THE CHANGE UP

THE CHANGE UP                  ELLEY ARDEN

Commercial real estate mogul Rachel Reed followed her workaholic father's footsteps to success, so when he's diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she vows to rise to the occasion. She'll help her father get the Arlington Aces independent professional baseball team up and running, then sell the franchise off to recoup their investment. It's a tall order, but Rachel knows one thing for sure: a few acres of trees aren't going to stand in her way of building the facility they need.

Landscaper Sam Sutter is surprised to find his brother's high school girlfriend lurking in the woods behind his secluded log house. This former minor leaguer's even more upset to learn "his" trees are on her chopping block. There's no way he'll help her erect a painful reminder to his failed career in his backyard. But butting heads with the beautiful businesswoman proves to be a tricky task, and before long, he finds himself heading up the grounds keeping crew at her father's stadium.

Working under Rachel's watchful - smoldering - eyes might be Sam's undoing. Can he cut into her plans without felling their chances at a home run in love?

Sensuality Level: Sensual

MY REVIEW;

     We all want to make our parents proud but at what cost and to what extent?  That was the question in the end for both Sam Sutter and Rachel Reed.  Yet, under very different circumstance. 

     You see Rachel grew up as the oldest of two children to a father who on several occasions made no bones that he had wished he had a son to share in the male gender bonding moments.  Always making Rachel feel less than but all the more determined to prove herself to him.  Not to mention her parents had definite rolls in the family.  Her mom: homemaker and care take, dad: was the traveled on business and carried all the money and that’s what she wanted to be like, her dad.

     Yet, instead of becoming her own person over time and thinking outside the box she stayed his puppet.  No more than someone who followed his directives.  Don’t get me wrong she was good at what she did at second in charge.  She was trained by the best but really a robot could be programed too.  Is that really what she wanted?  So when her parents walked into her office to give her not only a professional blow but a personal one she is reeling.  She should have known something was up when her mom came with her dad she never came to work.  Work was work and home was home to her father.  You see her father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

     Before he is too far gone he gives her power of attorney to do the things needing done including at least 30 pages of items.  One big one selling the baseball team in their hometown she never wanted her dad to buy in the first place.  Which means not only getting the new stadium ready (an old college refurbished) but hiring all of the staff from the front office, the stadium, the GM of the team, coaching, and oh yeah the team.  What was her father thinking? 

     Soon after arriving home she has a run in with the same pest, that hadn’t changed, she had when she dated his older brother, Luke.  None other than Sam Sutter.  He was already baulking about the trees they had scheduled to cut down something about them being 200 years old some of them.  Like always he could be a problem.  But she thought but he was sure nice on the eyes.

     Sure enough the next morning her father got a call from the city saying if Sam got some people behind him on it he could get things at the very least delayed on the project while talking to the assistant and friend Liv she came up with a plan.

     You see Sam’s father along with Luke and Sam all owned a landscaping business.  She decided to make his dad an offer he couldn’t refuse in hopes of getting Sam off her back.  She hired them to be the groundskeeper for the stadium.  Sam, he may not have gone to college to go off to play semi pro baseball, but he smelled the Rachel rat that she was and he called her on it.  The thing was their sexy banter did even more, it turned him on.  Messing with Rachel’s head since she was 5 years older for Sam it was like waving a red flag in from of the bull.

     But the job was bringing up old hurts for Sam and he was having old ghost and dreams he couldn’t shake so easy.  And Rachel in a way was a balm or was she? He was about to find out.

     I really enjoyed the banter and the trueness of emotions this couple carried.  I welcomed the frank thoughts of the way Rachel was having to deal with her emotions over her father and his illness.  I give this book 5 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at: www.1rad-readerreviews.com.