Unwrapping a Review of DIRTY THOUGHTS, a Mechanics of Love novel by Megan Erickson

A while back, I did a cover reveal as part of an Avon Impulse tour for DIRTY THOUGHTS, book 1 in the Mechanics of Love series by Megan Erickson and shared an excerpt as well. After reading the excerpt myself, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to read this book. The heat between Cal and Jenna simply poured off the page and I was hooked. Oh boy, was I glad I decided to read this one.

***purchased for my own personal reading but sharing my honest and unscripted review with you.

Blurb for DIRTY THOUGHTS:

Some things are sexier the second time around.

Cal Payton has gruff and grumbly down to an art...all the better for keeping people away. And it usually works. Until Jenna MacMillan---his biggest mistake---walks into Payton and Sons mechanic shop all grown up, looking like sunshine, and inspiring more than a few dirty thoughts.

Jenna was sure she was long over the boy she'd once loved with reckless abandon, but one look at the steel-eyed Cal Payton has her falling apart all over again. Ten years may have passed, but the pull is stronger than ever... and this Cal is all man.

Cal may have no intention of letting Jenna in, but she's always been his light, and it's getting harder to stay all alone in the dark. When a surprise from the past changes everything, Cal and Jenna must decide if their connection should be left alone or if it's exactly what they need for the future of their dreams.

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Cal Payton is grumpy even on a good day. His life wasn’t going anything like he hoped once upon a time. When he graduated high school, he had hopes of opening a motorcycle repair shop and marrying his beautiful girlfriend but that all came to sudden stop when he punched her obnoxious brother. When her family threatened charges, the girl he loved broke things off with him and left town. His father, a bitter and angry man in his own right, refuses to allow bikes to be worked on his car repair garage and Cal feels his choices are running out. It might be time to step away from the family he’s always felt responsible for, and create his own life.

Jenna MacMillan had stayed away from the town she’d grown up in, where her family ruled supreme, and the only boy to ever truly claim her heart still lived. She’s returned to Tory to use her public relation skills to help bring her family’s business back from the brink of destruction her brother had managed to cause and now home was home again but was it possible for things to work the way they should have, perhaps even better, the second time around?

Megan Erickson has conjured the most realistic, intriguing, and eclectic group of characters in DIRTY THOUGHTS, and I loved them all…well, except for Dylan…or Dill Pickle, as Delilah refers to him, which still makes me laugh. The easy way between the characters, the natural dialogue, and the way their feelings come through make the folks of Tory into friends and family. Cal recognizes that he’s allowing the bitterness of the last ten years and the sense of having lost his childhood because of his parents’ selfishness and having to be father and brother to his two siblings wear on him and he fears becoming exactly like his old man. Having the woman he never stopped loving, the woman who could brighten his day with just a smile, come back into his life was a start especially after she told him the truth of the past. He tries to stay away from her though because he doesn't want to go down that road again...doesn't want to get hurt again. He tries to keep to his isolated place away from everyone so he can have peace of heart, mind, and soul but Jenna isn’t that easy to ignore. Especially when a new brother, a half-brother, a teenage brother from his mother’s second marriage that he never even knew existed shows up on his doorstep, needing him. She takes him and Asher under her wing, and together they become the family the young man needs. But the most amazing thing is watching Cal open his heart to both of them.

Watching these characters change and grow, fall in love, create love and acceptance, and worry and fret as only a family can, makes the Paytons my new favorites. Other than stumbling over editing errors sprinkled throughout the writing, there was nothing at all wrong with this story. It flowed with ease, steamed up my glasses with the passion between Cal and Jenna, kept me hooked page after page, and made me smile when I needed to and my heart ache when Cal felt the world closing in on him. He’s a real man and Jenna is his perfect match. I can’t wait to read Brent’s story next. Yes, I’m a bit behind because DIRTY TALK is already out but it's waiting on my reader. I'm coming, Brent!

If you love a good small town, second chance at love romance, if you love strong realistic characters full of life and faults, DIRTY THOUGHTS by Megan Erickson is for you. I highly recommend you read this one. Jenna is not just Cal’s Sunshine - I think she’s everyone’s Sunshine.

Happy Reading Everyone!

DIRTY THOUGHTS, a Mechanics of Love novel by Megan Erickson, Avon Impulse, available now in print and ebook formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobobooks.

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