CAVEMAN by Jo Raven-a review
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 29, 2017
Matthew Hansen is the kind of handsome that has grown women whispering behind their hands and giggling like schoolgirls. Dark, tall and mysterious, he’s a newcomer to our little town. He’s a gritty, grease-covered mechanic, and a single daddy.
Sweet, right? Plus he’s looking for a nanny – and I am desperately looking for a job.
Sounds like the perfect deal.
Only he’s a jerk. An uncivilized, hulking brute. Zero manners. Zero interest in making me feel welcome in his home. Downright rude. But oh so sexy. And I need the job. I can do this. One thing is for sure: I can’t fall for the Caveman. No matter how sexy he is. How mysterious. How tortured.
That’s the only rule – and one I’m about to break.
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REVIEW: CAVEMAN by Jo Raven is a stand alone, contemporary, new adult to adult, erotic, romantic suspense story line focusing on thirty year old auto mechanic and single father Matthew Hansen, and eighteen year old Octavia Watson. Although a stand alone, the leading hero Matthew Hansen was first introduced as Zane’s brother-in-law in the author’s Inked Brotherhood series.
Told from dual first person points of view (Matt and Octavia) CAVEMAN follows the acrimonious relationship between single father of two Matt Hansen, and his new nanny Octavia Watson. Matt is in desperate need of childcare but his antagonistic and acerbic personality all but screams serial killer and psychotic beast. Octavia longs to attend college but her family’s lack of income and her mother’s less than stellar small town reputation forces our heroine to look for any job that will help pay the bills. Enter Matt Hansen, mechanic, single father, and uncivilized jerk who reluctantly allows Octavia Watson to care for his kids. But someone is threatening everyone Matt loves, including the woman who now calls to his heart, and the threats are becoming more personal and dangerous as his relationship with Octavia grows. What ensues is the building relationship between Matt and Octavia, and the alarming threats against the Hansen’s family.
The relationship between Matt and Octavia begins as a reluctant business arrangement. Matt isn’t happy about the sexy, new nanny: she’s too young, too beautiful and calls to everything Matt has buried since the death of his wife. Matt is an angry, antagonistic, hostile male who believes he has failed as a husband and a father. His attraction to Octavia finds Matt pushing at the boundaries of both their professional arrangement, and the older man-younger woman scenario. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense.
There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including Octavia’s sister Augusta, and her brother Mercury, as well as their long-suffering mother; Matt’s children Mary and Cole; and an assortment of co-workers who treat Olivia with too much disdain. The requisite evil, of whom I deduced early on, is set on revenge targeting Olivia and the children, in the process.
The world building focuses on the small town of Destiny, Missouri; the town gossip, the rumors, the lowlife and the scum. Matthew Hansen’s appearance becomes fodder for the meddling neighbors; Octavia’s relationship with Matt is targeted by someone from the past.
I did have some issues with the quick resolution to the story line conflict: too fast, too few details, and too easily deduced. There were also several unanswered questions, or at the very least, too many loose ends without follow up or resolution. And Matthew’s ongoing pining for the loss of his wife would have sent most women running the other direction. Like the heroine, the reader will have to look past the angry and broken façade to know there is a broken heart and wounded soul desperate for love.
CAVEMAN is slow to build because of the acrimonious relationship between the leading couple. Matt’s anger and emotional attitude is disheartening but somewhat understandable-everyone handles grief differently and in their own time. The premise is heartbreaking, suspenseful and impassioned; the romance is flawed, edgy and energetic; the characters are tragic and colorful; the secondary characters are destructive and damaged. CAVEMAN is an emotional story line, a small town romance between two people whose lives will collide when the past comes back looking for revenge.
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Reviewed by Sandy
ustin: My first book cover (Romance Novel) was ‘Wicked’ by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I don’t recall the first publication, or magazine. I’ve been in many more fashion and commercial publications than I have Romance novel covers.
TRC: On what on your currently working?
Jewel is a free-spirited romance junkie with a quirky sense of humor.