When I first noticed Lisa Betancourt, she threatened me with a baseball bat. To be fair, I deserved it. But none of that mattered when I found out I had a baby brother—a brother who is now left to my care. Too bad I don’t know the first thing about parenting. If I have any hope of not ruining this poor kid’s life, I need Lisa’s help. She quickly becomes my salvation, my heart. And even though our … my salvation, my heart. And even though our timing is all wrong, I can’t help but wonder how can I convince her to stay with me—with us—forever.
Cole Simmons is just my insensitive jerk of a neighbor.
Or, that’s all he used to be.
Now he’s in completely over his head, taking care of an adorable child that I’m getting way too attached to way too fast. And the scary part? I’m starting to get attached to Cole, too. After my nasty divorce, I was sure I’d never risk falling in love again—but Cole has me questioning my resolve at every turn. Frankly, I’m starting to wonder if Cole isn’t the only one who is in completely over his head.
Neither of them was looking for love or a ready-made family. But what will they do when they realize they’ve stumbled head-long into both?
This full-length novel can be read as a standalone but is the third book in the Everything’s Better series. You’ll see friends from Everything’s Better with You, Everything’s Better with Kimberly & Cherishing the Goddess. Cole & Lisa’s love story is chock full of Enemies to Lovers, Single Parent, Secret Baby (or two), Nanny (no power imbalance) & Fake Engagement goodness and is safe with NO cheating.
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On my TBR list now!
I found this read to be very interesting with the theme. Lisa and Cole make a great couple with plenty of chemistry throughout the pages. The storyline flowed easily. This was my first book by this author and I liked the writing however having said that I thought that there were to many characters for it to be a totally smooth reading time. Which is why I rated it a four.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The story of Cole and Lisa is a heartfelt and sweet romantic suspense. The lead characters are vulnerable and likable, the plot refreshing. It was better than what I’d expected. I enjoyed reading it.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
With tears in my eyes I read the last chapter. What an incredibly good book this was!
Two people who have both experienced a lot, find each other when they are both seeking to give meaning to their new life. Cole loses his mother and gets a little brother that he will take care of. Lisa tries to get over her divorce and feelings of betrayal. Due to a physical condition, she is unable to get pregnant. When Cole is looking for a nanny, Lisa takes on this task. There is strong chemistry between them and they fall in love. In addition, the story of the love of Cole’s mother for a rich man who was never accepted but never lost.
An intensely written book. Beautiful moments, humorous moments, love described from all sides. Highly recommended
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Book three of the Everything’s Better series a well written story. I loved the way Lisa Betancourt and Cole Simmons first meet. A great storyline and the story flowed smoothly from page to page, a couple that drew you in and did not let go until I finished reading. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I enjoyed this story. Cole was such a romantic once he realized his own feelings. His actions made me smile, cry, and appreciate the reality in my own home. He cared for Lisa despite all that made up her life. I loved Lisa’s journey throughout and how she was all in once CJ appeared. I recommend this story. I look forward to reading another story by Lucy Eden.
I received a copy of this story through Enticing Journey Book Promotions, and this is my unsolicited review.
This was my first book by this author and because of the blurb, I took a chance on it. It was a really good book with so much going on. It was great seeing Lisa turn from the neighbor he wasn’t supposed to be around to friend to Nanny and then lover. She also healed and learned to accept things as they were in her life. Her and Cole were super cute together and add the interaction with Cj and you get even more sweet moments. Cole had a rough upbringing but soon found himself in a loving and supporting family. His parents are incredible people and speak so much truth. They support him in everything he does and teach him life lessons. The hardest was dealing with his birth mother. He did learn so much about her and his birth dad. Yes what they had wasn’t the norm but they got two great kids out of the deal. Meeting Lisa changes his life and his outlook on life. He had a plan before her and she opened his eyes to more possiblities. Lisa had a plan herself. She was gonna sing on Broadway but life had other plans for her. Meeting Cole and Cj opened her eyes to a future she never thought was possible. She learned to love again and what was really important in her life. Family is everything is this book! I loved how well she got along with his and vice versa with Cole getting along with hers. Cole took on a lot but you never knew how much he really struggled with a new baby. I mean a 25 year old guy even with family helping is gonna struggle a lot. She made everything seem like nothing was wrong and the only thing he struggled with was a finding a daycare. Yes having Lisa and his family help was nice. Anyway I liked the book and found myself falling for both Cole and Lisa. It was a great book!
New to me author. Book 3 of a stand-alone series with connecting characters. Unexpectedly sweet, cute with some emotional hits. Still gives you a sexy heading man. Cole and Lisa meet when he drunkenly mistakes her door for his. She angrily greets him with a baseball bat. The beginning makes you think this is a easy fun read. However, both characters have traumatic pasts. Lisa is recovering from a devastating divorce. It left her broken and insecure. Cole has a messy past that deals with an addicted mother, adoption, secrets and now he finds out he has a baby brother. The story will have you smiling, angry, frustrated and emotional. Great read.
