Book: Just Like That by Lena Hendrix
Reviewed by Anonymous
Rating: 5/5
Hazel has always been a bit of a free spirit nomad that never expected to be named the guardian to her seven year old nephew, Teddy. But when her sister dies, both of their worlds are turned upside down and pushes them to spend time together in person vs over FaceTime like they have the first few years of his life. Hazel is a social media influencer that went viral when she decided to work on covering the conversion of her "skoolie," a school bus that she's turned into her mode of transport as well as her home, and one of her sister's last wishes was for Hazel to find Teddy's father and give him the opportunity to know him. That father? None other than JP King himself.
JP is the exact opposite of Hazel in every way. He's the tough businessman that rarely smiles, and definitely doesn't have time to deal with the kid who announced to the whole town that JP was his dad. Ready to sign away his parental rights, JP pulls strings to get a court date and make things official. But much to his chagrin, it's not that simple and the court requires a paternity test to confirm he's the father before he can sign away those rights.
The last thing JP needs when trying to keep King Equities afloat is Hazel and Teddy breezing into his life and knocking it off balance. When there's no denying the visual and personality similarities, JP makes an effort to get to know Teddy in the meantime. And that skoolie? Yeah, if Teddy turns out to be JP's kid, there's no way he's having Teddy and his aunt stay in that.
The more time they spend together as a family unit, the more Hazel struggles with the attraction she feels toward her sister Olive's... whatever JP was (one night stand), especially when she starts to see the man below the closed off, icy demeanor.
I was NOT prepared for how much I enjoyed this story, mostly because JP was such a stick in the mud in the first books in the series. Hands down, Just Like That was escalated to my favorite so far, and Teddy just warmed my heart. He was such a quirky little weirdo, it was hard not to fall in love with him. And JP's dirty mouth? Good LORD. Yep, sign me up for more of that please.