Rafe is the first novel in the Loose Ends series by Rebekah Weatherspoon.
Finished on: 11.5.2021

Plot:
After a hard divorce and a move across the country, Dr. Sloan Copeland has built a new life for herself and her twin daughters. But that life is seriously threatened when she returns home one day from work to find her live-in nanny just up and left. Sloan has to figure something out quickly, and after the last catastrophic nanny, it has to be a very good solution. That’s when a friend recommends Rafe Whitcomb. Rafe has been working as a nanny for a few families and comes highly recommended, even though he – tall, bearded, tattooed – doesn’t necessarily look the part. Rafe was thinking of leaving the nanny life behind, but can’t leave Sloan in a lurch, and the kids take a liking to him fast. That both Sloan and Rafe find each other very attractive could make things more difficult though.

Rafe is a sweet, quick read that I could fall into very well. It may not become an absolute favorite, but I definitely enjoyed the hell out of it.

Rafe is a superfluffy novel. There is some tension between the characters, but it never feels all that tense (probably the book’s weakest part) and always gets resolved quickly by Sloan and Rafe actually talking to each other, openly, honestly and with vulnerability (probably the best part about it).

Things maybe moved a tad too fast, but while this is a regular complaint from my side, in this case it wasn’t because the relationship between Sloan and Rafe wasn’t properly developed, but rather because I would have liked to spend a little more time with them. And with Sloan’s girls, who were perfectly cute (probably cuter than most real life children to be honest. I’m saying this with love, but they were very “fiction children”).

What really bothered me was the fact that Sloan’s circle of friends didn’t really get much of an introduction. It appears that at least some of them are protagonists of other books by Weatherspoon, so their appearance was a nice nod to frequent readers, but for me it was a little confusing and I couldn’t really keep them straight in my head.

Apart from that, though, I don’t really have any complaints. Rafe is a well-written, engaging book that is both sweet and sexy. That’s all I wanted it to be.

Summarizing: very good.