Book Bingo: Caged in Winter

Caged in Winter by Brighton Walsh is about a girl and a guy: self-sufficient bar waitress Winter and family man/chef Cade. They seem like the worst match for each other, and neither of them really wants a relationship right now, but after being thrown together by circumstance (or a grabby bar patron, whatever you want to focus on) they find themselves inexplicably drawn together.

(picture taken from Goodreads)

Okay, confession time: I do read romances from time to time. Not constantly, but probably every other month or something like that. I'm not talking about books that have a variety of literary values and just happen to include some romance (like Pride and Prejudice), which I could read all the time. I'm talking about books where the primary focus is the romance. Anyway, while I like reading these to "cleanse my palate" between more serious reading, I don't usually write reviews of them. There's not a lot to say usually in the form of a review. I'm going to write a short one about this book, though, because there's a spot for "Romance" on my Book Bingo sheet, and I'm trying to wrap it up for 2014.

Conclusion: Winter was not my favorite character. While I appreciate her troubles and her strength standing up to them, I feel like she dwells in the past a lot. Cade, however, is the perfect guy. He's a great chef, and he's completely focused on school and taking care of his niece. He's very sweet and protective of those he cares about. The two characters really seemed like a mismatch initially, but I think Walsh did a pretty good job of showing why these two opposite personalities fit so well together. And isn't that true in reality? You have to have a balance of similarities and differences to make a great relationship. So, I enjoyed this as a quick read just for fun. I will warn you that if you refuse to read books with sex scenes, you might want to be careful with this one. There are only two or three, though, and it's more of an afterthought rather than the focus of the book. I was able to skip a couple pages each time and come back to the story.

Caged in Winter is my Romance selection for the 2014 Book Bingo Challenge. This has been so much fun this year! I'll probably have to post a few of these reviews today to finish it up. Whew!