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The Daddy Project
Her Problem
As a busy single mom to her teenage daughter, Kristi Callahan doesn't have time for a man. But it sure would be nice if her mother believed that, too. She keeps setting Kristi up on disastrous blind dates, determined to find her "the one."
His Problem
After Nate McTavish's wife died, he was faced with raising his twin little girls alone. Making it up as he goes along and sometimes questioning his daddy skills, he also has to fend off women his well-meaning family keep throwing at him.
Their Solution
When Nate hires Kristi to stage his house before selling it, they instantly realize they've found the perfect answer to their be fake dates for each other! It's a great plan—until they start to wonder if the real thing might not be even better….
As a busy single mom to her teenage daughter, Kristi Callahan doesn't have time for a man. But it sure would be nice if her mother believed that, too. She keeps setting Kristi up on disastrous blind dates, determined to find her "the one."
His Problem
After Nate McTavish's wife died, he was faced with raising his twin little girls alone. Making it up as he goes along and sometimes questioning his daddy skills, he also has to fend off women his well-meaning family keep throwing at him.
Their Solution
When Nate hires Kristi to stage his house before selling it, they instantly realize they've found the perfect answer to their be fake dates for each other! It's a great plan—until they start to wonder if the real thing might not be even better….
- GenresRomance
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
3 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 5, 2018
He offered a hand to seal the deal. "It's a date."
She shook it. "A fake date."
"Make that two fake dates." He smiled and her insides turned to Jell-O. 25%
Like most American Romances, this book focuses on family, parenting, and children as well as the story of two adults falling in love. That may or may not be pleasing to you.
Kristi is hired to do the interior decorating on Nate's house.
Nate's wife died two years ago. He is raising twin four-year-old daughters (Molly and Martha) on his own. He has a Saint Bernard named Hegemone, Gemmy for short.
Kristi is also the single mother of a 14-year-old daughter, Jenna. Her 'deadbeat ex' left her twelve years ago. She has a little Yorkie named Hercules.
They agree to 'fake date' in order to get their respective families of their backs.
THE GOOD
Kristi and Nate seem like real people.
Kristi is clumsy. She is a bit awkward. She's constantly running late.
Nate is a dork who puts his foot in his mouth a lot. He is the opposite of smooth.
The book has a sweet, cute ending.
I like that Kristi stopped school after graduating high school. She is quite a contrast with PhD-having Nate. And they show this.
"My dog's name is Hercules. That's a Greek god, too. I think."
"Roman, actually. Borrowed from the Greek Heracles, son of Zeus. He was half mortal and half god."
"Oh. We thought he was the god of strength or something." 13%
Nate never makes fun of Kristi for not knowing stuff. Nor does he ever express shock that she doesn't know something.
She had no idea what a behemoth was, but she guessed it was large. 39%
Even though Kristi (naturally) worries about the differences in their educations, on the whole it makes no difference to this couple.
"It should, except I'm not smart enough to know what he's talking about."
"Excuse me?" Claire took exception to that. "Don't you dare sell yourself short. You are one of the smartest women I know. Not to mention creative, compassionate and gorgeous." 74%
Like this book, I don't believe educational differences are insurmountable for a couple. Not going to college doesn't mean you are dumb, and it is a perfectly valid life-choice. Even more so nowadays, when college degrees DO NOT guarantee a job and many degree-holders are unemployed or underemployed.
Another good point is that Kristi is great with the children. Nate has some trouble parenting, and he learns a lot from Kristi. Kristi isn't a perfect parent, but she's better than Nate and has a lot more experience than he does. I feel like she really helps him and the girls.
And there it was, proof that she was a better parent than he was, or at least a more conscientious one. It hadn't even occurred to him to call. Fake dates aside, it was good that Kristi had come into his life. He had a lot to learn. 45%
In case you're wondering, it's not always the female who is the better parent in AR Harlequins. For instance, in Rancher's Son the male is the one who makes a better parent.
