Narrated by Laura
Jennings

Nothing But Trouble is the first in Amy Andrews’ Credence, Colorado series. It has a twofer HEA and does some set up work for coming books as well, so not everything in the book is about the romance between Wade Carter and his personal assistant, Cecilia Morgan.

Wade is a former
quarterback for the Denver Broncos, with three Superbowl rings and the acclaim
of Mile High Stadium to his name. He’s also the favourite son of Credence,
Colorado, his hometown. He has a sign and everything.

Cecilia Morgan
is his long-suffering PA. Five-and-a-half years earlier, Wade had offered her a
crap ton of money to be at his beck and call 24/7. She signed a six-year
contract. Wade pays for her apartment and her car and keeps her extremely busy
so she has saved and/or invested most of the money he paid her. When the book
begins, one of her investments has paid off big time and she finally has enough
money to buy a house on the California coast – her long-held ambition. CC’s
philandering father left her mother, CC and her five older brothers in the
lurch and CC’s mother made a career out of being unable to do things on her
own. That is not CC. She will be self-sufficient and will never rely upon a man
to provide for her. So, a house is more than a house for CC.

Anyway, having
reached her magic number, CC gives Wade notice that she’s resigning before her
six years are up. When Wade’s father has a medical emergency, Wade negotiates
with CC; they will split the difference and she will stay for another three
months instead of six, and will accompany him to Credence where he will help
his family on the farm and where he will complete his memoir. To avoid a breach
of contract lawsuit in which she will have no leg to stand on, she accepts the
deal. (That sounds like Wade was threatening her but he wasn’t really. This was
more about CC being practical about the risks and her obligations.)

CC and Wade have
never before mixed business with pleasure. For the most part, CC regards Wade
as an annoying giant baby. She’s picked up after him, bought him Wonka Nerds at
three am and been the shoulder to cry on for numerous women who did not believe
him when he said he was not looking for a relationship. Wade pays her very well
to do all of this but CC is less than impressed.

However, when CC
and Wade land in Credence, CC begins to see a new side of him. Also, she is
inspired by what she refers to as “farmer porn” which mainly involves Wade
looking hot when doing farm work.

Similarly, Wade
starts to see CC in a different way too and they gradually edge toward romance.

The author
neatly works around the employment relationship, not ignoring it but also
dealing with it in a way that it wasn’t hinky (well mostly).

Wade’s older
brother Wyatt is very shy with women; he doesn’t have his brother’s gift of the
gab or effortless charm. Credence itself is also suffering from a severe lack
of women. The young people tend to move away and the school is in imminent
danger of closing because there are not enough children in the town. The mayor
comes up with a brilliant scheme to attract women to Credence, offering them
business and accommodation incentives – which brings love into Wyatt’s life, as
well as women to be the love interests for future books.

I admit Wyatt
charmed me and I’d have happily listened to more about him. I liked his romance
but would have liked him to get a little more airtime and for some of his story
to be more fleshed out. There were large swathes of things which were basically
handwaved away and I’d have liked to have heard about them.

The best part of
the book for me was the banter between Wade and his friends, Tucker, Arlo and
Drew – all future romance heroes no doubt. Amy Andrews writes great guy shit-talk
and it frequently made me laugh.

There are plenty
of examples of wit in the story which held my attention when it was beginning
to meander as the plot slowed a little during the mid-section of the book. My
favourite was this one, when one of his buddy’s suggests what is needed is a
grand gesture:

“Wade liked
that idea. It suited a guy with lots of money and no clue.“

The romance
between CC and Wade develops very slowly and there was a bit of retconning at
the end I had mixed feelings about but eventually, they find their way to one
another. There’s also a baby pig called Wilburta and an intellectually challenged
Border Collie called George and a lot of quirky small-town human characters. The
town wasn’t completely white but I’d have liked a little more diversity in
there – maybe in future books?

The narration,
by Laura Jennings, had pluses and minuses for me.

It was my first
experience with Ms. Jennings. In the plus column; her accent reminds me of the
actress Holly Hunter and was pleasing to my ear. She deepens her voice
sufficiently to make her male characters sound different to one another and
believable and there was good distinction between the various other cast
members.

On the other
hand, the gaps between sentences were often rushed and the impact of what was
being said was sometimes lost as a result. Conversely, there were occasionally too-long
gaps between a piece of dialogue and the “he whispered” type tag at the end.
There were also a couple of vocal errors and some odd pronunciation here and
there. The thing which bothered me the most though was the rushing to get to
the next sentence. It gave me the impression Ms. Jennings was a little
impatient to get through the book.

Nothing But
Trouble was a solid entry into the small town
contemporary market, with cute animals, characters both sexy and sassy and
plenty of witty banter. The narration was mostly good and the story enjoyable –
although I would have liked a little more clarity that CC wasn’t going to still
be at Wade’s beck and call once she became Mrs. Carter.