“You must be Lincoln Mathis, the Manwhore of Whom I Should Beware?”

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“Which would make you Daisy Sinclair, Delicate Flower to Whom I’m Not to Speak.”

And it’s with those words that Daisy and Lincoln Mathis are introduced. Quite the introduction, huh? I loved that it laid everything out on the table. No pussyfooting around the issue that they’d both been duly warned about the other.

I’m going to be honest with you, I went into this expecting a different Lincoln. I remember him from his first appearance in the last Stiletto series book, The Trouble With Love, which was Emma (Daisy’s identical twin sister) and Alex’s story. Lincoln is purported to be single and the proverbial playboy. His panty-melting smile and good looks are legendary in the Stiletto and Oxford offices. His little black book is ironically massive. The notches on his bedpost are beyond numerous. Daisy isn’t joking around when she describes him as a Manwhore. At least that’s what everyone thinks he is.

I found out soon enough that Lincoln Mathis is all smoke and mirrors. Was I disappointed? Maybe just a tiny bit. I opened Someone Like You expecting and wanting a bad boy. I was in that kind of mood. Lucky for me I got someone much better and deeper. Lincoln is like an onion (one that smells really really good though) with so many layers it’s hard to pinpoint when I stopped being surprised at the man I found under each. Oh the angst. Oh the emotional turmoil and upheaval. Does our hero have a past—and present—which makes being in a relationship with anyone and impossibility.

Daisy comes into the story with her own baggage. Divorced from a horrible ex-husband, she comes to New York for Emma’s wedding, where she meets Lincoln and they just click. Not so much in a romantic sense, although the physical attraction is ever present between them. I would say they click on an emotional, friendly level. They enjoy the kind of relationship that survives when Daisy goes back to North Carolina after the wedding with daily text messages. They always find things to talk about. I absolutely loved the building of it. And of course the fighting of the sexual attraction—mostly by Lincoln. Then things really take a nice turn when they’re both in the same city and state, permanently. The tension, the heat and the conflict ratchets up to high. Deliciously so, I might add.

On top of a wonderfully, emotional, sexy love story between Lincoln and Daisy, I was happy to visit again with the entire Stiletto and Oxford crew.  There’s nothing like deliriously, happy marriages and babies to make the romantic in me swoon and sigh. As a huge series lover, I love the easy, teasing camaraderie between groups of friends. Lauren Layne is a pro at making these friendships feel authentic. It makes me crave for a big group of friends just like them.

For me though, the cherry on top of this wonderful romance is that I read it twice, loving it even more the second time around. And the epilogue… Sigh. Need I say anymore? If there’s a cherry to go on top of that original cherry, it’s for that lovely peek into Daisy and Lincoln’s future and the overwhelming feeling of wanting more, more and still more of this wonderful series, these characters and their love stories.

~ Beverley