Yet another good thing about this book is Kristi's ability to call Nate on his bullshit and stand up to him. She always pushes back. This often is in little ways, but we see a big example of it at 45%:
"I don't suppose there's any chance you still have that condom in your purse."
She pulled away. "Seriously? A couple of kisses and you think, you think - ?"
SHIT. He wanted to smack his head on the steering wheel. "Sorry. I think it's safe to say I wasn't thinking."
"But you think that because I'm a single mom, and because I had a condom in my bag that I'm... what? Easy?"
"I did NOT think that." Not completely.
Wow, that was great. She's never afraid to call him out; I really admire that. He apologizes A LOT for this one.
I like how they talk about Kristi's perfume a lot, and how she always smells of lilacs.
THE BAD
Nate has no spine. His evil m-i-l runs all over him. It makes me anxious to read about his interactions with his MIL. Throughout the book, Kristi coaches him into how to grow a spine. It eventually works at the end when he tells the MIL off - calmly and firmly.
It's almost funny that Kristi is giving him advice on how to grow a spine, though. Sure, she is more self-confident than him. She certainly stands up to him and calls him on his bullshit, which is GREAT. But they end up fake dating because he can't stand up to his parents and sister, and she can't stand up to her mom. Both are being forced into blind date after blind date and fix-up after fix-up by their interfering families. If either of them had a spine, they wouldn't have tolerated this shit for so long. Being so cowed by your family that you are LYING and MAKING UP A FAKE BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND is not attractive. And, I know this is a romance, but in the real world lying about this shit only makes things worse.
You might consider it bad that this book is so family-oriented. As I said at the beginning, this is a book that is as much about parenting and family life as it is about romance. That might be annoying to some readers.
There's an ugly side to Nate I didn't like so much.
"Sam has a lot of tools," Martha said. "I'm going to be a carpenter when I grow up."
"You are?" Not if he had anything to say about it. His daughters were going to college, not trade school, and definitely not beauty school, but that conversation could wait. 57%
That's so... I have a problem with that. Also, since he ends up with a woman who has a high school degree, I hope he doesn't teach his girls that people who don't go on to get a higher education are lesser.
There are a few scenes where I feel like he is a bit of a pretentious, elitist, overprotective prick. It's not all the time, like I said, he never belittles Kristi for not going to college. But sometimes his thoughts and actions remind me of people I know IRL that I don't like so much. He is a classist - like here where he sneers at learning a trade or not going to college. Or, when, like a lot of fathers, he has some bizarre notion that his girls should NEVER be interested in things like princesses, dresses, makeup, or being pretty. He also thinks he can raise girls who NEVER think about boyfriends, dating, whether they are pretty or not, etc. etc. That's just not possible in our society. A lot of times I see men struggling with this. I can completely understand - it is very hard when you have daughters and you suddenly realize on a different level how evil the patriarchy is, how much society hates women, how fucked up society is about sex, and how sexualized the messages are that society sends. I agree, it's totally fucked up. However, usually these men make the decision to stamp out all 'girly' things: forbid nail polish, forbid makeup, don't allow any Barbies in the house, forbid Disney movies, etc. etc. etc. (Now, his girls are four... I'm talking about a bit older for a lot of these things, here). That strategy usually is untenable and oftentimes can backfire in unexpected ways.
I'm hoping Kristi and her daughter Jenna can counterbalance him a little bit. If he is this way when the girls are four, it's hard to believe he is going to survive their teenage years.
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
No on-page sex. The couple does have sex, once, but it's completely unseen. It goes from 'they were kissing' to 'she woke up the next morning.'
The book also falls into the trap a lot of American Romances do, and that is pretending that a couple will have sex for the first time, then just stop having sex for months. It's very bizarre. I don't know what it stems from. The fact that Harlequin wants only one sex scene per book in this line? The idea that sex before marriage is sinful? I don't really know.
Even though I adore sexual content in my romance novels, this really doesn't make any sense to me. It makes more sense that the couple waits and has no sex before marriage if that is the author's intent or the line's intent. Having sex once, and then just stopping all sexual activity for months is just very bizarre. I can't quite wrap my head around it, and all the books cheerfully act as if this is just normal.
