Blind Date Bet

Isabella Knowles is the daughter of a military man and the widow of a military man, she has vowed never to date a man in the military. But then not only does she run into Ethan Masters when he is evacuating a shopping centre but her father dares her to go on a date with a military man who turns out to be none other than Ethan Masters. Despite their obvious attraction to one another Isabella keeps pulling away as everything Ethan does triggers a deep rooted fear. Can she learn to love again? Oh dear, where do I start? First, I think the cover is a misdirect because although Ethan is a K9 handler we never get to see him at work frankly I think we only see his dog Sam once and that was in a social situation where he didn't do anything. Secondly, we saw nothing about Ethan's career, we hear "he got deployed", "he was on a training exercise" but nothing more, other of course than how sad he is being away from Izzy yadda yadda. Honestly he could have been a used car salesman or a hockey player for all the story we got about his career. Third, Isabella was frankly irritating, she yo-yo'd backwards and forwards with Ethan, going on dates, then storming off, apologising and then asking him to leave. Ethan on the other hand had 'protective' instincts which seemed to consist of insisting on checking that Izzy's doors and windows were properly locked before she went out. Fair enough but does he do it to his male friends and family? My guess is not, it's a sexist belief that women (even his mother who was career military) can't lock a door properly, gah! But mostly my beef with this novel was that it was all about Ethan and Izzy's feelings, nothing really happened, there was no big emergency just page after page of Izzy moping around because she loves him (but won't admit it) but can't face him being in the military. My final criticism is that this was an odd mixture of frequent sex combined with fade to black - some might say all left to the imagination but I just found it odd. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Fantastic book that I thoroughly enjoyed. My only complaint is that I would have liked Sam, Ethan's K=9 companion, to have more of a role in the story but his lack of mention doesn't take away from the story so that's no biggie. Ethan and Isabella are terrific together and I wanted this to work out for them right from the start. The have obstacles to overcome. Major ones! Yet you can't help but hope they find their way. The book is wonderfully written with a nice easy pace and characters that will win your heart. I definitely recommend this one.

This is the first book by this author I have read but after reading this one, it is not going to be my last book! No sir... She is one awesome storyteller and this one grabbed my attention from the start. I come from a family where all 5 brothers have served so this book touches my heart deeply and tugged at emotions. While we never lost one of them, two of them have been injured several times so I get where Izzy's deep fear is rooted. Ethan and Izzy have that chemistry you can just see PoP off the pages of the book...which make this one really great read. OH yes add in Sam..who is Sam. Sam is Ethan's K9. OH MY i am a sucker for a K9 in a read!!! I can not wait to see who's story author Nicole Flockton gives us next and I am excited to know there will be more books coming soon.