Her Kind of Trouble by Sarah Mayberry

So last time I read a Sarah Mayberry book I said that  wasn’t jumping on the Mayberry bandwagon again. I appreciated the adultness of the interactions, I liked the characters honesty with each other, but there were some aspects that didn’t thrill me. The same things are true of Her Kind of Trouble. I really appreciate that the hero and heroine are  honest with each other. For the entirety of the book they act like actual adults and never play guessing games.  That said, I had some issues with the actual plot.

Here’s the blurb:

 

It takes one to know one

The moment Vivian Walker spies Seth Anderson she knows they're a match made in hedonistic pleasure. And everything that happens between them proves her right. Even better, they both agree their one night together is all they'll share.

Now, years later, Seth remains one of Vivian's favorite memories. Surely the sizzling chemistry has faded, though, right? Apparently not. Because when she sees him again he's still sinfully attractive. More than that, she actually likes the man he is. When Seth suddenly becomes a full-time dad to a newborn, Vivian falls hard. Despite the changes, however, she knows Seth will never settle down. And he will definitely never commit to one woman. So she needs to strengthen her defenses before she gets into real trouble!

 

My thoughts: Vivian and Seth are both really terrific characters. They are full-fledged adults with no hangups. They aren’t distrustful by nature or scared of relationships and neither have been horribly burned by the past. They both know that starting a relationship with each other is a very bad idea, because as it turns out their siblings are married to each other. They’ll be seeing each other at every family event for the next 50 years. For the last ten years they have had a terrific relationship of flirting around each other and knowing it’s going nowhere.  When Viv finds out that Seth is expecting a baby with an ex-girlfriend, she’s prepared to give him hell for it.  No one is expecting the baby’s mother to be involved in a horrible accident and Seth to get immediate and full custody of a newborn.

This is where my problem lies.  (And it’s really hard to explain without spoilers, I’m sorry!) The setup itself- a really great attraction between two really great people- is light and fun and the seriousness of the situation with Lola (the baby’s mother) is in direct contrast. I assume that Mayberry was trying to show the serious side of Seth  and Vivian and she does a great job of it, but it’s so hard to read about. Seth is really a standup guy. He does a million thoughtful things for everyone around him during a time that is both full of joy and sadness and the author does a  wonderful job of making me fall in love with him a little myself, but the entire time I was reading I couldn’t keep thinking of this poor woman whose real time tragedy was being used a  plot devise.  Usually when someone dies in a romance novel it’s something in the past, but in this one it’s a central theme of the book. Granted, she was a minor character, we never even actually meet her, but it was very uncomfortable for me to read about it.

Final Verdict: I’ve decided that Mayberry writes terrific characters, and the romances are well done, but I think the surrounding plots are maybe just a little two uncomfortable for me. I don’t always need things nice and easy, but I didn’t like the discord of killing this poor woman off so Seth could be the hero.