Nico: I left my family and tiny Texas hometown fifteen years ago to escape small-town gossips and to give my mom and sister the chance at a better life. But when a phone call from an attorney back home informs me that my sister passed away, leaving me custody of her newborn baby, I’m shocked out of the steady life I’ve built for myself running a tattoo shop in San Francisco. The thing is: I don’t …
The thing is: I don’t do babies. And I don’t do small towns. Or commitment. And I especially don’t do family. My plan is to go back to Hobie just long enough to sign adoption papers, giving my niece the kind of stable, loving family I could never provide.
But the moment I meet my niece in the arms of Weston Wilde, my sister’s best friend and the town’s handsome doctor, my plans begin to change. Because suddenly, I see a different future. One with the very thing I thought I never deserved: a family. If only I can convince West that I’m not the same good-for-nothing kid ready to bolt when things get tough.
Weston:
There’s one thing I know for sure about Nico Salerno: he was a good-for-nothing as a kid and judging by the purple-haired, tattoo’d punk who shows up at his sister’s funeral, he hasn’t changed. There’s no way I’m letting him take custody of my best friend’s baby.
But the more time I spend around him, the more I realize that his rough exterior is just a shell and that beneath all the tattoos is a scared, insecure man searching for a place to belong. And pretty soon I know exactly where he belongs: in my bed and by my side.
The problem is, he abandoned his family once before, how do I know that if we become a family he won’t do it again?
Facing West is the first in the new Forever Wilde series about the huge Wilde family from Hobie, Texas, whose patriarchs aren’t above a little meddling if that’s what it takes to help their grandkids find true love.
more
**********Contains Spoilers**********
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Nico is Griff Marian’s best friend and was introduced to him in Grounding Griffin. I thought Nico and West were great together and definitely a case of opposites attract. Nico has a missed call on his cellphone when he gets to work, and there’s a voicemail from his sister Adriana’s lawyer back in Hobie Texas, the town he left when he was 14 years old to say that his sister died and that he now has sole custody of his niece Pippa. West Wilde is Hobie’s Doctor, and was Adriana’s best friend so was there for her throughout her pregnancy and Pippa’s birth. Due to this he’s been a constant in Pippa’s life especially after her mum died, since there’s no relatives Pippa is being put up for adoption as Nico hasn’t been seen since he left town 16 years prior. A nice family has been chosen to adopt Pippa and there’s just a few small formalities before it can be approved. West is completely thrown for a loop when the beautiful purple haired, pierced and tattooed man who shows up at Adriana’s funeral happens to be her brother Nico who abandoned his mum and sister when he left, Nico then claims that he has full custody of Pippa. West is so angry and has a lot of resentment of Nico for leaving even though he has no idea what his reasons were or what his life’s been like since then. They both think the other is a complete a*sehole from their first interaction in years. Man, it’s completely heartbreaking what Nico’s life was like when he moved to San Francisco and that he was forced to sell himself to be able to eat and then ended up with a complete an utter a*sehole who pretended to care for him but wouldn’t be seen with him since he was a wh*re so Nico has no confidence in his own self worth and thinks that he doesn’t need anyone apart from Griff who has been the closest thing he’s had to family in years but he even keeps him at a distance. He has extremely thick walls around himself but Pippa and West slowly knock them down, even though Nico doesn’t make it easy for them. I liked meeting the other Wilde’s and I especially Loved Grandpa and Doc, total relationship goals as they still love each other after all these years. I’m looking forward to meeting them properly while reading each of their books. West’s quiet studious cousin Felix is up next to find his happily ever after, where he heads on a Sabbatical to Gadleigh Castle in pursuit of the world’s most beautiful stained glass so should be an interesting read. I’d definitely recommend this book, series, universe and author to everyone.
I didn’t think anything that the author offered would be as good as the Made Marian series. I was wrong. This first in A Forever Wilde series reaches the high bar set by the previous series.
This large family is interesting, quirky, loving, and supportive. They enhance the storyline without taking over. That is a delicate balancing act by the author. She gives us just enough of them to make us want to know more. There should be some great books coming about all of these intriguing Wildes.
Grandpa and Doc are wonderful characters who provide comic relief while still being the underlying foundation for the family.
