Good book. Penelope is the single mother of a teenage boy. They moved to Shady Grove from California to start over after her divorce. Her son, Andrew, isn't happy about the move and leaving his friends behind and has been a royal pain in the behind. One day, after another exchange of words with Andrew before he storms off, Penelope indulged in a little too much wine, then attempted to use the gas grill. Leo is one of the firefighters who responded to the neighbor's 911 call.

Once he realized that she was alright, Leo was pretty amused by Penelope. Her precise speech and habit of talking with her hands fascinated him, especially once he realized she was drunk, not injured. He was also attracted to her. I enjoyed seeing him make excuses to stick around a little bit longer to make sure she was okay.

I enjoyed the development of their relationship. Penelope was shocked when Leo showed up at her work to ask her out. He's younger than she is and very good-looking, but she doesn't see any point in their going out. It was a rather painful scene, especially for Leo. He's not used to be turned down flat when he asks a woman out, and Penelope was pretty blunt. I also thought she was a bit obnoxious in her response to him; it seemed like she had no interest in even being polite. It got even worse when Penelope discovered that Andrew had lied his way onto the school football team, for which Leo is the coach. That confrontation among the three of them was loud and antagonistic, at least from Penelope and Andrew. I had a lot of respect for Leo because he kept his cool. It was interesting to see the deal that they ended up working out among the three of them. It also gave Leo his chance to get to know Penelope. It was pretty sweet to see how much they did have in common and how the attraction and feelings between them grew.

But Penelope has a major stumbling block to anything serious with Leo, and that is Andrew. Because of his serious illness as a child, Penelope has become extremely overprotective. Andrew is the be-all and end-all of her life, and she lets him walk all over her. There was a horrible scene when Andrew realized what was going on between his mom and Leo. I liked the way that Leo dealt with Andrew and his attitude. He also had some blunt words for Penelope about her attitude. I wanted to shake her until she saw the truth, and ached for Leo when she walked away. I loved the event that opened her eyes and her reaction when she did. It was great to see her finally stand up for herself. It was nice to see that it was the woman having to admit to being an idiot, and Penelope's big moment at the end was great.

Now, for Andrew. No doubt about it, he was a brat for most of the book. His crappy attitude toward his mom was really obnoxious, especially considering how she had cared for him when he was sick. Yes, she was overprotective and a bit controlling, but a better attitude might have been able to change some of that. He was also manipulative, and I loved seeing Leo call him on that instance of it. At first, I thought his friendship with Gracie was going to have a good effect on him, but he even managed to screw that up. I loved seeing her confront him over his actions. He got a real wakeup call from his mom at the end, and it was encouraging to see the effect on him. ( )