I know two things when I meet my new boss, Greyson Parker Montgomery III.One, he’s an egomaniac. And two, we’re going to get naked.Something I didn’t know? That I’d end up pregnant.No one is more surprised by our off-the-charts chemistry than me. I’m a free spirit with a passion for design and a taste for the bohemian. Greyson is a cocky venture capitalist who’s as pretentious as his sharply cut … pretentious as his sharply cut power suits.
He owns half of Charleston, and has the other half at his beck and call. But the only place he owns me is in bed…or in the backseat of his car, boneless and begging for mercy.
We argue over contracts and costs all day long. Behind closed doors, however, we engage in a different kind of business. The kind that has me surrendering to his unique brand of dominance.
Our no-strings attached arrangement suits me just fine. Until I wake up one morning with what I think is a wicked hangover.
Only it’s not a hangover.
I thought Greyson was a typical “greed is good” grump. But when he demands to be involved in the life we accidentally created, I start to see a different side of him. One that’s more gentleman than jerk.Am I crazy to think we could be a family together? Or is making me fall for him just another one of his power plays?
SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN is a STANDALONE, full length, accidental pregnancy/enemies-to-lovers romance.
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So hard to put down!
Love, love, loved it! Grey and Julia’s story is burning hot! They don’t fall in love in the traditional way but when they do you find yourself already in love with these two. Now I need to own a physical copy.
*AUDIOBOOK*
Southern Gentleman is book #3 in Jessica Peterson’s Charleston Heat Series. Julia is a literature professor and interior designer. Greyson owns and operates Montgomery Partners along with his brother, Ford. The two meet when Julia is hired to by Luke (whom we met in Southern Player) to work on the interior design of an old barn he is turning into a farmers market. Greyson is the investor. From the moment they meet and lock eyes there is instant chemistry. I could feel it immediately. It is intense and steamy. Julia and Greyson butt heads in the workplace. The enemies to lovers vibe is strong. Julia is quirky and eccentric. She is a bit of a free spirit. She is loving and loyal and has a great passion for literature. Specifically romance. I loved the continuation of the historic romance novel written by Olivia. Greyson is a frustrating stubborn man! He is successful in business and is punishing himself for his failed marriage. He had a terrible time listening to Julia and her needs. They had very different ideas of providing and showing up for one another means. He did FINALLY get it eventually and the epilogue was the sweetest.
Joe Arden and Emma Wilder continue to narrate this series with their sexy southern twang and passionate voices
Greyson stole my heart in such a big way. His southern charm really makes ya melt. He doesn’t do relationships. He’s okay with hitting and quitting it. Until Julia comes along. Julia and Greyson are working on a project together. Julia takes no shit from anyone, especially Greyson. They need to get themselves out of their system. Just once and that’s all. Just once turns into multiple times. Turns into Julia getting pregnant. This was an eye opener for Greyson. He does what he has to do. Proves to Julia he’s in it for the long haul. UNTIL work always comes first.
This was such a good book. I love for Jessica Peterson developed these characters. It’s real life situations for sure.
I think this is my favorite one of the series and I loved all four of them! I started at the end with Southern Heartbreaker and had to go back to the beginning with southern charmer. But Greyson and Julia top them all for me. Great books! Absolutely recommend.
Grey is a workaholic venture capitalist grumbling his way through life as he subjects himself to a state of misery after a divorce leaves him believing he doesn’t deserve happiness. Julia, meanwhile, is a professor of literature and part-time interior designer who finds herself struggling after her fathers death leaves her without a family and struggling to find her footing without him.
They find themselves instantly drawn together when Julia is hired to take on the design of a barn that Greyson is funding. However, because Greyson is wallowing in self-hatred, his immediate attraction to Julia pisses him off and he acts like a jerk to her, causing her to immediately dislike him. What follows is a dance of verbal barbs, intense eye contact, and tension thicker than the Charleston humidity. Eventually they end up hate banging, and what was supposed to be a one-time excursion to rid themselves of the sexual tension plaguing them become a more regular occurrence than they intended.
