An Amazon Top 10 Bestseller“Ask Me Why is a gorgeously-written, angsty book that packs a great punch to your gut. If you like a jerk with a heart of gold, this is the book for you. Oh, and I dare you not to fall in love with little Ollie!” — LJ Shen, USA Today bestselling authorOne deep breath. Two slow blinks. Three hollow beats.I’m still here. After three years, that reminder isn’t as …
After three years, that reminder isn’t as necessary. But everyone has their bad days. This is definitely one of them. Until an adorable little boy dashes into my store. His zest for life makes me smile in a way that’s been long lost. Then I meet his father.
Well, confront is more like it.
Brance Stone is volatile.
Offensive.
Harsh.
And can’t be bothered to care.
Not that I want him to. I get frostbite just looking into Brance’s glacial stare. But there’s something undeniable about him.
My misery suddenly craves company. The suffocating numbness lifts whenever Brance is near. That alone should have me running in the opposite direction. Try as I might, there’s no avoiding him. If only I could understand why. As if he’d let me.
I don’t ask. He doesn’t tell. A silent, bitter truce settles between us.
That was our first mistake.
It’s certainly not the last.
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Wow!! Enemies to lovers. Two broken people who put each other back together!! Single parent romance. So loved reading this book!!
ASK ME WHY: An Enemies to Lovers is a Standalone Romance. I have read all the previous book releases by Harloe Rae. When I heard about her new release, I was quick to 1-click. Life got in the way of my starting to read this book right away, but once I had some reading time, I couldn’t wait to finish the story. And I always am happy when a book has a good ending.
Braelyn Miller is a easy character to feel sympathetic toward. A few years back, she had lost the love of her life in a car accident on the same day he was going to propose to her. She was in the car too, but he died and she did not. The grief she felt was all consuming, unforgiving and unrelenting. For him she would make herself push forward, and live for both of them. She opened a unique shop called “Thicket.” It became her entire life, and without it she’d be a lost cause.
She was in her store, same as everyday but Sunday, when a young boy comes racing in the store door. As he darts around her store checking everything out, his delight in the store stock makes her have a rare smile. He’s bubbling with pure happiness and carefree bliss. It must be infectious and impossible to ignore, because her lips lift in the most genuine smile. This kid radiates everything that is good in the world. He is with his Nanny, but she prefers honorary grandmother. Her name is Mary and her charge is named Oliver, but he tells her that she can call him “Ollie.” Without even realizing it, Braelyn looks forward to the numerous return visits of Mary and Ollie. This taffy-loving kiddo has given her a reason to smile again.
It was a unpleasant shock when one day Ollie comes bouncing in, but accompanied by his daddy, Brance Stone. The man looks at her with an icy stare. It is obvious he has a massive chip on his shoulder. He is clearly mad at the world, or her specifically. Every word that comes out of his mouth is condescending. As if ripping her apart was a necessary evil. Then Ollie comes between them and she sees this awful person change to the most loving father a child could have. The love for his son is shining from his ice blue eyes. The black cloud that was over him, suddenly disappears. She sees him as having a broken-heart and lost-soul, similar to her own. They both seem to only have room in their hearts for this young child, but is there room for one another?? It would take a miracle or maybe just the love of a child.
Goodness, this book was an emotionally charged, full of angst romance that will grip your heart and choke you with all the feels, all at the same time. Ask Me Why is enemies to lovers, single dad romance and my first read from this author.
Braelyn was just recovering from a tragic incident and trying to busy herself with her thriving business. There, she met the super sweet and adorable Ollie. This kid completely stole my heart right from the start. His father though, took me awhile to warm up with LOL. I couldn’t count the time I wanted to smack him on the head with his rough, tough attitude against Braelyn. But of course, the heated back and forth, lingering attraction made me just read on until his back story was revealed. In the end, you will realize that they couldn’t be more right for each other with Ollie to make them one happy family.
Be prepared to fall in love and cry with this beautifully written love story. Highly recommend it to every one who loves a great romance read.
