Review: Cutie and the Beast by M.E. Carter

Cutie and the Beast by M.E. Carter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the 3rd installment of the Cipher Office series, but it reads as a standalone.  We meet the main character in [book:Weight Expectations|51558050] and [book:Sticking to the Script|52973190] is unrelated to this story completely.  You don't have to have read either of the previous books in the series in order to jump right in to Abel's story.  Abel is a single dad and personal trainer at a local gym.  He is still trying to pick up the pieces after  a run of back luck.  His wife left him and their daughter a bit abruptly, a fire took out the original gym he worked at and he's slowly building back his clientele, his 8 year old is a handful, and like most parents he's just trying to keep it all together.  Elliott is a similar situation, she's a single mom, also recently divorced, trying to find a job and a new place to live before she ruins her relationship with her mother.  When she lands a job as the new child care manager at Abel's gym, someone recommends she check out Abel's room for rent.  It seems like a great opportunity for both of them.  They can help each other out with their daughters, rent, housework.  Abel and Elliott have very different parenting styles, and raising two daughters is hard enough when you are on the same page.  When they realize they have feelings for each other things get even more complicated when the girls and the co-parents get involved.

This was really cute.  I loved Abel in Weight Expectations and I'm glad he got to play a starring role in this book.  I really liked that we had two older characters with kids as main characters.  I'm happily married with two kids of my own, and my husband and I don't always see eye to eye on what to do with the kids.  We have to talk it out until we come to some sort of common ground about things.  This brings up good discussion on what a real relationship looks like.  It takes work, especially when kids are involved.  It also portrays children in a very realistic light, they don't always do what you tell them and they have thoughts, opinions, and emotions just like adults.  You have to remember to ask them about what they think and what they feel in difficult situations.

I were a few opportunities for social issues to be discussed, but I felt they were kind of just glossed over.  I wanted them to be discussed or handled in more depth.  That's just my opinion though.  There were other issues that were handled really well and the discussions were really great!  I won't give examples as they might be spoilers.  Overall, I really enjoyed the characters.  I thought their romance, while it developed slowly from a friendship to something more was really sweet.  This isn't the steamiest of steamy romances if that is what you are looking for.  The characters have good banter and a great friendship, but if you are looking for some great bedroom scenes this doesn't actually have that many.


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