I have mixed feelings about this story and how to rate it. Voice acting was fine, world building was good, and we continue to get enjoyable side characters. This is a complex redemption story and nobody is perfect, but you can tell there is love. Watching MMC, MFC, and their baby come together as a family was nice, with funny and sad moments.
Going into this book, I had a hard time with both MCs. MMC made mistakes and could have handled things differently in the past. But I have an issue with MFC. In past books we see her keep her pregnancy from her family until she had no choice, refuse family help, and try to do everything herself. We find out in this book MMC was financially supporting his daughter from the beginning, but MFC didn’t use any of it. In other books, I got the feeling he wasn’t even financially supporting them. I feel like MFC made the situation worse by being stubborn and made MMC out to be worse than he was. She also acted like she didn’t have any faults and her family moved past them without question, but put up walls with MMC. Loving someone with an addiction and spiraling is difficult, but she didn’t try to get her family’s help before the breaking point. She is then bitter when he shows up. I would have thought if she really loved him she would have talked to someone or done some research on loving an addict.
MMC was an alcoholic. She was right to leave, but using his disease against him is kind of terrible. He didn’t just abandon his family, it’s much more complicated than that. He came back once he was 12 months sober and stable. Nobody in the Baliey family cared in the beginning, which is disappointing. Addiction is complicated and they have a right to be cautious but how they treated him in the beginning is disappointing. It set the tone for the rest of the book and made it hard to respect the characters in this story. Considering how many of the characters have complicated relationships with their dads (and the Rome & Harley beginning), it’s disappointing people didn’t want to let MMC get to know his daughter. It was hard to want to push past the beginning and watch MMC redeem his past and prove he’s changed. I also don’t think he’s the only one to blame for the distance between the MCs and their daughter. Nobody considered going to a support group for family of addicts and their behavior toward MMC at the beginning shows. Also, Kingston opening a beer in MMC’s hotel doorway during a side conversation is concerning considering MMC is a recovering alcoholic. I feel like this was a way to transition into the next series, but it’s tasteless and inconsideration.
Since this is the last book in this series, a brief mention of the other characters. Out of all the other characters, Holly, Austin, and G Ma Dory remain the voice of reason. They don’t let anyone off the hook for bad behavior while continuing to love and support everyone. They are the mom, dad, and grandma figure for everyone else. It’s obvious Holly and Austin work with kids and lots of personalities and Dory has experienced so many situations in her life bc they are the first to provide some perspective to each of the other characters. I wish we got more novellas of the 3 bc they are such great characters. Seeing them warn but accept MMC was nice. He isn’t a bad person, just someone who lost his way and made a mistake but did the work to make up for it.