As for the sex, Kristi does the most horrible thing - she leaves the next morning without saying goodbye or even telling Nate that she's leaving. She wakes up and he is in the shower. She has panic/regret about having sex with him, and she throws on her clothes and flees his house. He comes out of the shower to find her missing. Of course he is baffled and hurt. Then she doesn't talk to him for four days. This is such asshole behavior. I was very angry with her, that is not an acceptable way to act after having sex with someone, especially first-time sex.
Nate is surprisingly mensch-like and forgiving of this. I would have been irate. She's lucky.
The only part of the book I found sexually exciting was this part:
Kristi felt his hand slide beneath her hair, the light stroke of his thumb across the nape of her neck. This is for his mother's benefit, she reminded herself. Not yours. But that didn't lessen the sensations that shimmered along her spine. 40%
This is how he touches her while in the kitchen talking to his mother. The sexual tension was through the roof. OMGosh. But unfortunately that was the one and only time this book got my blood pumping.
TL;DR A mixed bag. True to American Romance form, this book is just as much about family and parenting as it is about love and romance. Both of our MCs were flawed, which was great at times and annoying at others.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES:
Contemporary Romance
Non-Virgin Heroine
Widower Hero
He's a Botanist and Professor, She's an Interior Decorator
She shook it. "A fake date."
"Make that two fake dates." He smiled and her insides turned to Jell-O. 25%
Like most American Romances, this book focuses on family, parenting, and children as well as the story of two adults falling in love. That may or may not be pleasing to you.
Kristi is hired to do the interior decorating on Nate's house.
Nate's wife died two years ago. He is raising twin four-year-old daughters (Molly and Martha) on his own. He has a Saint Bernard named Hegemone, Gemmy for short.
Kristi is also the single mother of a 14-year-old daughter, Jenna. Her 'deadbeat ex' left her twelve years ago. She has a little Yorkie named Hercules.
They agree to 'fake date' in order to get their respective families of their backs.
THE GOOD
Kristi and Nate seem like real people.
Kristi is clumsy. She is a bit awkward. She's constantly running late.
Nate is a dork who puts his foot in his mouth a lot. He is the opposite of smooth.
The book has a sweet, cute ending.
I like that Kristi stopped school after graduating high school. She is quite a contrast with PhD-having Nate. And they show this.
"My dog's name is Hercules. That's a Greek god, too. I think."
"Roman, actually. Borrowed from the Greek Heracles, son of Zeus. He was half mortal and half god."
"Oh. We thought he was the god of strength or something." 13%
Nate never makes fun of Kristi for not knowing stuff. Nor does he ever express shock that she doesn't know something.
She had no idea what a behemoth was, but she guessed it was large. 39%
Even though Kristi (naturally) worries about the differences in their educations, on the whole it makes no difference to this couple.
"It should, except I'm not smart enough to know what he's talking about."
"Excuse me?" Claire took exception to that. "Don't you dare sell yourself short. You are one of the smartest women I know. Not to mention creative, compassionate and gorgeous." 74%
Like this book, I don't believe educational differences are insurmountable for a couple. Not going to college doesn't mean you are dumb, and it is a perfectly valid life-choice. Even more so nowadays, when college degrees DO NOT guarantee a job and many degree-holders are unemployed or underemployed.
Another good point is that Kristi is great with the children. Nate has some trouble parenting, and he learns a lot from Kristi. Kristi isn't a perfect parent, but she's better than Nate and has a lot more experience than he does. I feel like she really helps him and the girls.
And there it was, proof that she was a better parent than he was, or at least a more conscientious one. It hadn't even occurred to him to call. Fake dates aside, it was good that Kristi had come into his life. He had a lot to learn. 45%
In case you're wondering, it's not always the female who is the better parent in AR Harlequins. For instance, in Rancher's Son the male is the one who makes a better parent.
