Just One Dare (The Kingston Family #5)

by Carly Phillips

Blurb:

A one night stand with no names exchanged.

Six years later, she comes face to face with her baby’s father again.

Aurora Michaels isn’t the same girl she was that spring night. No longer homeless and living in the back room of a diner where she worked, she’s now a member of the wealthy Kingston family. She has her daughter, a career and has adjusted to her new normal.

Billionaire Nick Dare is a man who takes charge. He runs the hotel arm of the family empire and his life revolves around business and travel. A quick stop at his brother's movie premier has him doing a double take.

The woman who haunts his dreams is there. He’s been given a second chance and is determined to make the most of it.

When he learns about their daughter, Nick becomes a man on a mission. Aurora and their child are his. Even if he has to knock down Aurora’s emotional walls to prove it.

Themes: Contemporary, Second Chance

Rating: 4.75 stars

Heat Rating:

Review:

Fans have been waiting for this one for the last six stories and it was worth every second of the wait. I cannot express how much I was looking forward to reading Nick and Aurora’s story. This series is a continuation/spin-off of the Dare series, which is one of the longest running Carly Phillips’s series and one off my favorite by far, and I am thrilled that her imagination seems to be able to continue to stretch and give us more and more Dares to love. Carly is truly one of the masters at her craft but I just cannot understand how she manages to continue to create these amazing and interesting stories and make it seem so easy. Aurora and Nick’s story actually began 6 years earlier for them when they had one magical night and created a beautiful little girl from their passion, but they never exchanged last names so Aurora was never able to share their daughter with Nick. When she looks across a crowded movie premiere and her past slams into her in the form of Nick standing with an acquaintance of her new family, Aurora has a moment of panic and runs for it. Nick is beyond surprised but instantly thrilled to see the girl he’s never forgotten and he determines to chase after her, never imagining just how much his life is about to change. Sharing her daughter with the man who helped create Leah is going to be difficult for Aurora, but Nick is determined to be more than just a father to his daughter. Fighting to overcome the walls and fears that Aurora’s past have erected around her heart and find a chance for him to create a family with her is the ultimate battle for Nick, but he is up to the fight. They have to both get over past hurts and accept the love being offered in order to have the family they all want, but sometimes it just isn’t that easy even if it worth it. Can Nick convince Aurora he is the man for her and the perfect mate or will he forever be connected but apart from the woman he has lost his heart to?

I loved every single second of this story, no lie, and I was not able to stop reading, even when I went hours past my bedtime on a work night (which is a miracle for me!). Aurora has had a truly tragic and heartbreaking life, but she has never lost the loving and sweet nature that attract people to her; the love she spreads to those around her keeps them pushing against the walls she tried to put up. She knows that Nick is back in her life for good now that he knows about Leah, but letting him into her heart fully and offering herself to him challenges her on a whole different level and leaves her terrified. Her vulnerabilities and strengths made her such a real character, one that despite the outrageous recent changes she has gone through keeps her a truly believable woman that I know I could be friends with. I loved getting to know more about the woman she has grown into now that she is secure in the arms of her new family and seeing how she became such a loving and devoted mother despite not having a role model as such. Nick is the perfect model of a freewheeling bachelor on the surface, but he’s obviously never forgotten Aurora and once he learns about Leah he steps up and his personality locks down into dad-in-training. Seeing him begin to grow up and find his niche as a father and mate was painful as he dealt with some fears and insecurities, but he never lost his temper or his cool and became an ass as I have seen in so many similar situations (both real and fictional). I loved seeing him interacting with his big family and cannot wait to get all their stories (loved how you introduced such a great new set of stories for us, Carly) and know that these Dirty Dares and, hopefully their younger siblings in the future, will be awesome reads. The passion and fire between these two has been hinted at since the beginning, when Aurora described Leah’s conception, but it becomes much more obvious the minute these two are back in one another’s sphere and once they begin to give into the heat there is no stopping that magnetic pull, which made them combustible. I am so glad that these two finally got their chance to build a family and find love with their obviously destined match. I am dying to read the next story in the Dirty Dare’s Series (Just One Kiss) and, whatever comes next, I know that Carly will astound and surprise along the way. Keep up the fantastic work Carly and I can promise you’ll continue to have more and more lifelong fans like me filling their shelves with your work.