Title: Inevitable (Love in LA #4)
Author: Jenna Hartley
Published: April 2021
Publisher: Self Published
Readership: Adult
Genre: Romance
Rating: ★★★★
I received a copy of Inevitable from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
When my dad asked me to intern for his best friend, I knew I should’ve said no.
I had my own plans for the summer.
Ones that didn’t include revisiting my childhood crush.
Sleeping with the boss?
Probably not what my dad had in mind when he asked for my help.
But from the moment I step foot in the office, I can think of little else.
I still want Jonathan.
Am I willing to gamble my relationship with my dad and my heart?
If you’re not all that interested in age-gap/dad’s best friend romance books, this might be a book to steer clear of, but it was certainly a compulsive read for me. Sumner, our heroine, has just walked away from an unfulfilling relationship and returned home for the summer while waiting for the start of grad school. Hoping to keep her focused and busy, her dad organises an internship for her with his best friend, Jonathan – who runs a successful commercial real estate business. Sumner and Jonathan have known each other her whole life, but this summer, they suddenly see each other in a new light, and the relationship they pursue has the potential to be just what they need… or the end of some of the strongest relationships in their lives.
I’m a fan of a well-written age gap story, and this one fit the bill. At times, the fact that Sumner was Jonathan’s intern did make me slightly uncomfortable (power dynamics is something that I struggle with occasionally in books, especially if they swing well in favour of one person over another), but there was less a focus on that than there was on the issues faced by dating her father’s best friend. Sumner herself was a strong, independent woman with her own goals and dreams for her future career and she was never shy with stepping in to get the job done, which made her more than a match for the hyper-focused and successful Jonathan.
The third act complication revolved around Sumner’s family finding out about the relationship, which was at times uncomfortable – but only because we’d spent so much time with the characters and were invested in their happiness, which was interrupted by the unsupportive views of their close friends and family.
Inevitable was a book that I found hard to put down once I started reading. I was fully invested in the happily ever after for both characters.
Noveltea Corner 