This is a new-to-me author and I really enjoyed this story. It’s the third book in series of inter-connected standalones.
Cole Simmons gets off on totally the wrong foot with his beautiful new neighbour, Lisa Betancourt. However, when he finds himself the guardian of his hitherto unknown baby brother, and not having the first clue about raising babies, he’s more than grateful for Lisa’s intervention and help.
“I’d never been asked for a kiss before. It was adorable, silly, but also somehow incredibly sexy.”
Lisa is still licking her wounds after a painful divorce. She’s moved away from her family and loved ones to New York for a brand new start. She has no interest in being in a relationship so soon, however, Cole has a way of knocking down her walls. When baby CJ is thrown into the mix, there’s no way that she can keep herself away, especially when Cole offers her the role of nanny.
Overall, this was a great, really sexy read! Lisa is pretty vulnerable and comes with baggage. Cole’s baggage is nothing to be sniffed at either but his family are wonderful, loving and so supportive. It’s obvious that the two have amazing chemistry but both were so uncertain on how to navigate into more personal waters, once they’d set professional boundaries. I loved Cole – he’s such a good man and I enjoyed the unravelling of the mystery surrounding his background. Plus, he’s really not too shabby in the bedroom, either! A lovely, hot story with a sweet ending.
I loved this book! A phenomenally written story with wonderful characters that couldn’t be more perfect together is you’d try.
Lisa is running away from a past and failed marriage.
Cole just got handed and unexpected surprise that effects his present and future. One circumstance and/or situation after another slowly change everything. Neither were looking for love or even a relationship but these two can’t fight what’s happening for ever.
Highly recommended!
I loved this book! I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to hear everything about this couple. I was pretty heartbroken when o got to the end of the book and realized I wasn’t going to hear anymore from Cole and Lisa. This book took me on an amazing journey from start to finish I highly recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
An amazing story. There are so many interesting things discussed in this story that chronicles the relationship between Cole and Lisa. From their first drunken meeting to the end it is a tale of beauty. Cole is and adopted child who has had a stellar upbringing. Raised in a family with all the love he could ever want he is a well rounded and delightful human being. Lisa is recovering from a broken marriage and staying away from the loving family she believes will only smother her. Baby CJ becomes the catalyst that brings Cole and Lisa together. Surrounded by a loving and supportive family on both sides these two can’t help but fall in love.
This is truly a wonderful story that will inspire you. It will give you the steamy goodness you expect as well as warm your heart as Cole opens his heart for Lisa and CJ. Family and acceptance despite any differences is also a big part of the storyline. This is definitely a story I would read more than once.
I read this book in a day because I did not want to put it down.
The story is told in dual pov, alternating between Cole and Lisa. This story is unique because Cole (melanin-challenged) was adopted by the Simmons’ Family (more than enough melanin to go around). I liked how the author shows that a family, is family, regardless of skin color. Cole’s life is jilted when he finds himself the sole guardian of his little brother, that he knew nothing about. Lisa is trying to make a career for herself, but can’t seem to get enough sleep…if it wasn’t for her neighbor! I enjoyed the characters and their friends and family. I liked the way the story unfolded and found myself not wanting to stop reading. The characters seem like people you may know. The big reveal didn’t fall completely flat, but I was expecting a little more. This was not enough to take a whole star though.
I would recommend this read with the warning that it is an adult read with language and several adult scenes. 4.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book courtesy of BookSprout and Lucy Eden for my honest opinion.
This beautiful story about family, friends, and loyalty was amazing. Cole comes from a family that has loved him and treated him as one of their own since forever and I think he has struggled a little with the love and loyalty they show him but he accepts it and loves it. So, when he gets custody of his biological brother, he instantly wants to love and adore this kid as he was his own. He struggles with the day to day stuff because being a new parent is crazy, scary, and overwhelming yet his neighbor, whom he didn’t leave a great impression on starts to help him and he is smitten with her. Lisa has had a rough few years, has struggled with self-confidence due to her ex marriage and how disastrous it turned out, yet she comes from a strong, loving family and she falls instantly for baby Cj while silently falling in love with Cole. The love Lisa had instantly for CJ was amazing and the chemistry between her and Cole was so hot you could feel it. My favorite part of it all was the family, they showed us blood isn’t always family, family is what we make it, family is who is always there having our backs and loyal, and most of all family loves us no matter what, it isn’t always blood that make a family but it’s those who stand by us and help and loves us through everything that makes us family. Truly beautiful family and great series.