Their tryst takes them both down a new path when Julia ends up unexpectedly pregnant. While Grey is a workaholic who doesn’t believe he deserves happiness and comes off as a jerk because of that, he doesn’t shy away from stepping up. Julia, after a lot of thought that ultimately leads to her deciding to go through with the pregnancy (an exploration I really enjoyed because it felt very realistic and raw) is fine with Greyson being involved. However, she requires that he commits to being involved in all aspects of parenthood and puts forth equal effort in their coparenting arrangement.
As they work to ready for parenthood, Grey and Julia find themselves continuing to be drawn together and they decide to give their relationship a real shot. While they make a lot of progress, they find themselves deterred by communication problems. Grey end up trying to make big decisions for Julia without discussing what she wants with her and tries to make big gestures to “provide” for them while neglecting Julia’s emotional needs. For her part, Julia expresses her need for him to be “involved” but doesn’t define what that is (assuming his definition is the same as hers) and ends up frustrated when he acts in ways that fit his definition but not hers.
Peterson once again demonstrates her ability to write communication problems into romance that don’t come out as lazy or contrived. Instead, the communication blunders Grey and Julia find themselves navigating are incredibly common and stem not from a lack of communication, but from a lack of empathy and clarity. Of course, they both are able to admit where they fell short and take steps to correct it.
I find the plot line of a romance book the heroine (Julia in this case) is reading that almost directly reflects the journey she finds herself on to be a little tiresome. There are definitely times when the romance book being read in the book is used to demonstrate how novels can help people processes complex emotions and empathize with others. However, it often feels like it’s a literary device that is doing all the heavy lifting in pushing forth the overall narrative and character development.
This book has a classic setup of two people who are opposites, forced to work together, and ultimately finding themselves physically drawn together while ideologically at odds.
The sex scenes were great. Feisty Julia was a fun counterpoint to the arrogant and ambitious Gray.
There was a lot of realism to the surprise pregnancy – if I remember correctly, the author said she wrote the book while pregnant herself, and that kind of realism gives nuance to Julia’s ambivalent feelings about the baby and how it will change her life and relationship with Gray.
I also liked how their conflicts are over relatively minor and mundane things, like work hours and a house they want to buy. These conflicts are resolved through communication instead of grand gestures, which again helps anchor the story in real life.
I hadn’t read the previous books in the series but that didn’t seem to matter at all.
4.5 Stars for this book. Wow is this a great book from Jessica Peterson. It is filled with that enemies to loversish type drama. “There’s that saying—the one Mom always uses—that love and hate are two sides of the same coin.” I loved everything about these characters and about this book. I can not even begin to tell you how many times I laughed . This is a great read.
Sigh worthy romance at its best. This one grabbed me at the start and wouldn’t let go like Grey and Julia. Damn, I wanna find a man that growls!!!! Jessica Peterson writes with smooth grace, even the dirty parts. The characters and Charleston are brought to life in the pages and in your imagination. As with the other 2 books, I imagined Charleston as I was reading. Even when I wasn’t reading I was thinking of them. Hot angry sex, turned to passionate love and throw in an oopsie! You gotta read this one and hell, any of her books. This by far is my favorite! Kudos!!
5 You & Me Stars!!
As soon as I finished Southern Player I’ve been so excited for more of Ms.Peterson’s words! I did a happy dance when I found out there was going to be another Charleston Heat novel. I loved this story so much!
Southern Gentleman had such honesty, beauty, and so much heart! With Greyson and Julia I got to dig deeper, tackle the tough times, blush every shade of red, and feel everything under the sun! I connected so much with their realness throughout. It was unforgettable!
You know when you can’t stop reading a book because it’s that amazing yet, you want to savor every word so it doesn’t end? That’s exactly how I felt with Southern Gentleman!
This book not only stole my heart it made my life brighter in the best of ways, which is some of the many reasons why it’s my new favorite Jessica Peterson book! I can’t wait to read what she comes up with next!
*I volunteered to read and review a Copy of this book from Social Butterfly PR / the author*
This story is sweet and steamy! Sparks are flying as soon as Greyson and Julia meet. What starts as hate, soon turns hot and next they are preparing for three.
