Review: Love this story! Great read!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2014
Dani Jo has come back to her tiny hometown she ran from right after high school and pretty much hates. It represents a lot of guilt and adds a lot of weight to her already full shoulders. Her dad has died. Her stepbrother & stepsister are horrible people to her and her mom. She has no job-well at least not a job she wants or likes. No money. No man. Only one friend. And a whole lot of people she doesn’t like and don’t like her. On top of everything there’s Gage, the boy she left and heart she broke when she left. She hasn’t seen him for 10 years, he’s a man now, and she knows it’s just a matter of time before she does see him and she really doesn’t know what she’s going to say to him.Holden has come to this tiny town to do some work for his dad’s business. He should feel better about this job since it’s his inheritance and will at some point be his business. But it’s not at all what he wants to do with his life. He happens into a bar on the same night he meets Dani Jo. Well, their meeting is very very unconventional but I’ll let you read to find out! Their very brief meeting stays on her mind for days. They hardly spoke but the impression he made on her (and her on him for that matter) is stuck in her brain. Will they meet again? Will she take a chance on a guy that is destined to leave and move on to the next job in the next town?Gage is still in the same place ten years after Dani left him. Still in love with her and still living the life he thinks he should be living. He’s running his dad’s auto business and taking care of his mom. Dani feels that if she falls right back in with Gage she’ll be continuing her backwards life – literally going back in time to the exact same place.Excerpt:Dani Jo speaking to Gage:What I feel or felt will never be enough. It won’t be the kind of heart pounding, breathtaking love that can stand the test of time. It will be the ‘comfortable type’. The kind that you know all too well, where you’re familiar with every bump, curve, and dip it throws at you. Nothing exciting or surprising about it. I want the epic kind, Gage. I don’t want to just settle.Will Dani Jo be able to cut the strings of the people controlling her life and finally take charge? Will she “settle” with Gage or take a leaping chance with Holden? She’s got some old guilt and new guilt she needs to deal with and also find the guts to chase her dreams. Can she tell everyone to deal with their own life so she can fix her own?I really really really enjoyed this book. It’s a very easy read and moves along quickly. It was a little bit hard to get into the characters at the very beginning due to figuring out the different characters backgrounds but it moves quickly and comes together easily after the first few chapters.There’s a lot that happens in this book: love, loss, anger, happiness, etc. It’s an amazing whirlwind of emotions that I very happily recommend! This is my first Erika Ashby book and I know it won’t be the last!