Falling for Ezra Thomas by M.J. Padgett: Book Review

 ** ARC received for consideration. All opinions are my own.

The Book

Kissing the wrong twin paid off for her sister. Too bad it blew up in Lorelai’s face.

Lorelai Mays has always been driven. Her career proves that. After graduating high school and college early, she snagged a dream job as a veterinary intern at a local office. Unfortunately, the long hours and intense caseload are not what she expected. She’s stressed and overworked, and now she’s in love with a man who won’t give her the time of day after one intense kiss.

Ezra Thomas is happy for his best friend and brother—really, he is. But it’s the other Mays woman he can’t get out of his mind. Dating Lorelai had never crossed his mind before that fateful kiss, but now she is all he can think about. The problem is that he’s not supposed to fall in love with anyone right now. He made a commitment he can’t take back, but how can he tell Lorelai?

When Ezra finally shares his secret with his best friend’s sister, the two make a deal. They will communicate with the written word for ten weeks—the exact time he will be in training for his new career—and if their feelings grow during that time, he’ll marry her when he comes home. At first, Lorelai thinks this is too good to be true. But as each handwritten letter from Ezra makes her fall harder in love with him, she can’t help but wonder if God had this planned all along.

Falling for Ezra Thomas is a sister’s best friend, long distance, sweet new adult romance with swoony kisses, everyday faith in action, and a side of comedy.

The Author

M. J. Padgett is first and foremost a mom. Her free-spirited daughter has quite a vivid imagination, and her antics sometimes find their way into her mommy’s work. She is a lover of all things chocolate, a Grimm and Dickens addict, a self-proclaimed smarty-pants, and an introvert to the core.

Writing is her true passion (after raising her daughter, of course), and she writes as often as possible. One of her favorite things about writing is creating a world where people can escape reality for a little while, maybe even walk away feeling hopeful about the real world around them. When it comes to reading, she loves a book that can make her forget where she is no matter the genre. If she can get lost and feel like the characters are her real friends, she’s a happy reader.

Book Review

Falling for Ezra Thomas is the fourth book in the Life with the Thomas Brothers series. While you may be able to enjoy this one as a standalone, I really think you're going to have a better understanding of the family/relationship dynamics if you have read at LEAST the first book in the series... and even better if you've read them all! 

If you've read the previous books in the series, we have already gotten to see a little bit of the start of Ezra and Lorelai's story, but I was definitely excited to see the kiss (and the fall out) from their perspectives. Their story certainly did not disappoint. If you're a reader who doesn't like to wait for that first kiss, good news--- this story jumps right into it with the first chapter... but it takes them a little bit longer to figure things out from there after Ezra announces that he's joined the Army! As a military wife, I love a good military romance, but I don't know that I've read one (at least in recent memory) where he's just getting started, so I thought that was really great. In some ways, their romance seemed like it moved really quickly once they worked things out, but the pace worked for them. Not only can that be pretty common in military relationships, but these two also had a lot of history behind them too. As much as I love the romance, I also love the family dynamics and the faith elements. M.J. Padgett always does such an incredible job of creating characters who strive to put God first, but who are also humans who aren't always perfect (and who acknowledge physical attraction too!). 

Falling for Ezra Thomas is a closed-door romance with kisses only, no language and some faith elements. 


You can purchase your copy here: https://amzn.to/3UkJw7P