Lovely family and friends support.
I love this book. Julia and Grey are super characters. There are ups and downs and twist and turns. There are also hot and steamy scenes. Great book from beginning to end. I can’t wait to read the first two books in this series.
This is my first read from this author, and although this is the third in a series you can definitely read as a standalone and not feel like you are lost, it is a full story. I really enjoyed this enemies to lovers, surprise baby story. Greyson is not as bad a person as he tries to make out, he really comes through when Julia hits the lows in her early pregnancy.
Sweet and steamy this was a lovely easy to read romance, a strong female lead who is honest and straightforward, she has a great group of friends and I look forward to reading more about them when I catch up on the full series!
Once again Jessica writes another awesome, realistic southern romance! All of the books in these series are great and I love that all of the characters in each book are connected (close friends, family) to each other so you still get glimpses of past characters life’s in each book!
I absolutely loved Julia and Greyson and watching their story develop. It was real, emotional and steamy!! ohhh man does Jessica writes the hottest sex scenes ever! I love how real and honest Julia is and how Jessica wrote her pregnancy experience, the good bad and ugly..again real!! Not just fairytale and happiness! I was also drawn into Greyson’s character of a growly, serious man opening up to his insecurities and mistakes to realize its okay to be happy again! Also love that these books have epilogues and if you join the authors news letter you also get bonus epilogues!! Who doesn’t love to see where your favorite characters end up!! A must read for sure!
A good read. I enjoyed it overall. I enjoy more story than bedroom scenes so I was a bit overwhelmed with how hot it was. But the story itself was very satisfying.
I really enjoyed this story, it’s funny with lots of feelings and emotion. Great characters and I loved the surprise pregnancy storyline. I smiled, laughed and cried.
This series just gets better and better! I was looking forward to Julia and Greyson’s story, and this book blew me away! Neither of them are looking for a relationship, but figure why not still have some fun. But we all know what can happen when too much fun ensues! As Julia and Greyson come to terms with what is going to happen in their life, you get to see so many different facets of these characters. You know deep down that they need to end up together, but life doesn’t always go as planned, or does it?! Julia and Greyson have incredible chemistry and they just fit perfectly together and you can’t help but fall in love with both of them. This story also has all the feels like sadness, happiness, lust and maybe even love. I enjoyed this book so much, I read it in one sitting! I absolutely recommend this book and to read the entire series. It is phenomenal!
After reading book two in this series I couldn’t wait to see what was about to happen with Grayson and julia. These two were hit from the start. Both at each others throats when it came down to business, but it wasn’t long before their fiery passion mixed with tension boiled over. I loved his the story showed all the bad aspects of becoming a mother for the first time. The fears and panic you feel was well scripted. It isn’t all sunshine and roses as Julia found out. Amazing read. Loving this series.
Just what I wanted from a Southern Romance… Slow burn with so much Heat! Elizabeth @ Carolina Chic’s Read
4 Burning Stars!
Grey & Julia are totally combustible and have a slow burning romance brewing underneath their Lust! This is my first time reading this author, I signed up to read this as I live here in Charleston, SC where the story takes place. I loved the story and the other characters surrounding them. I romance professor and the man she falls for. So good!
Absolutely fell in love with the growling and grough Greyson and the strongly independent Julia! Their story was very easy to relate to with all that they were going through, how they were feeling and dealing with their decisions throughout the book. And the heat! Holy wow did my Kindle singe my fingers! I also loved the nod to romance books and some of my other favorite indie authors. This whole series was a pleasure to read.
I have to say I really enjoyed my first read by this author. There was a great storyline that included having amazing character build. The banter and the chemistry was off the charts between Greyson and Julia. I laughed and I swooned and I wanted to yell at moments between these two because they are so stubborn with each other and do not listen to each other.
With everything being thrown at these two, I really enjoyed how they each shift when they find out that the hangover is the 9 month flu. How Greyson was there for Julia and her letting him in. It was a fun and witty story that will have me going back to read the other stories!