Sunny Shelly’s Review: My Beautiful Neighbor, by Piper Rayne

Piper Rayne kicks off a new family series with My Beautiful Neighbor. Bar owner Cade is inexplicably drawn to Presley, the new girl in town. She’s arrived to settle a family matter, and ends up taking over the space next door to the bar, where Cade and his brother hoped to expand their business. He should see Presley as a rival, but all he sees is the pretty new girl he wants to get to know better.

There’s much more to the story, of course, because Cade and Presley start a no-strings fling and soon both catch feelings. She wasn’t looking for a relationship — she’s setting up a new business, dealing with a family issue and completely uprooted her life as a result. And Cade is kind of a commitaphobe who is afraid to get attached to people and be left behind, a scar he carries from his mom’s death when he was a kid. But the friends with benefits relationship they embark on soon turns more serious than either of them expect — but will Cade let his fears cause him to make a mistake he’ll always regret?

There’s a nice story arc with Cade and Presley’s relationship, and I loved the scene where she stands up for herself after he ghosts her! She was not about to let him walk all over her! There’s great growth on Cade’s side as he comes to terms with how he’s treated her and he grapples to deal with his demons.

The constant clarification of who is a stepbrother or stepsister kind of irked me after a while. It’s clear that this is a big blended family, and we are supposed to believe that they get along well, for the most part. I found the constant “step” annoying after a while, and didn’t think that it was necessary to draw attention to that as often as it was.

If you read the Bailey series, you know all about that family’s G’ma Dori and how she played matchmaker for her grandkids. Now Dori is giving her pal Ethel a hand in marrying off Ethel’s group of 10 blended grandkids. These two ladies and their friends at the retirement village are a hoot! That charades game that Cade and Presley get sucked into was hysterical! There are a few cameos by some of the Bailey kids, which was a nice wink for readers that know that series, but the Greenes are a group all of their own. I can’t wait to see what comes next in this series… especially Adam’s estranged wife having amnesia?? Holy moly! There is a free prequel novella setting up this series about how Hank and Marla got together, which is definitely worth checking out for the backstory.

I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.