UNFILTERED

UNFILTERED                                        LEIGH LENNON

Justine:
I never will get my happy ending. With my past threatening to ruin the possibility of love in my future, I keep every man at arm’s length. Nick appears out of thin air, becoming a part of my life instantly, leaving me breathless and wanting more. The pain that haunts me is still present, but Nick is worth the risk. When he promises me forever; can I trust him?

Nick:
Justine makes me see that a forever is in reach with her. She keeps telling me she is hard to love, yet I find it quite easy. Once I break down her walls, she finally lets me in. But, I have a secret of my own which can expose her to the demons that destroyed me in the past. However, with Justine, I will do anything and everything to make her mine.

MY REVIEW:

     This was a very intense book that keeps you hopping from the very beginning.  There are plenty of funny moments too.  I could relate to the couple in a lot of ways.

     Justine Hernandez is a very brash, shoot from the hip woman.  That when the book opens, she is fighting with her ex Rafe, of eight years.  So, after all this time away from the family thinks he can do a much better job at parenting.  Really, defined to mean, his children’s friend.  I don’t know how his mistress turned young Swiss wife is going to feel about that but I guess their little daughter will have to move right on over and share.

     She doesn’t agree, not when, Rose, seventeen, is having sex and Kai, sixteen, is smoking pot.  Rafe’s solution is taking them to live with him because he doesn’t think a mother should be calling a daughter a floozy and their son a pothead.  Her thought was what does it matter to you when you don’t even bother to call them.

     Let’s just say Rafe knows how to push her buttons and calling her out about just about anything.  As long as it’s not about loving her kids.  So, he ducked just in time when he saw the vase coming toward his head.  She felt betrayed by her kids because it had always been them against the pain of their father since he had always disappointed them with no calls or visits when he said so.  But she would live through this too.

     As she chased Rafe out of her home she realized they were putting on an entertaining show for her new neighbor but she was really just too pissed to care.  Her thought was he needed that she was not a nice person so don’t ever come over and borrow sugar.  That she was just plain old mean.  Which backfires, Nick Wallace likes a woman with spirit and spunk.

     Nick comes over to talk over the porch fence with a white flag so to speak.  She’s there in a blanket and drinking coffee trying to calm down.  He asks if that is coffee in the craft she brought out.  She says yes, so he runs home and gets a cup and a bottle of whiskey.  He says, “May I?”  Then he fills up his glass with both and hers with some whiskey and then a little coffee after he asks if she wants some added.  That was his in.

     It’s the next day when her water main breaks that his real break comes.  Because since he is still unpacking he didn’t go to work.  You see he is in business with his son-in-law Tyler at a veterinary hospital.  Well, when he is outside, waiting for his neighbor to come home he sees a flow of water coming out of the side yard of her house and figures out where it is coming from.

     He calls Tyler to get a phone number of a plumber.  Luckily the one he called she has used before.  He just needed to get her okay to work on it.  He had to call Justine at work.  Since she is an air traffic controller you have no control over or have much power it is.  But it was time well spent because it worked.

     He got permission when she finally got home that night he was attentive to her.  Even said she could shower or whatever she needed at his place.  Which she did since there was no water at her place and they didn’t do the nasty.  They became thick as thieves and are stuck like glue.  This was a funny, loving, well-rounded book.  I give this: 5++++ stars. Provided by author for an honest review.  Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com.