Book Review - Earning Yancy by C.C. Wood with signed giveaway • Ana's Attic Book Blog

Earning Yancy (NSFW 2) by C.C. Wood

2nd in a standalone series. Full Length Adult Contemporary.

I love CC Wood’s writing style. She blends funny, snarky, realistic, sexy and fun with great groups of girlfriends. Her novellas are always just perfect and leave nothing missing. The first in the NSFW (Not Safe For Work) series, the fun In Love with Lucy, was a novella, but I think the rest of the series of connected standalones, including Earning Yancy, will be full length. This was the perfect kind of light vacation book I needed when I was away. But I picked it up a few times, and it just didn’t grab me enough for a vacation read, so I put it down until I returned home.

When I restarted it, I still had a little trouble with the first chapter, since this series takes place in the workplace, there was a little too much about her job up front. But after that, it just kept getting better, till I was in (good) tears at the end.

Yancy is a single mom to an 18 month old with cystic fibrosis. Her dickhole ex, now a deadbeat dad, was a deadbeat even when they were together, refusing to help care for the baby. As soon as he found out that she was sick, he took off. Yancy works 2 days at home and 3 days in the office and is juggling a very busy, difficult life by herself, but she doesn’t bitch, moan or cry. She just does what she needs to do, and is a wonderful mom in the process.

She has a coworker, Charles, who has been at the company a month, and he rubs Yancy wrong in a few ways, but the biggest way, is even after correcting him, he continues to call her ‘Nancy’.

“Listen, Charles, my name is Yancy. Sounds like Nancy but starts with a ‘Y”, ‘Y’ as in yellow. Or how about ‘Y’ as in You’re an asshole.”

Yancy never loses her temper. But something about this guy sets her off. Her outburst, however, changed the dynamic. After they apologize, things take a different turn…

“How, in less than a week, did I go from thinking Charles was annoying to drooling over his butt?
I needed more sleep and maybe a vibrator.”

Yancy needs to be cautious though, she has a little girl at home, she doesn’t need to parade guys around. And maybe she isn’t ready. But sweetheart Charles is so patient, and he seems to do everything she needs before she even realizes she needs it.

“You feel it too, don’t you? This pull between us. It makes your heart beat faster, your skin flush, and your eyes turn pure gold. Don’t you wonder? I know I do.”

Everyone in the novel is fairly normal. No horrible pasts to live down. Just a cautious, lonely, over worked mom, a regular, not too alpha, very sweet, patient guy, and an adorable little girl. There isn’t much angst in this story, so it was a light, sweet, sexy romance that brought tears to my eyes (good ones) and I love books with kids in them!

Likes:

I love Yancy and her friends.
Visiting with Lucy, Chris and more insight into the other girls.
I love a book with cute kids!
Made me laugh out loud a few times.
Made me tear up at the end.
Longer than CCs novellas–full length!
No horrible things that break me.
A nice, light, easy book that contains funny, sweet, sexy and a few sad scenes.

Dislikes:

The writing seemed a bit immature, especially at the beginning, with short sentences. I’ve seen CC write much stronger, or perhaps it’s the editing.
It felt like CC may have struggled herself with this book in the beginning until it got into a groove.
It wasn’t quite enough meat for an over 200 page novel, it still read like a quick and easy novella, and there was a lot that could have been edited out, there was a lot of detail.
I wish Charles wasn’t quite so perfect.

Rating: 4 Stars 4 Heat

C.C.s books, except for Seasons of Sorrow, are nice, light, fun, sexy reads. Most are novellas, and I think that C.C. is one of the best novella writers out there. Her Girl Next Door and Kiss series are just perfect little in-between books. They almost read like mini Kristen Ashley stories. The NSFW series is that as well, even though this one is full length. It’s one of those great to read after a dark mind-fuck books. I really enjoyed the first, In Love with Lucy. Finding Yancy made me feel like CC was a bit off her game at the beginning, but the last ⅔ of the book I gobbled up in one sitting, and I definitely think it was worth getting through the slightly rocky start.

If you are looking for a quick, easy read, with a single mom, and a workplace romance with a perfectly nice, dreamy guy, who while not totally alpha, had some good protective, masculine qualities, this is a great series. C.C. writes very realistic sex (nobody is coming from nipple touching here!), realistic problems that aren’t over the top, and great girlfriends, and I can’t wait to read the next one!