This book just wasn't for me. I was hoping to like this but while others might enjoy it... it just wasn't for me.
I was looking forward to reading it.. but this just wasn't my cuppa tea. I hope others do enjoy this tho.. and mb it was just me!

I however, thank Netgalley to get a copy to read/review!

Having read other Natasha Anders books, I wanted to like The Next Best Thing but after several separate attempts over the past few months, I couldn't get into it and connect with the characters. Recently, the male protagonist is the female protagonist's boss has become fairly unappealing so perhaps this is a factor

This book was so beautifully written, it draws you in instantly.
Charity, our leading lady in this story has ran away from a terrible experience and is currently hiding away as Mile's housekeeper in his holiday home. Mile's is certainly not the most approachable of bosses, but following an admission to the ICU, he makes the decision to move himself in to the holiday home to recuperate.

This is where the story really takes flight, and they both begin to learn more about one another whilst they are forced to share a living space.
The characters were realistic, the storyline was brought together wonderfully, and the ending was exactly what I needed it to be. '
A perfect, easy to read romance.

Natasha Anders is one of my favorite authors. I always wait impatiently for her new book and read it in one sitting. However, this book was an exception to me. Maybe the reason is that the story revolves around the sensitive subject of domestic violence and how the main character copes with it and it consequences. Maybe it is the writing style of this book. Most probably.... two of these facts together. I have seen many victims of domestic violence and I suppose that is why I am so preconceived and critical to how the whole story is played in the book. I will always recommend Natasha Anders' books, but not this one.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the provided advanced copy! All opinions are mine.

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD. I could not put it down. I had to know what was going to happen next and how the character would recover. A chance at happiness and a reminder that it good things will come your way.

I loved this one.

Miles Hollingsworth is in need of time and space to convalesce after running himself into the ground. What better place than his holiday home in Riversend, SA, when’re his super efficient and self effacing housekeeper Mrs Cole can look after him and stay out of his way!

When he arrives unannounced Charity is in her civvies, with no time to put on her Mrs Cole armour. Miles is surprised and then drawn to the frankly beautiful and much younger than he had judged Charity Cole.

As he slowly recovers and is softened up by Stormy, the gorgeous stray mutt he adopts. Miles, super driven and successful businessman, who supports his mum and siblings without complaint, starts to let down his guard, and is fascinated by the vulnerable, secretive and mysterious Charity.

As they spend time together they give in to their mutual attraction, and as Miles learns about Charity’s brutal marriage and widowhood, he starts to understand what has driven her to hide herself away at Riversend, and separate herself from her friends, family and her career.

Can Charity build bridges to her family again, and learn to trust in love again, and especially Miles.

Charity was a strong yet damaged heroine, and Miles softened up to reveal himself to be kind, considerate, in tune with his and Charity’s feelings and just too cute with the dog. It was a beautifully angsty story, with loads of gorgeous feels.

Recommended

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book and all opinions are my own

First off, the synopsis of The Best Next Thing

A second shot at love. Her best next chance at happiness.
After years of torment and pain, Charity Cole feels safe again. The isolated house within which she lives and works is her haven. But her sanctuary is invaded when her icy, reserved boss shows up unannounced. He sees her as he was never meant to see her and Charity’s carefully constructed safe world begins to crumble.

Miles Hollingsworth is a stone cold workaholic. His life revolves around his company and when ill health forces him to take time off he heads to his holiday home where he knows he won’t have to deal with anyone but his dour live-in housekeeper, Mrs. Cole. Cut off by violent winter storms and alone in the huge and isolated house, Miles and Charity are forced to spend more time together than they have before.
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Some of my favorite things from the Best Next Chance is how realistic both Charity and Miles are when dealing with their personal demons. It wasn't a oh these are our issues, and they are rectified in twenty minutes. The Best Next Chance is a slow burn as you get to who each of them is and how they are/can connect. As you learn about Charity you know she has a past that has made her jaded. At one point she’s dealing with a bad dream and says “its over. You’re okay. You’re safe”. These actions integrity the reader to want more, the burning feeling of knowing its going to be bad but wanting to know. Miles hints at his own trauma, more physical than anything else. Those limitations have made him re-evaluate his life. I was definingly invests in their stories, it was slower than I perfect so my attention dropped as I progressed. I would recommend The Best Next Thing but I don’t know if I would re-read multiple time.