Yet another good thing about this book is Kristi's ability to call Nate on his bullshit and stand up to him. She always pushes back. This often is in little ways, but we see a big example of it at 45%:
"I don't suppose there's any chance you still have that condom in your purse."
She pulled away. "Seriously? A couple of kisses and you think, you think - ?"
SHIT. He wanted to smack his head on the steering wheel. "Sorry. I think it's safe to say I wasn't thinking."
"But you think that because I'm a single mom, and because I had a condom in my bag that I'm... what? Easy?"
"I did NOT think that." Not completely.
Wow, that was great. She's never afraid to call him out; I really admire that. He apologizes A LOT for this one.
I like how they talk about Kristi's perfume a lot, and how she always smells of lilacs.
THE BAD
Nate has no spine. His evil m-i-l runs all over him. It makes me anxious to read about his interactions with his MIL. Throughout the book, Kristi coaches him into how to grow a spine. It eventually works at the end when he tells the MIL off - calmly and firmly.
It's almost funny that Kristi is giving him advice on how to grow a spine, though. Sure, she is more self-confident than him. She certainly stands up to him and calls him on his bullshit, which is GREAT. But they end up fake dating because he can't stand up to his parents and sister, and she can't stand up to her mom. Both are being forced into blind date after blind date and fix-up after fix-up by their interfering families. If either of them had a spine, they wouldn't have tolerated this shit for so long. Being so cowed by your family that you are LYING and MAKING UP A FAKE BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND is not attractive. And, I know this is a romance, but in the real world lying about this shit only makes things worse.
You might consider it bad that this book is so family-oriented. As I said at the beginning, this is a book that is as much about parenting and family life as it is about romance. That might be annoying to some readers.
There's an ugly side to Nate I didn't like so much.
"Sam has a lot of tools," Martha said. "I'm going to be a carpenter when I grow up."
"You are?" Not if he had anything to say about it. His daughters were going to college, not trade school, and definitely not beauty school, but that conversation could wait. 57%
That's so... I have a problem with that. Also, since he ends up with a woman who has a high school degree, I hope he doesn't teach his girls that people who don't go on to get a higher education are lesser.
There are a few scenes where I feel like he is a bit of a pretentious, elitist, overprotective prick. It's not all the time, like I said, he never belittles Kristi for not going to college. But sometimes his thoughts and actions remind me of people I know IRL that I don't like so much. He is a classist - like here where he sneers at learning a trade or not going to college. Or, when, like a lot of fathers, he has some bizarre notion that his girls should NEVER be interested in things like princesses, dresses, makeup, or being pretty. He also thinks he can raise girls who NEVER think about boyfriends, dating, whether they are pretty or not, etc. etc. That's just not possible in our society. A lot of times I see men struggling with this. I can completely understand - it is very hard when you have daughters and you suddenly realize on a different level how evil the patriarchy is, how much society hates women, how fucked up society is about sex, and how sexualized the messages are that society sends. I agree, it's totally fucked up. However, usually these men make the decision to stamp out all 'girly' things: forbid nail polish, forbid makeup, don't allow any Barbies in the house, forbid Disney movies, etc. etc. etc. (Now, his girls are four... I'm talking about a bit older for a lot of these things, here). That strategy usually is untenable and oftentimes can backfire in unexpected ways.
I'm hoping Kristi and her daughter Jenna can counterbalance him a little bit. If he is this way when the girls are four, it's hard to believe he is going to survive their teenage years.
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
No on-page sex. The couple does have sex, once, but it's completely unseen. It goes from 'they were kissing' to 'she woke up the next morning.'
The book also falls into the trap a lot of American Romances do, and that is pretending that a couple will have sex for the first time, then just stop having sex for months. It's very bizarre. I don't know what it stems from. The fact that Harlequin wants only one sex scene per book in this line? The idea that sex before marriage is sinful? I don't really know.
Even though I adore sexual content in my romance novels, this really doesn't make any sense to me. It makes more sense that the couple waits and has no sex before marriage if that is the author's intent or the line's intent. Having sex once, and then just stopping all sexual activity for months is just very bizarre. I can't quite wrap my head around it, and all the books cheerfully act as if this is just normal.