Even without a lot of page time, the author makes us love Pippa just as much as West, Nico and the Grandfathers do.
The author shows us the heart of these two very different men. We can feel the grief that is driving them and hindering them in this new relationship. Their confusion and pain are palpable after their loss. Their burgeoning and conflicting emotions are complicated by a visceral reaction every time they are around each other.
Their passion is off the charts hot, and the HEA is very satisfying.
I look forward to more from this family.
Two men, a baby, a small town, and a bunch of crazy Wilde relatives. West and Nico are opposites in almost every way… looks, personality, families, and outlooks on life. Nico is a city dweller now back to his small hometown that he exited for personal reasons and never looked back. West has his roots firmly planted with his family and career as a Doctor.
This is a sweet, sexy, opposites-attract, adversaries-to-lovers story. One little baby girl has stolen both their hearts. Neither is looking for a relationship, but the chemistry and fire cannot be denied. But they both have some issues too and Nico was never planning on staying…
Love this series!
This book introduced me to this author I’ve been collecting some of her books since
A baby, a doctor, & a rainbow- haired tattoo artist walk into a bakery….
What a great start to a new series! The world is vibrant and alive with characters that are well thought out and intriguing. I was pulled in from the first pages. This book has it all: an unexpected death, a baby, soul- searching, revelations, insecurities, and passion. Our MC’s will learn the meaning of family, and not to judge people by how they look. You will love this book!
Nico fled his hometown at 15. Now he’s back; called home for his sister’s funeral, and the baby she left to him. West was Adriana’s best friend. He refuses to hand Pippa over to the tattooed guy wirh the striped hair that he remembers from high school… The guy who left.
Come. Watch Nico learn about babies. Share the heartache of his past. As Nico grows to love Pippa, he also grows to love West. West finally breaks down Nico’s walls & his own biases to love him. It will take good friends & lots of family, but HEA is assured. Get. This. Book!
This book contains adult themes and language, mm sex and is intended for mature readers only.
Love this series and this book starts off the new series from an author I love in a fantastic way. I thought it would be hard to beat the Marian clan but man have I fallen for the Wilde family!
Lennox does a great job building this world and making us familiar with the characters occupying it. West and Nico are the first up in the series. We’ve met Nico before, in the Made Marian series, and here he is notified that his sister has died and left her infant in his care. When he goes back to his hometown sure that he will make arrangements for the child’s adoption he runs into the doctor who was his sister’s best friend and who has been taking care of her and who is clearly not a fan of Nico’s.
This sort of enemies to lovers tale has a well paced story arc, lots of humor and lots of emotional baggage. There are great secondary characters who help move the story, especially Doc and Grandpa who will figure prominently in all the books in the series. The crisis is heart wrenching and the resolution is beautifully uplifting. Tears flowed freely at both scenes!
Great book, great series, highly recommend.
This series has been on my to-read list for a while now. I bought Facing West a while ago when it was for sale and only got around to reading it now when I was in the mood for a MM romance. While I enjoyed the book, there were also plenty of things that didn’t quite work for me. But even with the plenty of small issues I still had fun reading this one as well.
Facing West is told from dual point of views of both West and Nico. Nico gets a call his sister has died and he returns to his hometown which he left when we was 15 years old. West just lost his best friend and is taking care of her baby for now. Nico doesn’t so babies and has no interest in the infant, West is determined to not let him get his hands on the baby at first. This gets resolved quite early in the story. Nico stays in town while settling his sister’s affairs and Wets stops by to check on the baby and they slowly grow closer.
This book has 3 things I don’t really care about in books; babies, pretending it’s just sex when it’s obvious both have deeper feelings and romance with a expiration date(namely Nico has to move back to where he lives). This made it hard for me to get into the book at times.Also it was so obvious how this would all get resolved and it bothers me when the characters go through the whole book never even considering another option.