One of my favorite enemies to lovers romance’s this year! I couldn’t put it down!
This is a true enemies to lovers! These are my favorite trope and add a single dad to the mix and it’s my ultimate read. I fell in love with all the characters even though Brance was a stubborn fool for a while there. Pulls at all the heart strings and the banter is epic! Flawlessly written! Five full stars! I will definitely be needing this on my shelf!
We all know love and hate are the two sides to the same coin correct?. In Ask Me Why Harloe Rae creates an alluring tale of this exact saying.
We meet Braelyn our beautiful shop owner who has survived a significate loss. There are many days she is not even sure which was up, or which way is down. She has come so far, but understands she has a long way to go before she will truly be ok. She wears her heart on her sleeve, but she knows giving her heart away is not something she is willing to do.
Brance is our strong willed bull-headed lawyer who has sworn off of any kind of commitment. He is in the mind set that all woman are after one thing, and that one thing is not something he is willing to give. It took me a little bit to warm up to Brance. I really wanted to just smack the cockiness right out of him. However, the more I got to know him the more I understood why he had a very skewed view on things. I mean who wouldn’t be a little skewed after the things he has gone through.
The two of them together is nothing short of hot!! When they first meet you can just see the chemistry they ooze towards each other. They both agree that there is something there, but know neither can give each other what they both need and deserve.
Now lets not forget about a very energetic little boy who is smarter than most his age. He sits and observes, and knows what his father needs. Throw in some meddling friends that are like family, and you get an explosive relationship that is full of hot and steamy scenes.
All in all I loved this book. I went through all kinds of emotions while reading it. I giggled some, cried a little bit, and swooned at all the swoon worthy moments.
Ask Me Why is a perfect title for Braelyn and Brance’s story because it’s a question that each of them seem to struggle with throughout the course of their story. Asking why brings with it a large amount of baggage and an uncontrollable feelings – ones that make their daily lives difficult because moving forward is not something that can be done until the past is either forgiven or let go of, if it’s even possible.
Braelyn is definitely a broken heroine – one who has experienced more grief and hardships than any one person should have to – but what I admire most about her is the fact that despite everything she’s faced, she’s a survivor and while her life is still a struggle, she at least tries every day to live, maybe not fully, but with every effort to make each better than the last.
Even after finishing Brae and Brance’s story, I honestly still don’t know how I feel about Brance. I don’t usually have a problem with hard ass hot holes, but it was extremely difficult for me to like him or to identify any redeeming qualities in him for quite a bit of the story. I get that he’s been burned by woman, but he doesn’t know anything about Brae and it’s clear fairly early in the story that she is nothing like the women who have hurt him, but he still chooses to treat her horribly, almost like he’s punishing her for the sins of his past, and while Brae isn’t afraid to put Brance in his place, she shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of behavior but a complete stranger, and especially, when they start spending more time together.
While I didn’t truly understand why Brae was attracted to Brance and allowed him to treat her in the ways that he does, Harloe Rae does show another side to Brance – one that is devoted to his son and has other emotions beside anger and frustration. I think, for me, my perspective was already tainted and Brance’s changes weren’t enough to alter my view.
The story as a whole was well laid out and Brance’s son, Ollie, was a definite scene stealer who had a hand in bringing constant light and goodness to both his father and the beautiful candy shop owner whose candy he adores.
I have to admit…I truly didn’t understand why Brae was attracted to Brance and allowed him to do the things he does while also being a huge asshole to her every chance he got. The fact that Ollie played such a pivotal role in the story absolutely helped my enjoyment of Ask Me Why, and by the end, even if I still felt a bit like Brance was undeserving of Brae, I understood why she gave him more chances than I ever would.
3.5 Poison Apples
This was an intense enemy to lovers read.
