Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Antagonist
SERIES: Dads of Stillwater, Book 1
AUTHOR: Ana Ashley
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 342 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 6, 2022
BLURB:
One artist. One attorney. Two single dads.
Meeting at a bachelor auction for charity had trouble written all over it as far as I was concerned, especially when the guy that won the bid for me seemed to be after only one thing…a good time between the sheets.
Refusing Fletcher’s advances was easy the first time round. After all, we weren’t meant to see each other again.
Except I’ve just moved to Stillwater where Fletcher lives.
Except both our kids are in the same class.
Now the kids are fighting and I’m ready to throw my own punches.
If only Fletcher wasn’t as goddamn irresistible as he is irritating.
When the fight moves from the playground to the bedroom, who will come out on top?
Antagonist is book 1 in Ana Ashley’s new series, Dads of Stillwater.
Single dads, sassy kids, Ana’s usual cast of intriguing secondary characters, Stillwater has it all.
REVIEW:
Antagonist is the first book in Ana Ashley’s new series, Dads of Stillwater, a loose spinoff of her sweet, small-town romance series, Chester Falls. I typically enjoy Ashley’s light, low angst, feel-good stories featuring quirky characters and colorful small towns with nosy do-gooders. I expected that vibe in Antagonist and got it … sort of. Ashley delivers what she’s known for but the light fluffy feels are dampened by a frustratingly inconsistent, often implausible, storyline.
Harrison is the ex-boyfriend/best friend of Tate from How to Catch a Bachelor. Harrison’s divorced with an adorable elementary-aged daughter, Megan. He co-parents with his ex-wife Stella, who he remains very close friends with despite their split. They’ve vowed to stay nearby so they both have active roles in their daughter’s life. As such, Harrison recently left his lucrative, promising law firm career in Boston to move to follow them to Stillwater.
Harrison is out of sorts trying to adjust to the slower life of small-town Stillwater. He’s also still in full-on overprotective mode after Stella and Megan were in a car accident. Megan suffered significant injuries but has mostly recovered with some lingering physical and emotional challenges. Megan’s befriended a precocious classmate, George, who turns out to be Fletcher’s son. This is perhaps an unhappy coincidence for Harrison as, despite their evident attraction to each other, he and Fletcher have been antagonistic towards each other ever since a charity bachelor auction where Fletcher “won” Harrison.
Fletcher is conversely thrilled to have the opportunity to pursue Harrison and this turn of events gives him plenty of opportunities. Ashley tries to inject humor into the push/pull courting and sniping between the two men, but I don’t think it translates in the way she intended. Fletcher’s silly pet names and needling are annoying rather than endearing in my opinion.
Ashley employs two main plot drivers: the respective relationship triangles of each father/child and their exes, and the elementary school Spring Fair that Harrison and Fletcher have been put in charge of, much to their (initial) chagrin. On both, Ashley muddies the emotions and the storylines such that I sort of liked it yet couldn’t ignore the implausible turns of events and superficiality of the side characters, especially the nefarious school moms. The undercurrent of challenging and rising above prejudice and narrowmindedness is trivialized by the context – a small-town school fair – and the events that transpire are tough to swallow.
Ashley does a nice job with Harrison and Fletcher, for the most part. I eventually ending up liking both men and their relationship worked for me. However, it took some time to get there. In the beginning, I found Fletcher to be arrogant and annoying and I really couldn’t get a good read on Harrison at all. Confusingly, Fletcher seems like a different person in the second half of the book than he is in the first, and Harrison’s attitude towards Fletcher vacillates wildly.
Overall, I really wanted to like this story and I sort of did. But the simplistic and disjointed character and plot development overshadowed the rest. If you are a fan of Ms. Ashley’s work, you’ll likely forgive a lot and may want to give it a try and decide for yourself. Despite my feelings about Antagonist, I will likely give book two a try because of my affinity for Ashley’s work.
RATING: 
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