Review: Engaging, Emotionally Charged Romance But Beware Raw Language
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 5, 2014
This is a very engaging, emotionally charged romance. It is a little raw in language but rich in love and happy ending! Rating 4.25I think any woman who has ever loved a ‘rolling stone’, non-committing man can relate to the emotional heart wrench of Zara’s experience of letting Ham go. It is kind of nice to suspect while reading that this is likely to have a Happy Ending even though real life doesn’t always work that way.After five years of their relationship Zara was hungry for stability and a family. Knowing he was a wanderer, Zara let Ham go and married Greg who adored her.  Zara lost her marriage to guilt, her business to recession and her house to foreclosure.Zara is struggling day to day when Ham returns. He has taken the job as manager at a local bar and he gets her to waitress there where she will earn three times what she was making at a regular day job. Ham, at forty-three, knows now that he wants Zara but he realizes that she has to get on her feet a bit and he will have to show that he is ready to settle and stay this time...with only her.At this point the story was a third in and I wondered how the author was going to stretch the rest of this without just dragging along the relationship. Fortunately there was more story to come! Zara and Ham learn that her sister has just died and the nephew born nine years earlier wasn’t given away for adoption but is being raised in a nearby town by an Aunt. This begins a whole new angle in an already engaging story."Jagged" is a perfect title for the emotional levels in this story. It applies at different times and under different circumstances to both Ham and Zara, although the author presents it more with the less verbal male expressions. I was completely pulled in by the depth of the emotions and a plot that could be real life. The characters might be stereotyped by their jobs and their loose language but to do so makes me feel I am being snobbish. Even though I might not be able to relate totally to the characters I could relate to the confusion, insecurities and courage it takes to risk in loving that are wonderfully portrayed through this relationship.There is much more foul language and more detail in the sex area than I like. However the sexual scenes, in their passion, fun and intensity, reflect a strong, healthy, loving relationship. By the time the language began to bother me a bit I was too far engaged to want to stop. I can understand why many romance readers would enjoy Ms. Ashley’s stories if they don't mind the rough language and they like strong, life-like characters and true-grit emotions struggling to a happy ending.