As for the sex, Kristi does the most horrible thing - she leaves the next morning without saying goodbye or even telling Nate that she's leaving. She wakes up and he is in the shower. She has panic/regret about having sex with him, and she throws on her clothes and flees his house. He comes out of the shower to find her missing. Of course he is baffled and hurt. Then she doesn't talk to him for four days. This is such asshole behavior. I was very angry with her, that is not an acceptable way to act after having sex with someone, especially first-time sex.
Nate is surprisingly mensch-like and forgiving of this. I would have been irate. She's lucky.
The only part of the book I found sexually exciting was this part:
Kristi felt his hand slide beneath her hair, the light stroke of his thumb across the nape of her neck. This is for his mother's benefit, she reminded herself. Not yours. But that didn't lessen the sensations that shimmered along her spine. 40%
This is how he touches her while in the kitchen talking to his mother. The sexual tension was through the roof. OMGosh. But unfortunately that was the one and only time this book got my blood pumping.
TL;DR A mixed bag. True to American Romance form, this book is just as much about family and parenting as it is about love and romance. Both of our MCs were flawed, which was great at times and annoying at others.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES:
Contemporary Romance
Non-Virgin Heroine
Widower Hero
He's a Botanist and Professor, She's an Interior Decorator
November 1, 2012
Very good book. Kristi and Nate are both single parents. They also suffer from family members who are always trying to fix them up with dates. When Kristi is hired by Nate to get his house ready to sell they decide to help each other out by pretending to date. They quickly discover that they enjoy spending time together and that there is an undeniable attraction between them. I really liked Nate and Kristi. Nate is raising his twin girls after the death of their mother. He's not perfect at it - he has trouble keeping up with the housework and meals can be a challenge. But there is plenty of love to go around and that makes up for a lot. When Nate hires Kristi to ready his house for sale, he doesn't expect to feel an immediate connection to her. The more time he spends with her the more he wants their fake dates to be real. I loved seeing how good he was with his little girls and how hard he tried to be a good father. I liked the way he had no problem asking Kristi for help. Kristi was a great mom. She has an excellent relationship with her daughter and has worked very hard to be a good example for her - perhaps a little too hard. She doesn't really date because she doesn't want to take a chance on another loser. Unfortunately she has to deal with her famiily members trying to set her up, so she is quite willing to enter into the fake dating relationship with Nate. She doesn't expect to find herself wishing that the relationship was real. I really loved seeing the way that she was able to help Nate deal with some of the issues he had with family and home. I also enjoyed seeing how invested she got in making Nate's house so much better. I also liked seeing how terrific her daughter was and how she was the one who made Kristi see that a real relationship with Nate was possible.
June 19, 2013
I haven't picked up a Harlequin book in quite a while. I'm glad I grabbed this one. I'd forgotten how heart-warming they were. The Daddy Project is no exception. A solid story and I liked it so much I need to search out other stories by this author.
July 19, 2021
This was such a cute book. The kids and dogs were so cute
November 7, 2025
Soft building romance, minimal spice, fun and lighthearted, female and male pov
August 27, 2013
Oh my gosh, could the little kids have been any cuter? I love books with kids in them. This book was just so warm and fuzzy. A real feel good book. My favorite of the three books. There was just the right amount of romance and drama but frankly the kids made this book for me. Loved loved loved it.
April 26, 2015
When Keisti first met Nate, both were single parents. She was hired to get his house ready to put on the market to sell.
They decided to go out on a "nondate" to try to keep parents from trying to keep matching them up with others. But will this turn into something else?
Easy to read book. Especially loved Nate's twin girls.
They decided to go out on a "nondate" to try to keep parents from trying to keep matching them up with others. But will this turn into something else?
Easy to read book. Especially loved Nate's twin girls.
December 19, 2013
not as good as Claire's story.
December 10, 2015
This was a cute story about romance and a dad learning to take care of his twin girls. It's heartwarming.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews