Two lost souls are looking to be accepted and not judged. Evie and Griffin have both done things they are not proud of. Griffin and Evie both want to be accepted despite that. What they don't realize is in order for others to accept and forgive, you have to accept and forgive yourself. As they work through their issues they find love. Cute story. Not one I would normally read. ( )

1.5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

When Evie gets the call that her aunt has broken her leg and needs someone to help take care of her Evie, somewhat, reluctantly journeys back to her hometown. Once there she deals with the old feelings of not belonging, friction with her cousin, and surprising rekindled desire for former bad boy Griff who is now the town sheriff. Griff has worked hard to turn his image around and when Evie breezes back into town he has to decide if his growing feelings for the good girl turned Vegas showgirl and current sex toy seller are worth possibly losing the reelection for town sheriff.

Toying With His Affections falls more into the women's fiction category as the story mainly centers on Evie dealing with life and family relationship issues; her romance with Griff is almost a side note, not increasing in importance until more toward the ending. As Evie spends more time with her aunt and cousin it gets revealed that Evie was such a goody two shoes because she thought if she misbehaved they would give her up while Evie's cousin Candace ended up feeling inferior because of how perfect Evie was. These three women's relationships get ruffled and smoothed out as their hidden insecurities get revealed. Evie's reputation as a scandalous show girl is mostly made bigger in her own mind but as she settles more into the town she begins to develop a feeling of belonging.

As I said, Evie's relationship with Griff doesn't really become front and center until the end. For most of the book they don't really spend a lot of time together, they go together to church on Sundays and have little twenty minute or so greet and meets. I'm not really sure why they suddenly couldn't seem to keep away from each other, it mostly felt like hey you're good looking and you keep showing up at my door and I had a crush on you in high school. Evie and Griff didn't have the spark that usually draws me to romantic characters. If looking for more of a woman coming to terms and finally resolving old hurts and issues with her family then this solidly deals with those themes.
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