Contemporary · Romance

The Gamble – Kristen Ashley

18246040| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Love is the greatest gamble of all…

Nina Sheridan desperately needs a timeout vacation. With a fiancé who can’t even remember how she takes her coffee, Nina wants some distance to rethink her engagement. Flying halfway around the world from England to a mountain town in Colorado should do the trick. But when she finds a gorgeous man at her rental cabin, Nina’s cold, lonely adventure suddenly heats up.

The owner of the house, Holden “Max” Maxwell is surprised by the beautiful woman who turns up at his door. But when Nina becomes ill, Max spends days nursing her back to health. A private man with a broken heart, Max finds himself drawn to the strong-willed woman. Soon it becomes impossible for Nina and Max to deny their growing attraction to one another. Yet even as these two wounded lovebirds think about taking a chance on a relationship, a dangerous secret from Max’s past emerges-and threatens to end their love for good.

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My thoughts: O my heart, please calm down! This book was all kinds of sweet and adorable. Right into your heart, knock you on the ass, wonderful. What it is with Kristen Ashley and her books that leaves you with this warm, fuzzy feelings when you are done. She is certainly a great storyteller and even though I felt this one was somewhat predictable, I didn’t mind. Because I was lost and cozy deep in the story and loved my journey to the end even though I had pretty much figured it all out.

KA is a fantastic writer with the ability to write great Heroes and Heroines you can not do other than love. Specially the guys. I loved Max. I loved how real he was. With his history, life and courage. I’m not a big fan on the the dead spouse plot, but it did work in this book. It didn’t get a lot of focus which I believe is the reason for that it worked. I really liked Nina too, though she was a little to immature for a grown woman in the middle of her thirties and with the bad history and experience as she had, I feel she should have been able to handle some stuff a lot better than she did. But I could ignore it for the most part and just enjoy her and Max and the story unfolding. There is also some great second characters and side plot unfolding beside the main one. There is also another small love story at the side and it is just wonderful to take part of it.

This is a book that sucks you in. You do not have a choice. And when done, you also want your own A-frame in a Colorado mountain with your own Mountain main. I do not have a A-frame in the Colorado mountain and will probably never have since I then have to move to the other side of the world. Fortunately, I already have my Mountain man so i’m okay with that.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

For you – Kristen Ashley

10813480| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Lieutenant Alexander Colton and February Owens were high school sweethearts. Everyone in their small town knew from the moment they met they were meant for each other. But something happened and Feb broke Colt’s heart then she turned wild and tragedy struck. Colt meted out revenge against the man who brought Feb low but even though Colt risked it all for her, Feb turned her back on him and left town.

Fifteen years later, Feb comes back to help run the family bar. But there’s so much water under the bridge separating her and Colt everyone knows they’ll never get back together.

Until someone starts hacking up people in Feb’s life. Colt is still Colt and Feb is still Feb so the town watches as Colt goes all out to find the murderer while trying to keep Feb safe.

As the bodies pile up, The Feds move in and a twisting, turning story unravels exposing a very sick man who has claimed numerous victims along the way, Feb and Colt battle their enduring attraction and the beautiful but lost history that weaves them together.

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My thoughts: This is one of those first eBooks I bought when I first bought my kindle. I went on a buying spree at the time and had over a hundred books on my kindle. Did not buy all of them tough. Several of them was free and thanks for that, because I don’t think my wallet would have survived otherwise.

Anyhow, so I have had this book in my library since early 2016 and never got around to actually read it. But since it is on my “30 books before 30” list and I couldn’t choose what to read, I went for it.

This is a great book, but I do have a couple of issues with it. First of, it is to god damn long and at some points even slow. Kristen Ashley is one of those authors who really can write a long, slow burn book and I have never had it tick me off before. But this time it just didn’t do. I do not have patience for something like that. The second thing is, 22 goddamn years? Are you kidding? That reason for the “bad blood” between Alexander and February was not what I had expected. And it really ticked me off because I feel that 22 years is just toooo long for a reason like that.

Other than that, great book. I really liked the plot with the killer, feds and how everything was linked. The mad man with the killings and his reasons really felt believable and at some degrees it was even quite terrifying and it gave me the creeps. Ashley is the queen when it comes to character buildup and it was easy to connect with them. There is a lot of character in this book and at first it was quite hard to keep track but that eventually went away and was not a problem. This is also the first book in a series. I have read the synopsis of the second book and so far it seems like they are stand alones, because the names in the second do not ring a bell and probably did not appear in this book.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

Rock chick regret – Kristen Ashley

13184992.jpg| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: Sadie Townsend is known by all as The Ice Princess and she’s worked hard to earn her reputation. Her father, a now-incarcerated Drug Lord, has kept her under his thumb her whole life and she’s learned enough from living in his world to give everyone the cold shoulder. But one inebriated night, she shows the Real Sadie to the undercover agent she knows is investigating her father, the handsome Hector Chavez, and he knows he’ll stop at nothing to have her.

Hector makes one (huge) mistake; he waits for Sadie to come to him. Tragedy strikes and Sadie’s got a choice, she can retreat behind her Ice Fortress or she can embrace the Rock Chick/Hot Bunch World. Guided by Hector, the Rock Chicks, the Hot Bunch and her new gay roommates, Buddy and Ralphie, Sadie negotiates a life out from under her father’s thumb, a life that includes poison, arson and learning how to make s’mores.

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My thoughts: What a great book. What a great, great book. I don’t even know how I should put my feelings for this book into words. This one is by far my favorite in the Rock Chick series. And even though I loved the other books, this one stands out on its own and completely touched me. It is by far more emotional and graphic than the other books have been, but not in a way that makes it hard for me to read. Yeah I do have triggers when it comes to sexual assault but as long as it not very graphic, I can distance myself to get through and focus on other things. In this book, it is not that graphic but it is the aftermath that can be heart wrenching.

Her we get to know Hector more. He is Eddies (book 2) brother and Hector have been a character that has gone in and out throughout the series due to that he is an DEA agent and often undercover. Well in this book he is done with DEA and has gone to work for Lee Nightingale instead. That’s when Sadie (who’s criminal father Hector brought down before quitting DEA) walks in and turns everyone’s life upside down.

You get to meet some new, crazy lovable characters and the story is just heart wrenching and warming in the same time. I haven’t cried so much as I have done to this book in a long, long time. Maybe because I can relate to some of it. The part with not having friends and that feeling of being completely, utterly alone and the feelings that all the good that is happening will be taking away from you, because you do not deserve better, is something I do understand.

I also love that Asley went a little different with how the story is build and the dynamic between Sadie and Hector. And that it is not as repeatedly as the books sometime can be. It is truly a work of art and to think I had to read six books to have this next in line is just…. Well, I didn’t know what I had and if I knew, I would have read it a lot earlier.

Gosh I just rambling here. But this was the perfect book to end this month’s reading spree on and I just want to recommend the Rock Chick series because it is just perfect.