I received a complimentary copy of The Best Next Thing in exchange for an honest review. The overall storyline offered a ton of potential. The underlying themes, of over-working which led to an illness, physical abuse, and different backgrounds all set up this novel for a great read. However, the writing style was slow, and I found myself frequently losing interest. The character development wasn't there for me either. Miles did a complete switch and bate. At the beginning he was self centered and rude. By the conclusion he was every women's dream partner. That's just not very realistic. Charity was an interesting character, and I really enjoyed her coming out of her shell after being in an abusive relationship. That was truly the highlight of this novel.

This book had a good premise and interesting characters, boss-employee attraction with close proximity since she works for him in his household. The pacing and the formality made in hard to stay engaged, however. This is a good one to red when you're in a space to stay focused and in the mood for a slow burn,

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It doesnt support or open after I download the pdf version of it. It's also not showing in my shelf in netgalley and I cant open it to read

Please look into the issue and if you can send me the pdf in my mail ID- taniagungunsarkar@gmail.com

I cant read the book from here. Please look into the issue

'The Best Next Thing' follows Charity our female lead, who experienced something terrible and has been hiding out, working as Miles's housekeeper in his vacation house until she is ready to join the world again. Miles has always been the grumpy, cold closed off boss who always left her alone when he visited his holiday home, he never really had taken a good look at the mysterious housekeeper that made sure that everything was as he wished during his stay.

But then when Miles overworks and even ends up in the ICU because of it. He decides to move into his holiday house for a good while to recover, he suddenly realizes that there is more to his mysterious housekeeper then meets the eye.

The Best Next Thing is a beautifully written story about overcoming traumatic experiences and finding a second chance at love.

Trigger warning: Domestic Abuse

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a difficult book to rate. Parts of it are 5 stars & a couple of parts are 3-ish stars.
I have to say that I had a hard time with Claire's mercurial moods. She did have her hands full raising 3 VERY active sons for the last 5 years. Claire's husband passed away & she was left with the family business. The hero is Tristan Miles (brother of book 1 hero Jameson). Tristan was dreamy from the beginning. Claire had mixed reactions to him. I loved it when she was ON when together with Tristan.
She'd push back a lot, especially when it came to her boys. Claire's sons were very realistically little devils at times. Especially the middle one, Harry. The youngest one, Patrick was a little cutie.
I listened to the audio and CJ Bloom and Sebastian York were very good. CJ & SebYo are great and doing the kids' voices. I especially enjoyed how SebYo did Harry and Patrick's voice. OMG, look out for Harry. Tristan had to be on his toes with that one! A majority of the POV was Claire (CJ). I thought that Claire should have had some grief counseling after losing her husband. She wasn't toxic or anything, but her family was somewhat dysfunctional. The kids were running Claire ragged & had it in for Tristan with he came along. On the other hand, their antics were a crack up. OMG they put Tristan through the wringer. I'd say he's a saint, or a martyr-or both.
Claire should have been thanking her lucky stars. Not for being grateful, but she did have a lot of resistance to starting over. Why did Tristan want all that? Claire and the boys started to grow on me. The story improved quite a bit-which I was happy about. Claire really needed her ah ha moment(s). I was holding on for that! I had my ups and downs with this book. It really kept me intrigued. Claire's sons played large supporting roles. Another supporting character- Samia- Tristan's Admin was so funny. Could she have a book too?
I really enjoy this author's writing! 3.5 stars!

I was so excited to read this book. Once I started struggled reading it. I had trouble connecting with the characters and there were elements of the story that were not realistic.

I haven’t read a book by Natasha Andrea in ages, and this just reminded me why I love her books so much. The characters are so well developed, I feel as though I am watching a movie. I couldn’t put this book down. Go out and read it....NOW!

I am afraid that this is a definite DNF for me. I read 10% of the book and just couldn't stand the weird writing, the boring dialogue, lack of personality and the overuse of descriptive words and repetition.
I was also confused as to why they kept saying the weather in South Africa in winter was cold when its 20oC at it's coldest in that region. A shame as I was looking forward to this book but its definitely not for me.

This is a really well written story by this author. This story follows the characters Miles and Charity, these two characters are perfect together. This a story of intense emotions as well as some humour. This is a story about second chances. This is a slow burn romance story and the secrets are unveiled slowly through out the book. Another amazing emotional read from this author.



I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book is a sweet, slow burn romamce. I liked the characters and the building of trust and love between them. The writing was good and engaging. The book tackled tough topics such as abuse well and with grace. The storyline as interesting.
However, I found it strange that they did not recognise Charity as their housekeeper. The book was a little slow at times with unnecessary details losing the interest of the reader.
On the whole, a good book.

I have a confession, I adore every book this author has written and while the description of this book didn't sound that great, reading it was absolutely wonderful. I grew to love both main characters, Mrs Cole and Miles.

