A review by originalbooknerd
Tempting by Bella Matthews

emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

πŸ’‹π•‹π•–π•žπ•‘π•₯π•šπ•Ÿπ•˜ - β„π•–π••π•ƒπ•šπ•‘π•€ & π•Žπ•™π•šπ•₯π•–π•ƒπ•šπ•–π•€πŸ™ - β„π•–π•§π•šπ•–π•¨πŸ’‹ 
 
Author: Bella Matthews 
 
Couple: Kenzie Hayes & Nixon β€œNix” Sinclair 
 
Tropes: hockey romance, fake relationship, best friend’s older brother & little sisters’s best friend, team captain’s little sister, childhood crush, he falls first x harder, doctor romance 
 
Review: Tempting. What a book. This book shot right up to my favorite spot within Bella’s second generation books! Nixon and Kenzie rival with Beckett’s book, Overruled, which ironically happens to be Kenzie’s adoptive mother’s book. Nixon and Kenzie were EVERYTHING I love about hockey and medical romances! From start to finish I was unable to put this book down and I am only sad for them to close out the Hayes family books! 
 
Kenzie was the FMC we had seen the least of so far in the second generation and WOAH. She was a force. I liked that while she was a go-getter and a fierce doctor, she also had a softer more vulnerable side. Bella really did a terrific job with creating all of her layers in this book and she was the one who immediately drew me into this story. Her relationship and growing feelings towards Nixon also warmed my heart because little miss oblivious was so in her head she never realized that Nixon had secretly pined for her his whole adolescent life. 
 
Nixon Sinclair. Can we give this guy a standing ovation or what? I knew from the first mention of him back in Lindy’s book, The Keeper, that he would hold my heart in an iron fist. There really was never a point in this book where I was like, Nixon what are YOU DOING?!? Instead, he slowly but surely made me fall head over heels for him as we see him pick up Kenzie and encourage her to stand up for her dreams and reach for everything she wants. I adored the way he was her biggest cheerleader but also the dirty talking, HAWT man who rocked her world. Bella really set the bar high for MMCs in this series after setting the stage with him and I cannot wait to finally get Callan and Maddox soon. 
 
Kenzie and Nixon have the shortest fake relationship I have read to date. And I AM HERE FOR IT! I knew right away these two were much more than β€œfake” and loved how they both sat in denial (Kenzie more than Nix). While Bella can do this trope well, what shined through in this book was the team captain’s little sister trope and Easton did NOT disappoint. I dare say his reaction was more over the top than Beckett’s. Nixon stood out in this regard because instead of backing down he was blatantly obvious that he was not giving up Kenzie and that they should just move on since he was there to stay…and wowweee did the heat turn up during that! Overall, Tempting is one of my favorite Bella books to date and I can only hope this is a hint at how mind blowing the read of this series will be! 
 
Rating: 100+, make way for a new hockey god n town! Nixon Sinclair is here to steal hearts and melt panties in Bella’s newest series as he falls hard for Kenzie Hayes! 
 
Thank you to Bella for sending me this eARC!