When I first encountered Ford Donovan, I had no idea who he was…well, other than the obvious. Young, gorgeous, successful, smart. Did I mention young? If I did, it bears repeating. Ford Donovan was too young for me.

Let’s back up to how it all started. My best friend decided I needed to start dating again. So, without my knowledge, she set up a profile for me on a popular dating site—one that invited men ages twenty-one to twenty-seven to apply for a date. Those nicknamed Cunnilingus King were told they’d go straight to the top for consideration. The profile wasn’t supposed to go live. Another point that bears repeating—it wasn’t supposed to.

Nevertheless, that’s how I met Ford, and we started messaging. He made me laugh; yet I was adamant that because of his age, we could only be friends. But after weeks of wearing me down, I finally agreed to one date only—my first after twenty years of being with my high school sweetheart. I knew it couldn’t last, but I was curious about him.

Though, you know what they say…curiosity kills the cat.

My legs wobbled walking into the restaurant.
Ford was seated at the bar. When he turned around, he took my breath away.
His sexy smile nearly melted my panties.
But…he looked so familiar.
As I got closer I realized why.
He was the son of the neighbor at our family’s summer home.
The boy next door.
Only now…he was all man.
I hadn’t seen him in years.
I left the restaurant and planned to put the entire crazy thing behind me.
Which I did. Until summer came.
And guess who decided to use his family’s summer home this year?

If I would bring down this book to one line or even one word it would be PERCEPTION. It is all about that right ? Everywhere we go and with everything we do. I always avoided books that had a huge age gap in their plot between the leads. Not because I think it is a problem but simply because I always place myself into the story to feel them and I could not see myself in that role. In my case especially the “daddy” thing – (meaning young woman older man) – but when one of “my” top authors comes around with that subject well I cannot resist …. So I took a leap of faith that Ms. Keeland would pull me into it … and what can I say … she did it …

As I said it is always about perception – why is it ok in our society if a young woman has an older husband ? Well the guy would get backslapping.  It would only be frowned upon if the age gap would be so huge that there would be rumors about a marriage for money in awaiting the impending death. But the only comment you get when an older women is interested in a younger man is “Mrs. Robinson” – WHY? I asked myself that question before and could not come up with a reasonable answer.  And even worse when I started reading “All Grown up” I was irritated with myself because I could totally understand the feelings of the female lead. Her shock and hesitation …

But this author worked magic and with the flow of the story my thoughts started changing and I could feel myself getting into the characters. As usual Vi Keeland writes her characters so beautiful it almost hurts. And what is special about her writing is that they are equally beautiful and deep in their development.

Slowly but surely this author secured her place in my top 20  go-to-one-click-authors. If you haven’t read anything from her I can only advise to remedy asap. – just check her books for a plot you like and go for it. I truly wonder at this point what else she might be able to sell to me that I normally would not read …

But let me again come back to PERCEPTION … read this book and learn from it … learn not to care what other people think and follow your heart …