Review: Love Cate Ashwood's storytelling style
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2014
JULES LOVESTOREAD’S OPINION: First of all, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…Any book that includes a recipe is aces, man. Aces. You hear that authors?? Especially a recipe like Oliver’s Cinnamon Rolls with Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting – which you will get when you read Wholehearted by Cate Ashwood. Wholehearted takes us back to the town of Hope Cove, and the myriad of delightful characters we met in the first installment of the series, Brokenhearted. It was nice to see Oliver and Mack and get to have a peek into what’s going on in their lives, and we also get a bit more of the fabulous and hilarious Haydn! I adore the descriptions of the town, and Cate does such a great job of really bringing it to life. Did any of you watch the TV show Gilmore Girls?? I picture Hope Cove like Stars Hollow, but on the water. Hopefully at least one person that reads this review will get me. LolThis book revolves around Declan Grant, one of the town’s police deputies, who goes down to the pier one day during his patrols to find a man has been left there, severely beaten, and clinging to life. It turns out that the man is a fisherman named Lucas, who was thrown off his fishing boat by his crew mates. (Lucas’ story is harrowing. I was completely outraged while reading what happened to him.) Declan wants so badly to be there for Lucas, but unfortunately, Lucas has built some pretty tough walls around himself, thus the start to their relationship is rocky.As it turns out, Declan has quite a story of his own to tell. We finally get to learn what he was running from when he turned up in Hope Cove a year ago. It’s difficult to wrap one’s mind around what happened to him at his former precinct in Austin, but easy to understand why he felt so comfortable and wanted to stay in the small town and make a home for himself.Once Declan and Lucas start communicating, and Lucas lets Declan help him, I enjoyed their dynamic very much. It took a little while for them to get there though, and at times I felt like this story wandered a bit. It didn’t feel as strong, plot-wise, as Brokenhearted was – but, the author brings it around in the end to have you rooting for these two to make it!I really love Cate Ashwood’s storytelling style, and look forward to much more from her in the future. The first of which is Haydn’s book; bring on Ironhearted!!