after 20 Gilmore Girls references within 30 pages, I ( )

4.5 stars

This author is sure to alwayss hit my funny bone. Her humor comes through with every interaction between the characters and In the inner musings of the characters themselves.

It was great to see cameo appearances from previous characters and a hint about what might becoming. One of my favorite series of interconnected standalones in a variety of different subgenre tropes. ( )

Take a Number is the fourth book in the Wait With Me series by Amy Daws. This is Dean's story. Dean is the best friend of two of the previous characters Kate and Lyndsy. I enjoyed their books, but it is not necessary to read them to understand this book. Dean ends up in a fake dating situation with his friend Norah. Norah owns a bakery that Dean frequents. Neither of them wants a real relationship with anyone, or so they think. We all know that fake relationships in romance novels do not stay fake for long. There is some humorous dialog and fun outings with friends that are quite entertaining. There are some underlying family dynamics that cause some bumps in the road to happily ever after, but all is well by the end. ( )

Sexy, funny with baked goods
3 stars

I absolutely adored the previous book in this series - One Moment, Please - about Lynsey and Josh. Dean, our hero in this book, appeared in that book and in the earlier books in the Wait with Me series. Despite that, this book stands alone and you don’t need to have read the other books to understand and enjoy this one.

In fact, I think I might have enjoyed this book so much better had I come in with no knowledge of Dean. You see, I had a preconceived notion of Dean based on those books. As a best friend - he’s, hands-down, perfection. He’s loyal, sarcastic, funny and a little bit sassy. As a hero in his own right? Hmmm - jury’s out for me.

I just felt that he was a little, well, limp as a hero. No pun intended. He’s a metrosexual - which is fine - but it’s not something that makes me swoon. I prefer my men a little more rough around the edges - and possibly dirty and smelly, too. And Dean’s humour, especially in the face of Norah’s fairly stoic personality, didn’t hit the mark with me. In fact, sometimes, I felt he was downright condescending towards her. Just because she didn’t have fun they way he had fun, didn’t make her wrong.

Norah was a likeable character, too. I thought she came across as very real, even if, at least at the beginning, she was anti-boyfriend, anti-marriage and anti-family. I know we like to watch people eat their words but it was hard to be 100% team Norah when she was the opposite of me.

As always with Amy Daws, this book is bloomin’ hilarious! I laughed out loud on many occasion with genuine humour. Unique to this book, too, is the drool worthy inclusion of croinuts, Norah’s signature baked good in her bakery. And boy do I want one. Or six. Or more. Absolutely salivating for warm, fresh-from-the-oven pastries. Sigh.

There was enough sexiness to make me happy. I also love it when one of the characters gets drunk and blurts out their real feelings. But what happened next? Oh boy! That was almost as delicious as the baked goods. I felt the pair’s chemistry and wanted them to be together.

It was only once, but I feel I have to mention the flippant use of the term ‘OCD’. This is a serious medical mental health issue and can be devastating and all-consuming for the sufferer. It’s certainly not just someone who likes order and precision in their life. I just don’t think people should bandy about terms like this. I didn’t let this affect my rating of the book, by the way.

Amy Daws always delivers a fun and sexy treat as delicious as Norah’s glazed croinuts. (And yes, you will be as obsessed as I am about baked goods once you read this book!) For me, I just wasn’t sold on Dean as a leading man and as happy as I am for him to have found his own HEA, I can only give this story 3 stars. ( )