Add in a multitude of small things that didn’t quite work for me. Some plot lines were reserved till the very end to make an appearance or get reveals. So you have these big pieces of back ground and history that don’t really get to be part of the story as they got revealed so late. Lots of issues between the two guys and things they deal with that aren’t addressed at all. No communication and just staying on the same track and then these things get miraculously and easily solved at the end of the book. A lot of sex scenes, but not enough sweet and bonding scenes. The book also felt a bit long probably due to the heavy focus on sex and how most of the other plot liens just got dragged along without progression till the end. Some things got resolved so easily while other things dragged on for most of the book. Some plot lines were set up early, but then rarely got attention or progression throughout the book. Some progression of characters and their opinions and belief etc weren’t done as subtle or in a way that made sense to me. They seemed to change their mind without a lot of set-up or because the other guy was hot or judged for no reason or jumped to conclusions. Some character behavior that seemed out of characters. The prologue that was frankly just a weird start of the book in my opinion with a cringe worthy teenage sex scene, it has relevance to the story, but I think not including the scene would’ve made for a stronger start of the book in my opinion.
And even with all those issues I mostly still had a fun time reading this book. It probably helped that I specifically was in the mood for a MM contemporary romance book. It was one of those easy reads that I kept reading even with all the issues I had about plenty of things. It was fun to see Nico and West fall for each other, although I would’ve loved some more sweet bonding scenes to counteract the plenty of sex. I would’ve liked actually seeing their relationship progress throughout the book and not just them having sex.
I also liked the small town setting and the tight big Wilde family. While the small town setting doesn’t fully come alive, it still had that small town feel where everyone knows everyone. And al the benefits and less ahead things that come along with that. I also liked what we saw of West’ family, he comes from this huge family and they are quite the tight bunch. This obviously will form the basis of this series with each book focusing on a different Wilde. We mostly get a bit about Felix and Hudson in this book, just enough to make me curious, but not enough to really get a feel for them. And I am just not sure if I want to continue the series because of all the troubles I had with this one.
The two family side characters that we did see a lot of were Doc and Grandpa and those are probably my favorite characters from this book. They were just so fun to read about and they obviously cared a lot about their whole family. They were a bit much at times, but overall I liked them and how they could add some comedy to scenes. I liked how they always were ready to help West and Nico too. And there are some fun scenes with them in it.
While Nico and West seemed nice enough, there just was something missing for me to really like them. I also felt like their personalities weren’t worked out as much as I would’ve liked. Nico is this hurt and scared guy who is used to running away and is covered in piercings, tattoos and has blue hair. He doesn’t talk about his feelings and hence we don’t get to know a lot about his feelings as he pushes those away. West seemed like a good guy, but he just wasn’t really interesting. He’s a good doctor, does his job well and loves his family. There wasn’t anything really intriguing or interesting about him. He was a quite judgemental about Nico at first even while finding him hot, but I do like how he was open minded enough to change his mind. I also found his sex behavior to not fully mesh with the rest of his personality somehow. This book mostly deals with West blaming Nico he left at age 15 and him wanting Nico to stay here and knowing he wouldn’t. While Nico thinks he doesn’t deserve more and wants things to just be sex.
These two started off with mutual lust from the start. They hate each other, but lust about the other’s body. Then they slowly get to know each other a bit and eventually jump in bed. While I liked they don’t jump in bed right away it also didn’t feel like there really was a lot getting to know each other. There mostly is a bit of sexual tension, some resolving of initial plot lines and then West deciding to go for it. After that there is a lot of sex scenes, but not as much of them being together and bonding without that. There are some sweet scenes where they connect, but I just wanted to see a bit more of that and really feel why they fall for the other. I also felt a bit off how West is always the one to try and get information out of Nico instead of Nico volunteering the information. It becomes clear they care about the other a lot, but I didn’t fully see or feel that happening. They do make for a great couple and the epilogue was nice to see how they make things work, although I wouldn’t have minded seeing some of those scenes play out.
To summarize: This was a steamy romance read. While I had fun reading this one there were a bunch of things I didn’t really care for. There were some of the main plot lines for the book I didn’t care for like the baby focus, both guys pretending it’s only sex and the clear expiration date for their romance. And some smaller issues I had with things that happened. I liked the small town setting and the big tight Wilde family. Doc and Grandpa were two fun side characters and I really liked them. Nico and Wets were nice enough, but I never fully warmed up to really liking them or finding them interesting. West just wasn’t as interesting and Nico was so defensive and used to running and hiding that you don’t get the chance to really explore more of his personality. They did make for a good couple somehow, the attraction between these two was obvious and there is plenty of sex once they decide to jump in bed together, but I would’ve liked some more relationship building/ connection and sweeter scenes to really feel why they fall for one another. All in all this was a fun steamy read and I am curious about the other family member, but at the same time there were plenty of things that prevented me from liking this one as much as I had hoped.
