Kiss Me in the Rain by Lindzee Armstrong

From Goodreads:

Will she risk the home she treasures for the man she loves?

Cypress Grove has always been a treasured constant in Layla's perfect life. Now the mansion will be sold to the highest bidder if she doesn’t date an investor's son. The problem? The man she really wants just rolled into town.

Tyler is done being responsible and never going after what he wants. Layla's finally given him the courage to quit grad school and use his student loans to flip houses. And he's decided to move near Cypress Grove to do it.

When Layla happens upon suspicious ledgers at the mansion, her family's financial woes take a sinister turn. As Tyler and Layla work together to find the culprit, the attraction between them threatens to burst into flames. But admitting their feelings could spell disaster for Cypress Grove.

My Take:
I enjoyed this story. It was a clean read with likable characters and some tangled emotions. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 is because I had trouble believing Layla would go along with her father's crazy plans for so long. She seemed like an otherwise strong woman who knew what she wanted, and yet she was willing to go along with a fake dating/engagement in spite of being in love with someone else to save her mansion. I also didn't believe that it took her so long to figure out who the real thief was. All the clues were there, plain as day.

However, I really liked how Layla and Tyler interacted. That felt real within the confines of the situation they found themselves in. Mostly, I loved the choice that Kayla made in the end. That was real, and it made me go, "finally!"

I give Kiss Me in the Rain a solid 4 with a Clean rating.

1-5 scale and what it means:
1: I couldn’t even finish it / just plain bad
2: I hope I didn’t pay for this / disappointing
3: I didn’t hate it, but it was still missing something / forgettable but inoffensive
3.5: On the line between good and ok / like, not love
4: Solid mind candy / worth reading
4.5: So very close to perfection! / must read
5: I could not put it down and I’m still thinking about it! / a true treasure

Movie Ratings in relation to my review:
Clean--Hallmark movies, some kissing, no nudity, no sex on or off "screen"
PG--Some innuendo but nothing kids don't hear every day, sex is all closed door
PG-13--some language (swear words not related to sex), more talk about sex, heavy petting, removal of clothing on screen, but sex is closed door.
R--swearing (can be related to sex), feels like the whole story is about the sex and not the relationship or some other plot