Malinda's Reviews > Once Perfect

**This was an ARC copy given by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for a honest review**

4 stars

This was a very good story. I liked Evie and Mateo and their story was very good and kept me engaged until the end. On sexual content, there are sex scenes but they're not explicit and I wouldn't term this as erotic. This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it well enough I'm likely to try more of her work in the future.

Evie was a debutante and thought she had no worries in her life. Then tragedy struck and she found herself without a home or any money after her father ruined them and then killed himself. Instead of helping her, the other relatives turned on her for her father's actions and Evie was left with nothing. With some help , Evie got back on her feet and ended up starting college for nursing. For the last 6 months she's been working at a club part of the week for money to pay for living expenses and college.

Mateo was raised in a messed up household. His father is a druggy and an abusive prick. Mateo's mother was so beaten down by the abuse from her husband that she never protected her children from their father's abuse and instead defends him. Mateo tries to protect his 2 sisters from their father but 1 still lives at home and isn't protected by her mother. Since their father doesn't provide any support, Mateo is also stuck supporting his mother and sister. Mateo is the head bouncer in a bar but needs more money so he does underground MMA fighting for big cash prizes.

Evie has been working at the club for a while. She's seen Mateo around and thinks he's hot but he also kind of scares her as he looks really mean and doesn't seem adverse to violence when performing his bouncing duties. She also heard that he was in prison for putting a guy in the hospital and that doesn't help things. Evie isn't good at making friends, when she was growing up she had money and looks and people gravitated to her easily so she never had to try to make friends. When her whole world crashed down she found out just how fickle people could be and now she has trouble trusting people and making friends. Evie gets sent in to the storage room for some supplies and due to lighting issues and a door that couldn't stay open, Evie has a panic attack and Mateo is the one who finds her. He gets her calmed down and covers for her with some of the other bar workers. Evie wants to say thanks but her effort doesn't turn out too well and she finds herself avoiding Mateo out of embarrassment. By this point, Evie is realizing that Mateo is nicer than she originally thought and Mateo seems to be having the same thoughts about Evie. When there's an incident at the club, Evie ends up stepping out of her shell to help and this sort of brings her some acceptance from her coworkers that she hadn't had before.

Evie and Mateo are very interested in each other and once the ice is broken they start spending some times together. Mateo (who's always had an interest in working on cars) helps Evie out by working on her car (as it's in desperate need). Evie also goes to a fight of Mateo's but it's not exactly her thing because she hates seeing him get hurt (even if he is winning). Their fledgling relationship is strained by a few things, their busy schedules (between his fighting and her school schedule), an ex-boyfriend that wont let go, family issues on both sides as well as dealing with issues of abuse, both in the past and present. There's a lot to deal with and I liked how most things were handled in the story. Sometimes things weren't always great but the way they played out seemed realistic and the emotions needing to be dealt with seemed accurate. I will note that Evie does have to deal with a past sexual abuse in the story but the scenes aren't played out, it's mostly just dealing with the emotions and such. I really liked seeing Evie and Mateo get together, they're so different in some ways but yet they're so much the same in others. Even through their differences it's clear their good for each other and I'm glad they fought through their issue to end the story with a very sweet start to their HEA.

I enjoyed this story very much. I really liked both Evie and Mateo. Even though she was raised rich, Evie was actually very nice, just a bit clueless in some ways (but rather smart in others). Mateo was such a good guy and did what he had to to take care of those he loves....I'm glad he found someone to help take care of him. Overall this I enjoyed this story very much with no major complaints. I can't wait to see who is in the next book in the series. I'd recommend this book. :D