Title: Daddy Needs A Date
Author: Sean Michael
Narrator: Stever Balderson
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 5 hrs, 53 mins
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press LLC (28th March 2018)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖💖 5 Hearts
Reviewer: Prime
Blurb: With four girls, single dad Ryan Withers has his hands too full to look for romance. He’s not complaining – he loves his daughter and the three nieces he adopted when their parents died, and he would do anything for them. He’s caught off guard when his mother and daughter de-cide to play matchmaker.
Alex Bernot works in disaster relief, his job taking him all over the world, helping others, for ex-tended periods of time. He’s staying with his aunt while he’s home, and she sets him up on a blind date. Finding a special someone isn’t really on his mind, but he goes to make his aunt hap-py.
Ryan and Alex enjoy each other’s company more than either of them expected, and they soon make a second date. Their lives are complicated, though, in very different ways, and soon, fami-ly needs and their jobs conspire to pull them apart. They’ll need to figure out how to work through the things keeping them apart, but first, they’ll have to decide if they even want to….
Purchase Link: Audible US | Audible UK | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Review: Daddy Needs A Date is a standalone book by Sean Michael. Since reading more of Sean Michael’s work, particularly through Dreamspun Desires, I’m totally getting into the writing style and now look forward to Michael’s new releases. For the most part, they are usually quite happy and fluffy stories, with some adorable children and strong themes of building families and bringing together people in a way that is totally relatable and believable. In short, Sean Michael has recently made it onto my seemingly long list of authors I must read these days.
The narration of this novel was performed by Stever Balderson. I didn’t recognise the name, but when I looked in my audible library, I found that I had listened to Balderson once before in the past, performing Michael’s novel Add Love To The Mix. I remember not only loving that book, but also the performance, so it was just another reason to look forward to starting and savouring this story. In terms of the current performance, Balderson has once more done a fantastic job bringing heart and depth to the characters, not only the two main characters, but to a handful of very important background characters. I think he has a real knack at capturing the emotion and urgency of an emergency worker during the action scenes, but also successfully brings it down to when the character is home and has to discover the joys of building a life and settling down. He also brings great depth to a single father who is very lonely, as well as an enjoyable performance on the child characters who adore their father because he is the centre of their world.
As for the story itself, which I’ve just alluded to, Sean Michael has written a beautiful story of two men trying to find their way in the world. There is so much love and emotion that I found myself quickly lost in the plot and cheering on the men who have so much chemistry, they just need to learn to trust their emotions and give love a chance.
For both MCs, their lives are dominated by caring for others: Ryan Withers is a young father with four daughters. When he was fifteen and still unsure of himself, he got his high school girlfriend pregnant. The girl didn’t want the baby but he did, and with the support of his wonderful mother, he became a single father. Later down the track, in recent years, he lost his sister and brother in law, and necessity led to him adopting his orphaned three nieces. Life hasn’t always been easy, but Ryan has not only become a great father and has learnt to juggle his home and work life. Unfortunately, though, his juggling act does not help him meet new people, especially potential boyfriends. With a well-meaning mother and a concerned teenaged daughter, Ryan finds himself set up on a date with a nephew of a woman that his mother knows. Ryan is not happy, yet he is touched by his daughter’s concerns, and so he swallows his pride and goes on the blind date.
Alex Bernot is a dedicated disaster relief worker. With no real close ties other than the aunt he lives with in between trips in disaster zones all over the world, Alex has no reason to stay still or settle. However, things begin to change when he set up on a blind date by his aunt. It starts off a little rocky to realise that Ryan has four kids and he was about ready to hit the brakes right then. But something, some feeling, propels him forward and the men begin to get to know each other. Falling in love is the easy part, the truly difficult part is Alex’s work and need to travel into dangerous zones with little or no communications back to the States. My heart broke for Ryan as he was left to keep things going, however, with four girls it doesn’t matter how understanding Ryan is when Alex has to learn what it truly takes to have a family that depends on him for love.
This book is sexy, there is low angst and overall, while it is relatable it probably does go towards the fluffy and sweet kind of things. This is a great book when you are looking for something easy to listen to, the performance is excellent, if you want a no-nonsense kind of romance or coming down for a book that broke your emotions. I think for me this will be one of those books I’ll listen to again on a flight to pass the time (because I never listen to new stories when I’m travelling).