From the publisher:
He’s forbidden fruit and she’s a rule follower, but their connection is something to believe in.
Father Patrick Dooley joined the clergy to fulfill his mother’s dying wish. While it once gave him purpose, he not so sure it’s his calling anymore. But it’s all he’s ever known and he’s not sure what he wants to do with his life if he decides to leave the priesthood. How can he reconcile his faith with his growing desire to live a different life?
Sasha Finerghty was content to admire Patrick from afar while she dated men who were perfect on paper and wrong in real life. But with Patrick’s church in need of funding to keep a community program afloat, she’s just the girl to solve their fundraising problem. Spending more time together only fuels Sasha’s crush on him, who finds a kindred soul in her.
The more Patrick gets to know Sasha, the easier it is for him to see a future unfolding for them. But it will take a leap of faith to turn their friendship into something more, and neither of them are quite ready to make the jump.
This is another book that if I had seen the cover before reading, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. I had some problems with this book, but I liked it enough to keep reading and finish it. One minor quibble is that I don’t have any idea how to pronounce Sasha Finerghty’s last name and it comes up more often that you would think.
The major quibble, and really it is more than a quibble, was that the protagonist, the hero of this love story, is a priest. Now I’m not Catholic and I’ve read (and watched) The Thorn Birds, but this just didn’t sit right with me. I’m sure this sort of thing happens now and again and it is incredibly meaningful that a man would give up his collar, his life, for a woman he loves, but I still had trouble with it.
Patrick became a priest basically to please his mother, and I know that is a thing in some Catholic families. But it was more than that for him, at least until he starts spending time with Sasha. So if you don’t mind the major plot point of the story, then it is a good romance. I just couldn’t get past it.
8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
HOT UNDER HIS COLLAR by Andie J. Christopher. Berkley (July 20, 2021). ISBN: 978-0593100851. 384 pages.
Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™ 
I personally know an old family friend (more a friend of my oldest brother) who became a Catholic priest only to leave the priesthood later on for a woman. I think it happens a lot.
I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing!