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rcrg's review
5.0
I ran the gauntlet of emotion reading this book. I was spitting mad so often that I almost flipped to the back, just to make sure someone was going to meet their maker!
This book had all the angst and trauma that my person could handle. The fear felt real. The hopelessness felt real. The unfairness felt real and did I tell you guys I was spitting mad?
Thank goodness love does prevail. It was painful, but we got there.
This book had all the angst and trauma that my person could handle. The fear felt real. The hopelessness felt real. The unfairness felt real and did I tell you guys I was spitting mad?
Thank goodness love does prevail. It was painful, but we got there.
louanimal's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Stalking, Physical abuse, and Torture
bookish_kristina's review
2.0
I dunno about this one. It was ok, I guess. Just an overworked Navy Seal trope that has been done to death. Former Navy Seals who somehow can afford a huge luxury ranch where they train service animals, yet don’t seem to have any background in that field or to generate any real income from it. They work together as a tactical team (because why not?) to take down a stalker, yet the stalker seems to get the jump on them time and time again, culminating in a tstl moment by the harassed broken heroine. The heroine, while on lockdown after many creepy and escalating death threats, decides to go give her stranded friend a jump in the middle of the night. I’ve read this type of book before with slight variations more times than I can count and this one was not well done.
The hero himself is a tall former navy seal and that’s about all the description we get of him. No idea where he is from, if he had a good childhood, siblings, why he joined the seals, why he got into training service animals, what experience he has with this line of work, what his deep motivations were for opening the ranch, who these other Navy Seals were to each other. I mean for real the description in this book is severely lacking. The reader has to do some heavy lifting in the suspending of disbelief for this plot and picturing of this setting and imagining of these characters.
Just overall not believable or interesting to me. At least it moved fairly quickly (you know, didn’t have to read a lot of description or stage setting) so I was able to finish it.
The hero himself is a tall former navy seal and that’s about all the description we get of him. No idea where he is from, if he had a good childhood, siblings, why he joined the seals, why he got into training service animals, what experience he has with this line of work, what his deep motivations were for opening the ranch, who these other Navy Seals were to each other. I mean for real the description in this book is severely lacking. The reader has to do some heavy lifting in the suspending of disbelief for this plot and picturing of this setting and imagining of these characters.
Just overall not believable or interesting to me. At least it moved fairly quickly (you know, didn’t have to read a lot of description or stage setting) so I was able to finish it.
jigsawgirl's review against another edition
4.0
I will give you that the creep factor in this book was high. The stalking situation and what Evelyn endured was horrendous, and could be a trigger warning for some. The fact that she lived in constant terror for years was horrible. I was glad when Lucas appeared and she wasn't alone anymore.
This book was well written in the sense I could feel Evelyn's terror, the constant looking over her shoulder, the sense of helplessness, and the fear of a crazy person stalking her. The suspense continued to rise as I got further into the book.
My issue was that the crazy stalker had tech skills and money. He managed to elude SEVEN Navy SEALS, over and over and over again. I found that to be extremely irritating. By the time Lena's car broke down, I was disheartened.
I don't mind stretching the imagination, or ignoring the reality (to a point) when reading. But, if 7 SEAL'S allow one rich, tech savvy, unbalanced individual to continually get the best of them physically, strategically, and with technology, we are all in trouble.
I wish there had been information about how Nathan's father felt about his behavior, if he was aware of it, or if he had any interaction with Nathan. Did he know he had a crazy stalker for a son? I would love for the culprit to have to suffer as much if not more than their survivors.
I also was not at all happy with what happened to Evelyn AGAIN, or what happened with Noah and Liam, or what happened in the hospital.
As frustrating as some things were, it was a book that kept me fully engaged from start to finish. I have to move on to Grace and Harlan's book. I also want to read about Jude and Lena, but I don't know if they have a book yet.
This book was well written in the sense I could feel Evelyn's terror, the constant looking over her shoulder, the sense of helplessness, and the fear of a crazy person stalking her. The suspense continued to rise as I got further into the book.
My issue was that the crazy stalker had tech skills and money. He managed to elude SEVEN Navy SEALS, over and over and over again. I found that to be extremely irritating. By the time Lena's car broke down, I was disheartened.
I don't mind stretching the imagination, or ignoring the reality (to a point) when reading. But, if 7 SEAL'S allow one rich, tech savvy, unbalanced individual to continually get the best of them physically, strategically, and with technology, we are all in trouble.
I wish there had been information about how Nathan's father felt about his behavior, if he was aware of it, or if he had any interaction with Nathan. Did he know he had a crazy stalker for a son? I would love for the culprit to have to suffer as much if not more than their survivors.
I also was not at all happy with what happened to Evelyn AGAIN, or what happened with Noah and Liam, or what happened in the hospital.
As frustrating as some things were, it was a book that kept me fully engaged from start to finish. I have to move on to Grace and Harlan's book. I also want to read about Jude and Lena, but I don't know if they have a book yet.
kawehi1226's review against another edition
5.0
Holy cow
I devoured this book in one day!! It was exactly what I was in the mood for… romance with some mystery / suspense action. Thanks for the recc bookstagram friends… I’ll def be reading the rest of the series pronto!
I’m a sucker for a guy who would do anything to take care of a girl in need.. what can I say?
I loved the theme of this book, the way Evie finally found a place to stop at and quit running!!! Found someone who WANTed to take care of her & protect her….
And the theme of the ranch, I just loved it. I loved the way the author gently touched on PTSD. I can’t wait to read more about these resting warriors.
I devoured this book in one day!! It was exactly what I was in the mood for… romance with some mystery / suspense action. Thanks for the recc bookstagram friends… I’ll def be reading the rest of the series pronto!
I’m a sucker for a guy who would do anything to take care of a girl in need.. what can I say?
I loved the theme of this book, the way Evie finally found a place to stop at and quit running!!! Found someone who WANTed to take care of her & protect her….
And the theme of the ranch, I just loved it. I loved the way the author gently touched on PTSD. I can’t wait to read more about these resting warriors.
romance_book_obsessed's review against another edition
5.0
A great romantic suspense set on a ranch!
niniwags's review against another edition
5.0
Such an amazing start to a new series.
I knew I would love it with Janie Crouch’s name in the cover and I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction to Josie Jade.
Such a well written book on making your way through a bad situation and coming out stronger on the other side.
I knew I would love it with Janie Crouch’s name in the cover and I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction to Josie Jade.
Such a well written book on making your way through a bad situation and coming out stronger on the other side.
thecreatureoftheshadows's review against another edition
3.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
‼️MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD‼️
“But each person’s journey was theirs to share or not.”
After searching for a small-town romance series tinged with a bit of suspense, I finally found this, thanks to @bookwithnatasa (WordPress) who had posted a review about the second book in this series. I’m aware that there are plenty of amazing small-town series, but unfortunately, most of the romances tend to be open-door, and I don’t mind if it’s just a chapter or two, but when it’s more than that and it’s all about the spice, I tend to quickly lose interest.
Since we’re on the topic of open-door scenes, I’d like to quickly mention that only two chapters (chapters 19 and 22) have explicit scenes while the rest of the intimate scenes are mostly restricted to kissing/touching.
Moving on to the content of the book, this being the first in a series sets the scene for the following books. Evelyn is a strong woman escaping from her abuser and finds herself in Garnet Bend, a quaint town in Montana. Fate leads her to Lucas and the Resting Warrior Ranch, where she not only finds safety but also loves friendship and stability. I loved the security Lucas provided for Evelyn and how everyone on the ranch rallied together to be there for them. One thing I wanted to see more of was Lucas’s past, but there’s only so much that can be mentioned in a book of this length. We meet quite a bit of characters and I’m not going to lie, most of their names have faded off in my memory. But Lena and Jude did catch my attention and I can’t believe I have to wait till the fifth book to read their story, and yup, I already do have high expectations for that.