Brance and Braelyn both had tragic passed that letting anyone in was near impossible. Braelyn who owns the adorable shop Thicket befriends a taffy loving 4-year-old Oliver who becomes smitten with Braelyn. Brance Ollie’s dad is not affected at all, he is a ruthless bumhole who is downright Mean, Aggrorant and Nasty to Braelyn this first time they meet. Ollie stills love the shop and make his Dad take him every free moment he can. Brance eventually lets a touch of his guard down when he sees how much Brae really loves Ollie.
This was more of a 3.5 read for me but I round up. It was swoon-worthy and Ollie make up for a lot of his Dads mouth, but I just couldn’t get passes how freaking mean he was, there is arrogant and then A$$hole and he was the later. Braelyn was so affected by her past and PTSD but then it went away for most of the second half of the read. The ending was sweet, but I needed more groveling from Brance
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Once again, this author has gone and thrown me into a plot so thick with angst, emotions, and heartache that it was enough to make cry and I did cry. Harloe poured into this book, and it had me hooked from page one right through to the last page of the book. It was epic. I am a sucker for angst. Even though I know it’ll gut punch me every damn time, I always go back for more and Harloe is one of those authors I continue to go back to and read and re-read. With each and every book, I am left thinking that it cannot get any better than this, but every damn time she goes and tops it and this book did just that.
Ask Me Why focuses on two main characters, Braelyn and Brance and their emotional, angst-filled, all-consuming, addictive love story… And let me tell you now… You are going to SWOON, and cry and maybe curse the author out throughout this book. I did… I’ll own that.
Braelyn is trying to move on from a horrible and tragic accident that has left her grieving and suffering from major panic attacks/anxiety and more. She’s done the best she can and continued on with her life. She opened a store called Thicket that sells candy and other different things. It had been a dream of hers, and she was happy and content for the most part, but that all comes crashing down when a young boy comes into her store and she forms a connection with the boy and it’s then that she realizes just how unfulfilled her life really is, how lonely she is.
Brance is the father of a young boy named Ollie, he is a closed off, he’s a bit of an a******* (the best kind) and has a rock hard personality after things in his own life haven’t been easy either, and he really only has one weakness… His son. The apple of his eye. Ollie instantly clings to Braelyn, he’s looking for a new mom but Brance wants none of it. He thinks that it will only lead to more heartache for him… But Ollie has other plans for them.
These two had sexual tension you could cut with a knife and it seemed it got even more intense the more they fought it. The chemistry in this book was off the charts and the way these two bounced off of each other was amazing, witty, sassy, fun and you couldn’t help but cheer these two on and hope that they see their happiness is right in front of them. It started out as enemies to lovers but grew into so much more. With that said, this book was swoony in a sense, but it was emotional, it was full of angst and situations and twists that had my heart feeling like it was being stomped on repeatably, the overall push and pull with these two was enough to send me crazy, but I loved it!!
It held my attention all the way through, and my heart and my emotions and it didn’t let go until the end, and as much as these types of plots have the ability to twist me up inside… I am addicted to them!
Harloe has become a fast favorite of mine over the last few months, and I am so grateful I gave her a chance because she has gone and raised the bar extremely high with this one and it most definitely is !!
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Ask me why I’ve fallen so hard for a man colder than ice? Ask me why my heart is so full and about to burst? I’ll tell you why! Harloe Rae has taken two broken people and created a story that begs to be read and can’t be put down till you’re done!
I didn’t expect to fall in Love with Brance. He’s moody, a grade A A$$hole and rude to his core! Braelyn is quiet, lost and trying to heal her soul! She didn’t deserve to be degraded by Brance and he definitely didn’t deserve an ounce of her time but the thing is that in the end it wasn’t a matter of who deserved what it came down to what they needed!
The darkness inside Brance needed the light Brae still held on too! Brae needed the protection and safety Brance provided her! Together they were more than they ever could’ve been apart but even the light can’t cast out all the shadows and when Brae’s come for her it’s up to Brance to decide if he can be there for her like she needs!