Miles owns a getaway home and he needs to get away for his health. He ccomes to his home and stuns his housekeeper, Mrs Cole who has no idea he is coming. You see Mrs Cole is hiding from life, her family and the truth about her dead husband. So when he arrives he find a young, attractive person he has never seen before and he realises she usually is hideen in her uniform. But now he has seen her, well he is desperate to get to know the woman inside. And thats where I fell in love with this story.

This was an awesome story about romance at work. Sorta a nanny romance but minus the kids. Charity has a very sad past and I loved that Miles made her strong enough to face her past. And I thought it was awesome how Charity helped take care of Miles and show him the love in her heart.

Exquisitely written, with well-rounded out characters, and beautiful prose, this book was a delight to read! It’s a slow burning romance, secrets held are slow to be released, little by little, and it felt like a flower slowly unfurling, as the plot slowly develops and involves you. It is a slow paced story, not my favorite style, but in this instance, it was entrancing.

Miles Henry Hollingsworth, a self-made millionaire and owner of an empire, was taken down by a bug. After weeks in ICU, he’s a shell of the man he once was and forced to take an extended vacation, away from all that he loves: his family and his empire. His mother and sister nagged him until he left for his vacation home in South Africa.

“The only individuals with whom he would have to interact would be Amos Moloi, the gardener; his driver, George Clark; and the dour live-in housekeeper, Mrs. Cole. The woman had worked and lived there for nearly three years, and nobody knew much about her other than she kept to herself for the most part, got her work done almost as if by magic, and excelled at wish fulfillment. No matter how crazy the request, Mrs. Cole could arrange it.”

As a prideful man, it was hard for him to accept weakness, so he hid behind curtness. Even so, his appearance gave away his condition and Mrs. Cole was very surprised when he appeared at the house, without previous warning. This was very serendipitous, because it allowed Miles to see Mrs. Cole in her natural state, with her long, beautiful black hair lose around her shoulders, in shorts that revealed lithe, toned legs. It was hard to reconcile this attractive woman with the severe Mrs. Cole and it sparked a lust in Miles.

When a strong storm swipes in and leaves them without power, a mangled puppy appears on the door and Miles immediately fell in love with it. He succors the mangy pup, bathes it, feeds it and names it Stormy. Thus begins one of the love stories in this book. The puppy goes from mangy to spoiled princess with so many artifacts to her name that it’s too cute. Miles attachment to his new charge is cute and charming, and part of what makes this story so special.

“The dog—Stormy—gave Charity a haughty look. Oh, she knew she’d just landed in the lap of luxury. Skin and bones, a little mangy and probably still sporting more than her fair share of ticks, she was already carrying herself like a princess.”

The slow thrum of attraction between Mrs. Cole (now called Charity) and Miles goes on as his curiosity increases, they start sharing conversations and slowly move from employer/employee to friends. The attraction is strong on both sides, but Charity keeps secrets. Her appearance as the housekeeper is totally different from her appearance when he catches her unaware, and it’s incredibly intriguing.

“But she should never have stayed this long. She had never meant to stay for years. She had come here at the lowest point in her life…and she had developed this persona. This Mrs. Cole: ageless, sexless, efficient, invisible. Mrs. Cole had made her feel safe. And Charity had stayed.”

I loved how the story unfurls and we get to meet these two individuals as they are in the intimacy. Miles is a fantasy book geek, he lives to provide a good life for his family. His workaholic tendencies stem from a desire to make sure he has enough money to give them the best life possible. Charity, in turn, hides a secret so nefarious, of a horrible and abusive past. Although it’s hard for her to trust, she can’t resist this sweet and gentle man who lives to give a good life to his family and spoils his new puppy dog.

I loved the dialogues, I loved his banter with his sister, his sensitivity with Charity, the generosity of his spirit.

“He’s patient, kind, sweet, understanding. He’s also intelligent, funny, companionable, and passionate about the things he loves.”

They helped each other to move on from past issues, and happily towards a new life. It still needs to be seen if that new life is together. Read it to find out how it ends! It is truly a wonderful read!

This was a slow burning story. I loved the writing, the sexual tension, but the book was longer than it ought to be. There was also a lot of telling, rather than showing so it diminished my enjoyment of the book.

Charity has been working as a housekeeper for Miles Hollingsworth; Here at this holiday home, Charity can escape from the world after the death of her abusive(physically and mentally) husband. When Miles comes to recuperate, he's shocked to discover that Charity is not a 50-something matron he'd imagined. I loved how the romance progressed and how sweet Miles was. It's a shame I didn't love it as I love a good forbidden romance.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.