figured I’d never see Devyn again.
So imagine my surprise when I knocked on the door of an apartment in the building I lived in, and none other than my one-night stand stood on the other side.
If I thought Devyn didn’t want anything to do with me before, that was nothing compared to how she felt after finding out I was the landlord, and she was about to be evicted…
And that was just the first surprise that would rock my world when it came to the mystery woman in apartment 410.