Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

but Chelsea Curto (March 19, 2024) A huge thank you to @authorchelseacurto for the ARC of her newest book. Below is my honest review!

It makes me so happy when an author creates a world that you want to keep returning to, one that is bigger than the main characters of an individual book. Chelsea has done that with her Through a Lens series, of which Behind the Camera is the third book.

Dallas, single dad and kicker for the DC Titans, is about to hang up his cleats. With four-year-old June at home and a string of nannies more interested in him than her, he doesn’t know how to be at the top of his game and present for his daughter. That is until Maven, the team photographer and his coach’s goddaughter, offers to help. Although his coach gives him the “touch her and die” speech and the team has a strict no-dating-coworkers policy, it is all irrelevant. He just needs help. As it turns out, Maven is a wonder with June, and as the stress of doing everything alone fades, Dallas begins to rediscover joy. Thanks largely to Maven and the unique friendship they forge, characterized by their shared sense of humor and mutual support. As they spend more and more time together, they both begin to realize their important role for each other, and it starts to feel like family. As the season progresses, they find it more and more difficult to deny their attraction to each other, but is their attraction worth risking their careers?

Dallas and Maven were each introduced in previous books, and I love how their story brings the previous books closer together. Although this book could be read stand-alone, reading the first two will add a lot to the experience. Although this is an age-gap, nanny-to-lover story, you never feel a power imbalance between the characters. They both have had life events that have caused them to abruptly re-assess their future and bond over the emotional challenges that stem from those experiences. There is so much heart in this book – not just with Dallas and Mae, but their friends and families are all important characters (many of whom will reappear in future books). This story is full of some of the best tropes and micro tropes. It is a sweet and VERY spicy book that will definitely make you smile.