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A review by lilywhite0789
Ashes of You by Catherine Cowles
3.0
I enjoyed getting Lawton’s story and finishing off the Hartley family love stories. It’s cute, and like the rest of the books, predictable. Pretty much follows Catherine Cowles' structure for this series with a few differences. While the Hartley MC and love interest (LI) had a backstory, it wasn’t the same kind of history the other Hartley’s and LI had, like Holt and Wren, Nash and Maddie, and Grae and Caden. Their history is brief, but very significant. Lawson acknowledged early on - they were trauma bonded due to the circumstance of how they met.
There's still a traumatic/abusive past. One of the MCs is still being targeted. There's still a crazy unexpected villain, and while the overall reveal that it Damien was unexpected, I knew it was him before they all went to the vet and insisted she not go anywhere alone. It makes me wonder if this was always Cowles’ intention with Damien’s character, or a last minute choice for the character in this book? “Who is close enough to the characters to fit the unsub, but also far enough detached that it wouldn’t be too crushing to make them the villain?” I’ve read series where a background character is built up as a great person in the first few books and then becomes the villain 3 or 4 books later and it just makes no sense whatsoever and pissed me off. Damien being her captor was still a bit shocking, but far enough away that I wasn’t upset or angry with that choice. I would’ve liked more insight from Anson, or from Damien himself about how he kept off the grid for so many years. How he managed to juggle this “charming hot vet” by day and serial killer by night.
Now we’re at the built up confrontation and resolution. Hallie is attacked, kidnapped and then injured by the villain. Damien’s taken down pretty quickly by Lawson but not before severely injuring Hallie. Unlike the first three books, there isn’t a secondary kidnapping or attack. But there is a hospital scene.
One thing I absolutely loved in this book was the relationship Hallie builds with Lawson’s sons, particularly with Drew and Luke. We got a lot of Charlie in the previous book, and it’s not that I don’t love him, but the dynamics of introducing a romantic partner to a 6 year old is much easier than to teenagers that understand more and voices their opinions more. We didn’t get a lot of Drew and Luke until this point, and the banter she has with Drew is hilarious and to see how Luke grows and learns to express his emotions because of Hallie was beautiful. If there’s a future second generation story with Luke (and hopefully Violet), I’m there for it.
Spice was 2/5. It's sparse and pretty tame. Overall, just nothing particularly notable that makes it stand out from other age gap, small town, slow burn, single dad/nanny tropes.
There's still a traumatic/abusive past. One of the MCs is still being targeted. There's still a crazy unexpected villain, and while the overall reveal that it Damien was unexpected, I knew it was him before they all went to the vet and insisted she not go anywhere alone. It makes me wonder if this was always Cowles’ intention with Damien’s character, or a last minute choice for the character in this book? “Who is close enough to the characters to fit the unsub, but also far enough detached that it wouldn’t be too crushing to make them the villain?” I’ve read series where a background character is built up as a great person in the first few books and then becomes the villain 3 or 4 books later and it just makes no sense whatsoever and pissed me off. Damien being her captor was still a bit shocking, but far enough away that I wasn’t upset or angry with that choice. I would’ve liked more insight from Anson, or from Damien himself about how he kept off the grid for so many years. How he managed to juggle this “charming hot vet” by day and serial killer by night.
Now we’re at the built up confrontation and resolution. Hallie is attacked, kidnapped and then injured by the villain. Damien’s taken down pretty quickly by Lawson but not before severely injuring Hallie. Unlike the first three books, there isn’t a secondary kidnapping or attack. But there is a hospital scene.
One thing I absolutely loved in this book was the relationship Hallie builds with Lawson’s sons, particularly with Drew and Luke. We got a lot of Charlie in the previous book, and it’s not that I don’t love him, but the dynamics of introducing a romantic partner to a 6 year old is much easier than to teenagers that understand more and voices their opinions more. We didn’t get a lot of Drew and Luke until this point, and the banter she has with Drew is hilarious and to see how Luke grows and learns to express his emotions because of Hallie was beautiful. If there’s a future second generation story with Luke (and hopefully Violet), I’m there for it.
Spice was 2/5. It's sparse and pretty tame. Overall, just nothing particularly notable that makes it stand out from other age gap, small town, slow burn, single dad/nanny tropes.