Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: First Steps
AUTHOR: Sean Michael
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 123 pages
BLURB:
Abandoned by his partner in the wilds of Alaska, Peter is pretty much at the end of his rope. He has a cabin falling down around his ears, two young babies to care for, and too much alone time to think about his situation. It’s enough to make a man rethink wanting to be a dad.
Park Ranger Chad thinks Peter could use some help, especially when fire and weather warnings make him wonder if Peter’s little cabin is going to make it through the year. When he takes Peter and the babies in, he finds out that the attraction the two of them felt on their first meeting has the potential to be a lot more. Can he convince Peter that they can do more than keep each other warm?
REVIEW:
This story was absolutely adorable! Peter is a single father of twins who, after being left by his partner, has moved out into the wilderness of Alaska so that his children can grow up surrounded by nature instead of buildings made of glass and steel. Just settling in, he meets Chad, the head Ranger for the park Peter is renting a cabin in. The two hit it off and Chad finds himself not only enticed by the single father but also enchanted by his children.
Let me just say, I’m a sucker for stories with children in them but the babies in this story just seemed especially cute, perhaps because I have one of my own, but still these kids really were adorable. The author not only gave each of the MCs a distinct personality but the twins had them, too. Ellen was really competitive and had enough attitude that it was pretty obvious she’d be a little hell raiser one day. Daniel was really sweet and outgoing but also determined not to fall behind his sister in whatever she was doing.
There really wasn’t anything in the way of angst in this book; it was just a really fluffy story of the love at first sight variety. Like every other Sean Michael book that I’ve read, there was also quite a bit of sex but I thought it was balanced nicely with just the family scenes and it never felt like the babies were just a background aspect of the story. I did find myself a little disappointed that I never got to see things like the twins’ first Christmas, which was mentioned and shopped for; I also would’ve love to have seen an epilogue showing Ellen and Daniel grown up in some way but on the whole I still really enjoyed this book and will definitely read it again in the future.
RATING: 
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