“You can trust me, Laurie.” His voice got deeper, that growl vibrating through it. “Swear to God, baby, there will never be a time when you can’t. Yeah?”
All her life, Lauren felt like something special was going to happen to her. But afters years of living her life, searching for what she wanted and not finding it, Lauren decides to change tactics. After her divorce, she packs up her life and decides just look for nothing – just to live in peace somewhere out of the way.
She falls in love with the small town of Carnal in the Colorado mountains and gets a job as a waitress at a biker bar. On her first day, in walks the gorgeous biker and bar owner Tatum “Tate” Jackson who is shockingly rude and insulting to her (which is probably the understatement of the year!) but after recovering from the initial shock of the incident, Lauren stands up to him beautifully and so starts their slow building relationship…
But when a super insanely utterly chillingly CREEEEEEEPY rapist/serial killer attacks someone in their town, the cops come to Tate – who turns out to be a (damn good) bounty hunter adding plenty of drama and a bit of a mystery to the story.
I gotta say I had issues with the first half of this book. I still liked it, but there were times when Tate SERIOUSLY pissed me right the hell off. Like REALLY. He was just such a JERK!!! I’d literally sit there in shock over something he just said or did. And then, to rub salt into the wound, in the first half of the book, before he ‘came around’, instead of apologizing for what he did, he’d try to tell her to just ‘deal with and get over it’. Arrrgh!! He was crude, unapologetic, frustrating, unfair and very hypocritical. But then, he’d go and say/do something so totally sweet that it would melt your heart… and then go back to being a jerk!My heart got yanked around a lot and honestly, there was a point when I was reading where the only thing keeping me going was my faith in KA’s writing cuz I just knew she’s find a way to make me love him… and indeed, she did.
“Are you the good guy, the sweet guy who takes care of me or are you this guy who’s kind of a jerk?”
His answer was instantaneous. “I’m both those guys, babe.”“Tatum Jackson, you’re lucky you’re a smokin’ hot, badass, biker, bounty hunter who looks good in jeans… and I love you or you would be seriously not worth it.”
At about half way though, I did finally totally fall in love with Tate. He started to open up about himself and his perspectives. Not all his previous behavior was necessarily ‘wrong’ per say – but when made it intolerable to me was that if he did something questionable but had good reason for it, he wouldn’t explain himself. But I think there was a point where he realized that and he started explaining his side, respecting Lauren more, treating her more fairly and the more she also started to understand him, the more and more functional their relationship got.
“You said you were waitin’ for something special and he took away your chance to figure out that you were carryin’ it with you all this time. You are special, Laurie.”
Honestly the second half of the book just seemed so different than the first… I absolutely loved it!! I mean, in the beginning, I could see that Tate had good intentions, or at least not bad ones, behind his jerk behavior, but in the second half of the book, he changed a little and lost the jerk-‘tude and while still remaining all bossy and possessive and deliciously Alpha.
“You’re safe, Lauren,” he murmered and my eyes lowered back to his. “You weren’t safe with him, but honey, swear to God, you’re safe with me.”
I really did love Laurie’s character. She was very strong and ended up being the ‘rock’ in a lot of very tough situations. She was strong enough to help Tate through a lot of hard things, strong enough to help him control his temper, strong enough to stand by and push deeper until Tate fully respected her and strong enough to believe in herself and start her life over and find her something special.
Once they got their relationship to the fair and functional level, the story just became reeeeally good… and heart warming, and swoony and funny and HOT!!
“I get drunk on one and a half [martinis] and I mean drunk .”
He smiled at me. “Then we’re hittin’ the home store sale.”
“We are.”
“Martini glasses. Fuckin’ you normal is hot. Make up sex is un-fuckin’-believable. Drunk sex might just kill me.”
“Tate – “
“Though, won’t mind dyin’ that way.”
I loved that neither of them were your classic young-ish hero characters. Both of them were in their mid-40’s and both of them had been burned and hurt a lot in the past making them cautious and understandably untrusting. But they both come to a realization point where they couldn’t let that control their relationship and although their romance is very slow-building, it was really wonderful to see them both get a second chance at love.
And also, there is a lot of family stuff that happens that was just BRILLIANT. Honestly, I’d say that KA writes some of the absolute BEST family scenes/interactions of any author out there. She just ‘gets’ it and writes them in a way that just tug all your heart strings…. there are some REALLY intense scenes that just had my either grinning or clutching my heart with misty-eyes for several chapters.
I really liked how you learned more and more about them as the book went on. There were a lot of ‘big reveals’ and twist and turns to the story… I really liked how everything was not laid out in the beginning but you’d discover something new every few chapters that added layers and intricacy to the story.
But, I have to say that sweet as the epilogue was, it kinda fell a little flat for me… it was sweet, and wrapped up the story nicely but I was expecting more somehow… my heart didn’t clench and I didn’t get misty-eyed.
I loved much of this book even though I struggled with Tate’s behavior in the beginning. The relationship was very slow building with a bit of an enemies-to-lovers kind of storyline, and the ending wasn’t quite as heart-warming as I wanted it to be. That being said, even though the beginning was rocky, a lot of the story was absolutely amazing so I’m kind of torn about how I feel about it. Overall, I’d say I really liked this book… a lot at times, less at other times… but overall it was just really good 🙂
Rating: 4+ stars
** COLORADO MOUNTAIN SERIES **
Note that the series is in the process of being traditionally published so the covers are still switching over.
Book #1 — THE GAMBLE (Max & Nina)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Book #2 — SWEET DREAMS (Tate & Laurie)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Book #3 — LADY LUCK (Ty & Lexie)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Book #4 — BREATHE (Chase & Faye)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Book #5 — JAGGED (Ham & Zara)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback
Book #6 — KALEIDOSCOPE (Deck & Emme)
Buy for Kindle
Kelly DeFries says
This was a good book. I got hooked right off the bat, and couldn’t put it down. I’d recommend to anyone.
Luzia Bielefeld says
I love this story and this is one of my favorite books in the series. Great review!
Annie Anderson says
Love this book!!
Becky Richardson says
Would love to read this book. Sounds like an awesome read.