Based on the characters, the storyline and the writing, this could have easily been a 4⭐️ star, so why wasn’t it? Firstly, the progression of the timeline - Evelyn has PTSD, she is severely traumatised, and yet she manages to not only fall in love with Lucas but also simultaneously open up her heart and past to him within a single month. Yes, this is fiction but it’s also highly unrealistic for someone so intensely abused to trust so easily. Second of all, the Nathan capturing Evelyn bit - yes, we all predicted it would happen right from the start, but it happened in the most foolish way possible, with all of them being highly trained individuals, I expected better from them instead of walking straight into Nathan’s trap. Third of all, I wanted to see Evelyn bonding more with the girls, and I’m aware that this is an ensemble of interwoven standalone novels so we will be reading more of this evolving friendship circle in the following books, yet I wanted more moments of warmth and womanhood being shared amongst Evelyn, Lena and Grace.
Overall, this was a great start to the series and I look forward to reading the rest of the instalments. The writing style made this a rapid read which I took a liking to right from the first page. Was this a unique read? No. We’ve seen similar settings in other small-town series. But was it an enjoyable read? Definitely. I loved Evelyn for being brave enough to make the choices she did and it was heartwarming to see her learn to live again, to dare to dream. I appreciate Lucas for giving her the space she needed and most importantly having sufficient awareness to not impose his possessiveness upon her. I can’t wait to read Harlan’s and Grace’s story next.
“It was wonderful to just exist. To do what I wanted and not be consumed by the things that kept me hanging on to the cliff by my fingernails.”
‼️MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD‼️
“But each person’s journey was theirs to share or not.”
After searching for a small-town romance series tinged with a bit of suspense, I finally found this, thanks to @bookwithnatasa (WordPress) who had posted a review about the second book in this series. I’m aware that there are plenty of amazing small-town series, but unfortunately, most of the romances tend to be open-door, and I don’t mind if it’s just a chapter or two, but when it’s more than that and it’s all about the spice, I tend to quickly lose interest.
Since we’re on the topic of open-door scenes, I’d like to quickly mention that only two chapters (chapters 19 and 22) have explicit scenes while the rest of the intimate scenes are mostly restricted to kissing/touching.
Moving on to the content of the book, this being the first in a series sets the scene for the following books. Evelyn is a strong woman escaping from her abuser and finds herself in Garnet Bend, a quaint town in Montana. Fate leads her to Lucas and the Resting Warrior Ranch, where she not only finds safety but also loves friendship and stability. I loved the security Lucas provided for Evelyn and how everyone on the ranch rallied together to be there for them. One thing I wanted to see more of was Lucas’s past, but there’s only so much that can be mentioned in a book of this length. We meet quite a bit of characters and I’m not going to lie, most of their names have faded off in my memory. But Lena and Jude did catch my attention and I can’t believe I have to wait till the fifth book to read their story, and yup, I already do have high expectations for that.
Based on the characters, the storyline and the writing, this could have easily been a 4⭐️ star, so why wasn’t it? Firstly, the progression of the timeline - Evelyn has PTSD, she is severely traumatised, and yet she manages to not only fall in love with Lucas but also simultaneously open up her heart and past to him within a single month. Yes, this is fiction but it’s also highly unrealistic for someone so intensely abused to trust so easily. Second of all, the Nathan capturing Evelyn bit - yes, we all predicted it would happen right from the start, but it happened in the most foolish way possible, with all of them being highly trained individuals, I expected better from them instead of walking straight into Nathan’s trap. Third of all, I wanted to see Evelyn bonding more with the girls, and I’m aware that this is an ensemble of interwoven standalone novels so we will be reading more of this evolving friendship circle in the following books, yet I wanted more moments of warmth and womanhood being shared amongst Evelyn, Lena and Grace.
Overall, this was a great start to the series and I look forward to reading the rest of the instalments. The writing style made this a rapid read which I took a liking to right from the first page. Was this a unique read? No. We’ve seen similar settings in other small-town series. But was it an enjoyable read? Definitely. I loved Evelyn for being brave enough to make the choices she did and it was heartwarming to see her learn to live again, to dare to dream. I appreciate Lucas for giving her the space she needed and most importantly having sufficient awareness to not impose his possessiveness upon her. I can’t wait to read Harlan’s and Grace’s story next.
“It was wonderful to just exist. To do what I wanted and not be consumed by the things that kept me hanging on to the cliff by my fingernails.”
ruhh's review
dark
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0