If I only had one word to describe Ask Me Why it would be angsty! This book was a definite page turner for me and I could not get enough of Brance and Braelyn. These two were the epitome of opposites, yet they say that opposites attract. Brance met Braelyn when his son kept wanting to go into her shop for candy. He really wanted to hate her since every other woman in his life had let him down before. But can you really so no to a matchmaking five year old. If you are in the mood for a moody hero and a sweet heroine, I would recommend this book for you. I could not put it down!
When the hard hearted man finally falls in love, WOW! Brance is just that guy! He is also the character you won’t like at all in the beginning of this book. Other than the love he has for his son, Ollie, he is abrupt, condescending and doesn’t trust women at all.
I loved this story and the characters! Ollie is so adorable, Braelyn is sadly broken but working on moving forward and Brance is an ass, but with his son playing matchmaker, slowly his walls come down. Brance just doesn’t know it’s happening until he screwed up and she left. He finally realizes that he actually misses Braelyn. She brought smiles and laughter into his life and simply made him happy. Ollie opened her heart and Brance, he brought her broken heart back to life and showed her how to live again.
Harloe, Harloe, oh Harloe… you, you sneaky little woman! You gave us a hero that I pretty much disliked on principle. I mean, who is he to knock down anyone’s hopes and dreams? I disliked Brance SO MUCH! He was cruel and a serious jerkwad. I wanted to kick him repeatedly in the shins. But then, I found myself understanding motivations and feelings behind the actions. I don’t condone bullies or just being mean to spite people… but reading is about getting outside my comfort zone. It’s about my introverted-self “meeting” others. So while I struggled through the first half of the book, this is also the area where Miss Harloe Rae got me all invested in her characters.
If anyone can read this story and not fall for Ollie, well, you’re heart may be more hardened than the beginning 50% Brance. Ollie and Braelyn are just smitten with each other. I adored their first meeting and that insta-connection they had. It took a lot longer for any connection to form between the adults. There was some wicked animosity oozing out of this story. Really, give it a chance… this is character development at its finest hour. I could see the layered facets that Miss Rae gave her characters. For every mean and spiteful thing done in the beginning, there is something on the ending half that will redeem that character.
I received an ARC of this book with the hope that I would leave an Unbiased Opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… my opinions.
Harloe Rae is a new author to me me and after reading Ask Me Why I have to question why this very talented author has not crossed my radar before now and make no mistake this will not be the last book I read by her because I plan on searching out her previous books.
Ask Me Why will certainly tug on your heartstrings, Braelyn is sassy and sweet but she struggles with PTSD on a daily basis and life is not easy after losing her boyfriend in a tragic accident. Her world revolves around her shop and that’s where she meets an adorable little boy named Oliver. Brance is a single father and spends his time trying to make sure his son Oliver is happy but what happens when Oliver decides he needs a mum and that Braelyn is the woman he wants……….
I loved everything about this story, I loved Braelyn and Brance and I adored Oliver, this book has the perfect mix of love, angst and banter and I was captivated by the little boy who just wanted a mum….
This is a heart warming story that I highly recommend for all romance lovers.
This book had my heart in a vise – and it would not let go.
Ask My Why by Harloe Rae is the story of Brance and Braelyn. Two people who are so very broken in their own way. Brance is a Grade-A (fill in the blank here)! There were SO many times I wanted to reach into the book, shake him, and tell him to get his crap together. Brance is insulting, misogynistic, self-centered, angry, and unforgiving. For most of the book, I couldn’t find any redeeming quality in him, and if it wasn’t for his adoration and love for his son, Ollie, I probably would have given up on Brance.
Braelyn, on the other hand, though grieving a loss, suffering from trauma, and finding it hard to move forward in her life, has every right to be angry and to push people away. Instead, she manages to find so much beauty in the world. These two are complete opposites, but they manage to balance each other out.
Note: If you are a fan of cocky, arrogant, egotistical, and broken single dads – then this is the book for you!
I loved the intense banter between Brance and Braelyn. And I just adored Ollie. I also very much enjoyed the secondary characters, and I hope they get their own book(s) and HEA!