Lucy Eden blew me away with this book. It was so cute and sweet while simultaneously bringing some pretty hard hitting emotion and real world problems to the forefront. And those real world problems were brought to life in a manner that shows the author clearly has personal experience or truly researched these things. Lucy beautifully delivers a story that is done with respect and thoughtfulness that is overflowing with romance.
It was easy to fall in love with both Lisa and Cole. Both of them dealing with some of the hardest things in life but both being such kindhearted people i found myself cheering them on even harder to get their HEA.
Everything’s Better with Lisa by Lucy Eden is book Three in the Everything’s Better Series. This is the story of Lisa Betancourt and Cole Simmons. I have read the previous books but feel you can make this a standalone book if you wish to do so. This book does have past characters come through which added to my enjoyment of this book. Lisa and Cole have been neighbor for a little while never really interacting and both have an assumption of each other. Cole ends up with his little (baby) brother CJ he is at a lost of how to take care of him. Lisa who is used to taking care of her siblings goes forward to help him which brings them closer together. There is no easy ride for these two and I did enjoy their story and this series. I hope to read more books from Ms. Eden soon.
This is the 3rd book in this series and is Lisa and Cole’s story. This is a beautifully written enemies / lovers romance story, which is sweet, fun, and an entertaining read, which had me enthralled throughout this addictive page turner. I highly recommend for all readers.
Everything is Better With Lisa by Lucy Eden 5 stars due 11/25/19
Lisa and Cole + CJ
Not such a great beginning–the whole coming at him with a bat thing–even though he was drunk and trying to get into her house instead of his next door. He wasn’t too far gone to see how beautiful she was.
Cole worked long hours as an associate working toward partner in a prestigious law firm. He rarely went out and didn’t have time for much dating. Things might just be changing. That thought was a laugh when the biggest change was suddenly finding out he had a baby brother and with the death of his birth mother, he was next of kin and given custody of the little guy. Not that CJ wasn’t something else and who wouldn’t love him–he looked like a tiny version of Cole who just wasn’t prepared to become a father figure of a toddler.
Lisa was working toward the dream she’d never had a chance to during her marriage. The divorce from the cheater and her bartender’s job in the gentlemen’s club left her with the time for auditions. She had no interest in men. Well, she didn’t want to.
When CJ arrived she couldn’t help lending a hand and falling for the little guy and big guy but she wouldn’t admit it. Until…
There are problems, joys, steam, friends, family, some mystery and a bad-guy to keep it going. A feel-good story with reality thrown in.
Reviewed for Words Turn Me On
There was so much going on in this book. It was hard to imagine how anyone looked until later in the book. It took me until Chapter 3, to figure out Cole had been raised and adopted by a black family. Since no descriptions were given for his mother, father, sister, brother, or his sister’s fiance, it was a little more difficult to confirm anything. Lisa had talked about Cole having blue eyes at some point.
There was the statement below from early in the book, but it could have been interpreted in a couple of different ways. no information that allowed me to form the correct context. There was nothing to indicate if this was in direct reference to Cole, if it was to indicate the woman wasn’t too intelligent, or if it had some other meaning.
“Or the type of woman that proclaims at a family barbecue that she didn’t know Black families could adopt white children.”
I also felt like 1/3 or 1/4th of the book could have been eliminated with no major problem. It felt like two or three books combined into one. As I was reading, I felt like each subplot gave that section of the book a different feel from the other subplots. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The front of the book lays most of them out.
“Cole & Lisa’s love story is chock full of Enemies to Lovers, Single Parent, Secret Baby (or two), Nanny (no power imbalance) & Fake Engagement goodness and is safe with NO cheating.”
There are health issues, abandonment issues, career issues, a mystery with mildly sinister understones, etc. It was too much for me all in one book. It made me tired.
The book was not terrible. This was the first book I read from this author. I also discovered this was the third book in the series. I’m not sure I will follow up and re ad the first two.
I would recommend that you read this book and judge for yourself. Cole and Lisa do get their HEA.
I voluntarily read and reviewed the Advanced Reader Copy received via Hidden Gems.
A grand love story
Everything’s Better With Lisa (Everything’s Better Series Book 3) by Lucy Eden is so much more than a love story. Lisa and Cole have emotional baggage and both are allowing it to run their lives. A chance encounter, an adorable surprise, a budding friendship, drama, heat and heart comprises the plot and many sub plots of this couple.
This author and series is new to me, but Cole and Lisa spoke to me and I totally fell for them. The author takes them through their paces and reveals bits and pieces that kept me fully engaged, interested and invested from beginning to end.
Overall, a very well written book with wonderfully well developed and well rounded characters that I found captivating. Cole and Lisa’s HEA was pretty amazing too, plenty of promise for this couple.
I read an ARC of this book from Hidden Gems and voluntarily share my review.