(2.5 stars) - Cute but flawed enemies-to-lovers with "mature" content
The story is ok - though the plot is "classic" (predictable), it's at least written fairly well.
When you're forced to be the responsible person over younger siblings, it makes you have to be more serious, uptight & focused on consequences.
It's made Carter more of a take charge alpha type than average, but in a bull-in-a-china-shop sort of way at times. His unusual experience losing his parents & raising his little sister from a young age has left him a little socio-romantically impaired.
Carter is right about many things, but he's smug & rather obnoxious about it. Even when he wants to impress, he doesn't seem to know how to do it without humiliating Avery. Meanwhile, Avery is irritated by Carter to the point that she's frequently unreasonable & inflexible.
I wasn't totally convinced that their relationship could develop from passionate dislike to sexual attraction then to more. Frankly, I think the author made Carter too much of a horse's butt.
And Avery - the woman who always managed to have everything under control - had a surprisingly unprofessional lack of control. Certainly, I could buy that she felt she had no choice but to make nice with her BFF's brother, but I couldn't see her handling him so ineptly given what she's supposed to have been used to.
The ending is sweet, at any rate, & they get a happily-ever-after. I do always enjoy series with broken people & families that find healing; however, I prefer my romances without the added porn & crudities, so I appreciate the free trial from prime, but I'll be skipping the rest of this series.
*Clean romance level: heroine sort of but not really holds out for something resembling a committed relationship while hero's figuring things out, graphic descriptions of intimate petting & several rounds of descriptive sex
*Language: mid-level; some 5 or 6 dozen uses of d-mn & h-ll, several dozen uses of sh-t, a few uses of d-ck & p---y, +15 f-bombs
*Religion: secular, dozens of uses of the Lord's Name in vain, sadly & totally unnecessarily, though at least none as curses