More than the usual friend with benefits – plot!

Synopsis

Could Mr Right-Now actually be Mr Right?

Lexie Whittle thought she had life all sewn up, with a gorgeous husband, a beautiful home, and an utterly delightful teenage stepson. Until husband Daryl announced he was leaving to work overseas… and everything changed.

A year later, Daryl and Lexie’s marriage is practically over. Lexie is fighting to stay on top of the bills, juggling her job at the Blue Parrot 1940s cafe in Leyholme with being mum and dad to Connor in Daryl’s absence.

The only thing keeping her sane is the support she gets from Connor’s godfather: Theo Blake, Daryl’s former business partner. Theo might be a jack-the-lad, drifting from one woman to another, but Lexie knows she and Connor can always depend on him in times of need.

After one too many glasses of wine leads to them falling into bed together, Lexie and Theo begin a friends-with-benefits relationship. It starts as just sex, but it doesn’t take long for deeper feelings to develop.

But when Daryl returns, Lexie is faced with some difficult decisions. Will she be forced to choose between her love for Theo and the boy she sees as a son?

My review

Lexie Whittle’s marriage didn’t exactly go as planned. After marrying Daryl she thought she had found the love of her life, but Daryl came with a past…
So it’s not a big surprise that when Daryl had the opportunity to work overseas and just went, the marriage is over.
But nothing is as easy as it seems. Because now Lexie is taking care of Connor, Daryl’s son she loves more than everything on the whole world. But also the bills just keep coming and she is truly fighting to keep all the balls juggling.

Luckily she can truly count on Connor’s godfather, Theo Blake. Despite his reputation of going from one woman to another and being very laidback, Theo is always there for Lexie and Connor, even if it means having awkward conversations with a teenage boy!

When Lexie and Theo have an evening with too many drinks and predictable results, they decide to continue with this friends – with – benefits relationship.
But can they keep it truly just a physical thing? And when Daryl returns out of the blue, what will this mean for not only Lexie and Theo, but also Connor?

Just wow… I cannot explain what this story did to me. It was totally not what I expected it to be, but yet it managed to touch my heart!

Lexie is on the verge of a divorce from, let’s be honest, a man I truly disliked… And that is not something she deserved… she truly loved Daryl, and even is just being a stepmother, she loves Connor like he was her own child.
And how she is struggling to just not let everything fall apart, is both admirable and sad…
Despite how Daryl is behaving towards her and Connor, she makes sure that the tiny bond there is between father and son, is still there.  And this shows just how much she cares about Connor, always putting his needs as a first priority.

Luckily she has Theo. He was a real surprise for me, because he also has his heart at the right place. No matter what he is doing, no matter who he is dating at the moment, whenever Lexie calls, he drops everything to offer his help.
Even if he used to be best friends with Daryl and it all ended ugly, he is there for Lexie and Connor, because they are also victims…

And when they decide to take their friendship to another level, it’s obvious what will happen. And to add more drama, when Daryl reappears, hell will break loose.
Even if at some point I somehow understood Daryl his motivations, his actions were totally wrong. And the true victim is Connor. Daryl is someone I would never truly like. I think I would accept him but we would never become friends…

Even if we have the story of Lexie and Theo, for me the real hero of this story is Connor. Being a teenager, with an absent father, is already a struggle. But then what he is going through, oh my God, it just broke my heart!
Yet he comes to learn that he has caring friends and caring ‘parents’ in Lexie and Theo.
Also him being a ‘geek’, made him even more adorable in my eyes, even if I am totally oblivious in the world of games, Comic Cons etc. But I was happy he had a thing he could truly enjoy and having friends just like him, accepting all the ‘geekiness’!

But this was not a story about friends falling in love. Because if it was, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with it that easily.
This story shows that family is not always what we see as a ‘normal’ family. It’s not because there is no blood connection with people, that a family cannot be made.
Lexie shows this on several occasions, because she is ready to fight for Connor like a lioness. And also Theo is more a father to Connor than Daryl.

The author managed to combine several hot topics in one story, without making a mishmash full of a bunch of nothing.
Every aspect of the story fits perfectly in the greater picture making it impossible for me as a reader to put the book away.
This story captured my heart and definitely deserves all the 5 starts and even more!