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Review Blitz: The Challenge by Penelope Ward


Title: The Challenge: A Single Dad Romance
Author: Penelope Ward
Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Single Dad, Second Chance, Forced Proximity
Friends to Lovers, Small Town, Found Family
Release Date: August 30, 2026

BLURB

From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Ward comes a new, STANDALONE contemporary romance…

Nothing says welcome home like accidentally moving in with your first heartbreak…and his little girl.

Coming back to my small Wyoming hometown was supposed to be temporary. I only planned to stay long enough to help my ailing mother and sort through the mess of my family’s old belongings.

Instead, I somehow ended up living in Evan Ricci’s house. The single dad now owned a bunch of properties and one of them was the place I’d rented. He’d taken it off the market and moved in before I got there. I just never got the memo. Unfortunately, there was no other place in town available, so Evan let me stay.

Evan—the guy my parents took in years ago after his mother died.
The same Evan who used to dare me into ridiculous challenges that somehow always made me stronger—a game we’d dubbed The Challenge.
The same guy who ultimately rejected me before I left for college after I’d finally garnered the courage to shoot my shot.

Now Evan was a rugged single dad with an eight-year-old daughter, a cocky attitude, and a dangerous ability to make me forget every reason I should still hate him.

Sharing a house with him should’ve been unbearable. Instead, it felt dangerously familiar, nearly making me forget that I had a life and a job to get back to in Chicago. I realized the biggest challenge wasn’t surviving living with Evan Ricci.

It was not falling in love with him all over again.


PURCHASE LINKS
Special release price of $3.99 for a limited time only!
AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
Free in Kindle Unlimited
DUET AUDIO
SPECIAL EDITION PAPERBACK
A model-cover paperback will be live on release day


WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
SINGLE DAD
SMALL TOWN
FRIENDS TO LOVERS
SECOND CHANCE
FORCED PROXIMITY
FOUND FAMILY


MY REVIEW


The very last person Chloe expected to see in her rental while she's back home temporarily to care for her mom, is the boy who rejected her years ago, the boy who lived with her family for awhile, the boy who's now a man, a grown man even more gorgeous, who has a beautiful, precocious little girl. She can't stay with them while she tries to find a new rental, can she? She doesn't want to, but Effie asked, and even though Evan seems less than thrilled to see her, she knows it would be smarter to stay here than sleep in her car. She just has to keep her heart guarded against Effie's adorable charm, and the way she's always reacted to Evan. She doesn't want to get attached, then have another broken heart when she goes back to Chicago.


Evan too never expected Chloe to show up in his home, and to have his daughter immediately bond with her. He knows she hates him, and he's not too thrilled to see her either, but he can't possibly let her sleep in her car because all the other rentals are occupied. He knows she thinks his rejection of her was because he didn't want her, but it was actually the opposite. Now she's here again and he's having a hard time not crossing his own boundaries with Chloe here, back in his life.


Chloe, Evan and Effie make the sweetest found family unit. The bond Chloe forms with Effie is just what Effie and Chloe both needed. And Evan knew Chloe was perfect for them both because of it. And the Challenges are just what they needed bring out all those feelings that had been just below the surface for years. But the very best part of this second chance love story is their heart. Penelope's signature heartfelt style is on display in the best kind of way. I love these three and their heartfelt found family unit.


AUTHOR BIO


Penelope Ward is a New York Times, USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance.

She grew up in Boston with five older brothers and spent most of her twenties as a television news anchor. Penelope resides in Rhode Island with her husband, son, and beautiful daughter with autism.

With over two million books sold, she is a 21-time New York Times bestseller and the author of over thirty books. Her novels have been translated into over a dozen languages and can be found in bookstores around the world.

AUTHOR LINKS

OTHER BOOKS BY PENELOPE WARD
SEE ALL BOOKS HERE
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