The one thing I had some trouble with upon first read is the scene containing the climax. It felt off and as if Bance and Braelyn had taken 10 steps back in their relationship. I gave myself time to ponder the scene before writing my review. Upon further reflection, I could see how such an incident could occur, especially when the people involved have the type of issues these two do. (It is SO hard to write about my feelings regarding this scene while trying to be spoiler-free. Sigh.) If you read it, I would love to know your thoughts about this scene.
This book is breathtakingly beautiful. The characters are so beautifully developed and real that the prose will unmistakably pull at your heartstrings you will laugh, hope, believe, trust, and love as this story rockets you with red hot chemistry. Braelynn is the owner of Thicket a candy gift store and she is beautiful, kind, trustworthy but she is has suffered great heartbreak when she was in car accident that killed her fiancé. Brance is a hot twenty nine year old lawyer father to Ollie a five year old sweetheart that craves the love of a mother. Brance is the only parent in Ollie’s life and Brance has admittedly never loved a women not even his own mother. Ollie and his babysitter happen to find Braelynn’s store and Ollie falls head over heels for the store and the shops owner. Ollie tries to no avail to matchmake his dad and Miss Braelynn. Brance wants nothing to do with the shop or it’s owner and is absurdly rude to Braelynn. He is so mean and rotten that Braelynn also shows her ugly side. All the while Ollie keeps lobbing for Braelynn but to no avail although his father is starting to wear down. It’s here where the seeds of friendship start to blossom as enemies become secret lovers. The fairytale begins to unravel definitely a steamy five star read you’ll want to read in one sitting. Harloe has truly out done herself with this wickedly awesome story…it will leave you wanting more……..
Harloe is 1 of my favourite authors! Each books she’s put out just keeps getting better and better.
Braelyn & Brance. Oh Brance you made it so hard to love you at first but then there was this moment & you flipped your switch and I was hooked.
Braelyn has had a horribly painful past and everyday that goes bye she gets a little bit stronger but keeps punishing herself.
Brance has been burned badly before.
Brance’s son Ollie is all that is good in the world.
Olllie is a little powerhouse on a mission!
His mission takes us on an emotional roller coaster that will make you cry on one page then have you laughing on the next.
“You’re my sunlight and rainbows after the rain. Don’t leave Me in the dark.”
Oh my get ready to have your heart strings tugged !! I truly loved Braelyn , she is sweet, sassy, but hurting. a tragic accident that killed her boyfriend has left her with PTSD and she struggles daily to keep it together. She is living day by day running her eccentric cute shop. Her days are mundane and begin to blur together until the day a swoosh of red hair and cutness overload barrels into her shop and his name is Oliver. She immediately falls in love with this sweet little man but the big man that follows him she could do without. Brance is gruff, stoic, arrogant but so easy on the easy . They immediately get off on the wrong foot but neither one will back down and soon that line between love and hate becomes blurred ! I loved their story and all of the angst, banter and sexual tension that came along with it !!
~~Michele McMullen ~~
This book was a really nice surprise.It kinda blew me away.
It was really satisfying and emotional.
Braelyin can’t seem to recover from the car accident that took her boyfriend away and changed her life completely.She is suffering from nightmares,PTSD and depression.There is nothing that can make her truly happy,except for “Ticket”,her own candy store.So when little ball of energy and happiness called Ollie enters her shop she is blow away by him(kids can make everyone happy).
Brance is Ollie’s father.Hurt by women in his past,he is determinate that he won’t let one ruin his son’s life.So when he finds out about Ollie’s little infatuation and friendship with Braelyin he is noy happy.Sure Brance is kind of smitten with Braelyin from the very first moment,but he doesn’t trust her.
These two decide to became “friends” for Ollie’s sake,but whit time Brance starts to see the real Braelyin.
This book was emotional but very sweet.There was some angst but not too much,just enough to make things interesting.I was pleasantly surprised while reading this one and I can definitely recommend it to everyone.
An emotional, beautifully written single dad/second-chance romance! You will fall in love with Braelyn, Brance, and adorable Oliver! Highly recommend!