Everyone has a past, but some pasts are harder to face than others. Nico hasn’t been back to his home town in fifteen years, and had no plans of returning. It’s only when his sister dies that he’s forced back to take care of his niece and deal the rest of his sister’s estate. Weston Wilde has his own opinions about Nico, but soon his opinions begin to change and they begin a sweet and hot romance. I adore how much both men love Nico’s niece and getting to know the Wildes was just as fun as it was to meet the Marians.
The narration was spectacular. This is definitely one of my favorite books by Lucy Lennox and Michael narrates it perfectly.
This enemies to lovers story was sweet and hot all mixed together. Nico and his tattooed and pierced body going home to a buttoned up West was definitely an opposites attract romance. Throw in sweet baby Pippa and two stumbling single men trying to figure it all out and it was the perfect combination.
A great story. Nico had such a tough life until he met West. A story of love and
forgiveness and family. So great to see some of the Marian’s!
Loved the cross over from the Marian family!
So glad these men got their well deserved happily ever after! Especially after everything Nico went through and had to endure. West was perfect for Nico, he didn’t care to put him in his place when he was being a “prickly pear” as West liked to say. They balanced each other and as opposite as they were, they fit perfectly. Plus when they got together it was EXPLOSIVE!!
Lennox hits her stride in this book. Gone are the oversexed grannies from the first series, however, she improved on her strengths with things such as family, respect and love.
The backbone of the family is the relationship between doc and gramps. Their home is often overran with the ten grandkids, various relatives, spouses and partners. I love when writers have families that are all about love and homophobia is a foreign concept to those families. I look forward to the next book in the series.
There are not enough stars for this gorgeous marriage of passion and emotion that will certainly leave you with that wonderful loving feeling! Story 5*, Emotion 5*, and Sizzle a scorching 5*.
Lucy Lennox, again provides wonderful entertainment with her first in a new series, Facing West: The Forever Wilde series. This is a brand new series, yet linked to the well-loved, best-selling Made Marian series. This is the story of Griffin’s best friend Nico and a story you will want to prioritize on your TBR list after you one-click this link. Amazon.
Tattoo artist, Nico Salerno receives notification that his sister, who he hasn’t seen in 15 years has died, leaving him guardianship of his 4-month-old niece. He has no intention of ever leaving San Francisco to return to his hometown of Hobie Texas but things change and he needs to return home to say goodbye to his sister and make arrangements for his niece. When Nico discovers that the baby is currently being cared for by his former classmate who has evidently become his sister’s best friend, Dr. Weston Wilde, he can’t imagine why his mother isn’t caring for the baby. So much has changed since Nico Left Texas.
On his return to his hometown, Nico certainly doesn’t receive the welcome one might anticipate for the sibling of the deceased young woman. He wasn’t the most malleable teen and people remember him for his minor misdeeds. What West sees and his opinion are at definite odds as the man he sees is, ‘even in his grief, more beautiful than any human being he’d ever seen close up’, despite or perhaps because of his colorful hair, body art, and piercings, lip rings etc. West still doesn’t understand what caused Nico to abandon his sister and mother when he was only 15 and he isn’t about to let him hurt baby Pippa.
The interesting, handsome and caring Dr. Wilde causes salacious thoughts and pushes all of Nico’s buttons but Nico has never had a serious boyfriend and he isn’t about to start now.
There are times when this story becomes very intense and emotional and then the author hits us with one of her trademark zingers causing the reader to laugh out loud. Descriptions of intimate moments are so precious that you, the reader, share the experience, the intensity, the frenzy, and the emotion. “Shhh, it’s okay. Let me in, baby. Please.” Oh, my!
I so enjoyed hearing again from some of my friends from the Made Marian Series; Griffin and Sam and of course, Mom Marian. Mentions of the bar, Harry Dicks’ brings back wonderful Marian memories.