Maid for the Single Dad by Susan Meier

I was very surprised by this book. It has a character that's been in an abusive relationship, and it acknowledges that there's such a think as verbal/emotional abuse. And better yet, all the characters acknowledge that there's such a thing. In a world that only really pays attention to physical abuse, this is kind of huge.

Ellie works for Happy Maids and while her boss is away, she's kind of running the business. So when rich guy Mac comes around needing a live in maid and nanny (something Happy Maid's doesn't normally do) she finds herself taking the job in order to appease him since he's an important client. But living with Mac isn't what she thought it was going to be. For starters, she loves his two kids, and she may even start to admire Mac too. But after her past abusive relationship she's not very good at trusting. And neither is he after being burned by the kid's mother.

I really appreciated Ellie's character. She took herself out of abuse and made herself strong again. But she still has trust issues, and that is very very real, especially with abuse victims. And then there's Mac. First off he knows verbal/emotional abuse is a serious thing which makes him super fantastic in my book. Then he's just plain good to his kids. He can be a little overbearing and controlling at times, which set my alarm off for poor Ellie, but he realizes what he's doing is not right, changes it, and apologizes. Which makes him ok, so long as he doesn't repeat the pattern. The kid's were cute too, although the one was just a baby and didn't get much book time. The little girl though was very sweet and it was nice to see the chapters with her in it.

The whole live in maid thing was probably pretty standard, but I liked it. I can imagine something like this probably happening in real life, although the whole bit with the kid's mother wasn't even really needed in my opinion. Just extra elements to the plot I guess. Unfortunately the ending did get rushed on this book, like I see with so many other romance novels. Since this is a romance novel you'd expect there to be sex, but there really isn't any, so if you're not a fan of that this could be an ok book for you. The rest of it was a quick read. But like I said before, what really stood out in this book for me was how the author handled abuse, it was worth reading just for that.

Definitely a good read. And I'd probably read more by this author. In addition to romance, she knows what she's talking about!

Maid For The Single Dad
Copyright 2010
248 pages