Alone and Looking to Bone! Loudmouthed Mountain Man Seeks Fiery Woman to Grow Old With.
I might look like a tall, tattooed, bearded neanderthal…but like an onion, I have layers. Swipe right if you like a proud cat daddy who catches feelings after direct eye contact.
All I wanted was a casual plus-one to my brother’s destination wedding, but those idiots on my family tree hacked my dating profile and sabotaged my quest for the perfect weekend fling. Now I’m stuck on a tropical vacation with only my hand to keep me company. Until I’m forced to share a room with the bane of my existence: my sister-in-law’s best friend. Dakota has hated me for the past seven years. I wasn’t losing much sleep over her screaming rants because she was some other guy’s problem. Or she was, until she got divorced.
Being stuck in paradise with a woman who loathes your very existence doesn’t sound hot, but after an unexpected moment in our shared palapa, she starts screaming at me in a different way. What happens in paradise stays in paradise. That is, until Dakota shows up on my mountain with a proposition: be her wingman to help her regain her pre-divorce confidence. Suddenly, Dakota’s not just the person I love to fight with. She’s the woman I want everything with.
This book is packed with tension, heart, and hilarity. It’s the kind of romance that thrives on opposites clashing, boundaries being pushed, and feelings sneaking in when you least expect them. Amy Daws delivers a story that’s as funny as it is emotionally rich, and it’s carried by characters who are messy, stubborn, and deeply human.
He’s a grumpy, inked mountain man with a soft spot for his cat, Milkshake. All he wants is a fling to survive his brother’s destination wedding. But when his niece Everly hijacks his dating profile in the name of love, he ends up flying solo and is forced to share a room with Dakota, the woman who’s loathed him for the last seven years and his sister-in-law’s best friend.
Dakota, newly divorced and fiercely self-reliant, is prickly, quick to judge, and clearly not thrilled about the sleeping arrangement. Their history is sharp and tense, and for the first few chapters, so is their every interaction. But that tension simmers into something electric, and one steamy night on the island shifts everything between them.
Of course, Dakota being Dakota, she doesn’t hold back. When he presses her about their night together, she hits him with:
“It was a six out of ten.”
The man’s ego didn’t stand a chance. I cackled.
Back home, Dakota surprises him again, but this time on his mountain doorstep, asking for his help to rebuild her confidence. He agrees to be her wingman and support her post-divorce glow-up, but the line between friendship and something more starts to blur fast. Underneath the bickering is vulnerability, connection, and the slow unraveling of two people who weren’t looking for love, but might not be able to walk away from it.
“Life has a funny way of shoving us in directions we never would have expected to go.”
One of the most satisfying parts of this book is watching Dakota reclaim her identity. Her post-divorce glow-up is more than just physical—it’s about relearning her worth, her power, and her right to want and be wanted. She’s messy, honest, and brave in ways that feel deeply real.
“Only a guy with zero fucking common sense would somehow miss the fact that you are limitless.”
There’s a lot this book does well. The humor is sharp and constant, the chemistry undeniable, and the emotional depth sneaks up on you. Everly, the niece and accidental matchmaker, is the true instigator of this entire love story and quietly steals every scene she’s in. And Milkshake, the hero’s emotionally distant cat, is a hilarious, judgmental side character in his own right.
But while the story shines in many ways, there were a few elements that didn’t land for me. The enemies dynamic, especially early on, sometimes felt overblown—bordering on immature rather than rooted in real tension. The third-act miscommunication was frustrating and unnecessary, especially for two characters who had already grown so much. And the pacing occasionally felt uneven, shifting a little too quickly between emotional resonance and outright absurdity without much room to breathe.
That said, 7 Year Itch is still a story worth reading. It’s full of heart, hope, and second chances, and it doesn’t shy away from showing how messy the road to connection can be. Even with its bumps, this book left me smiling, swooning, and genuinely entertained. And honestly? I’d read a spin-off about Everly in a heartbeat.