Review: Criminal Chaos with a Hot Hero
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 8, 2013
Golden Trail, the 3rd in Kristen Ashley's The 'Burg Series, is good, not great. For KA fans, that may be disappointing but KA's good is better than average so that's why 4 stars. My opinion may be a style issue as well - to each his own, right?Our H/h are Tanner Layne and Raquel Merrick (Layne and Rocky), separated sweethearts who come back together in the midst of criminal chaos in the Burg. I liked several things in Golden Trail: the secondary characters, such as Jasper & Tripp (Layne's sons) and Ryker, badass biker. I also liked the complex criminal storyline, which is not usually my favorite. I mean, I get that having danger in the plot increases dramatic tension, but sometimes the type (e.g., crooked cops as with Chase & Faye, Ty & Lexi in the Colorado Mountain series) can set my teeth on edge. I'm also not a fan of serial killers (e.g., Feb & Colt's homicidal maniac in the first of the Burg books) but this one involving a crooked cop and a creepy youth minister (I can't say more without spoiling things) clicked.Notable in Golden Trail is that it appears the story is told almost entirely from Layne's perspective. There is a short segment that is from Rocky's angle but that's all I recall. I think this affected the story - as much as I liked Layne, it felt like we were missing a dimension without Rocky's view. In some ways, I think it reduced the romantic tension - we see only Layne's view of the relationship and very little of Rocky's, reducing our visibility into her concerns for most of the book.Golden Trail was worth the read but I'll likely only reread it as part of the series, unlike book 2 (Cal and Vi's story). KA's body of work is generally great so I'll def be finishing the series as well as other of her work. Love me some Kristen Ashley!