Review: A Must Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
This book was absolutely FANTASTIC! I love KA's books, and this one is no exception. I now gauge how many stars I'm going to give a book by how often I "talk back"'to the book using notes. Let's just say that 'At Peace' and I had a lot of conversations. This book made me laugh, cry, made me frustrated and angry, well the book didn't evoke all these emotions but the characters did. First, you can really relate to the characters. There is Vi, a relatively recent widow and mother of two teen girls whose husband Tim, a police officer, was shot in the line of duty by a crazy, psycho, mafia guy. Then there is Joe, the hot, sexy, alpha man who lives next door to Vi in a suburb of Indianapolis, where Vi moves after her husband is killed. Joe has his own security firm and a u-Haul load of baggage. They are both intensely attracted to each other, but in spite of the fact that they are falling for each other, Joe keeps insisting its "just sex" between them. This is one of the lines that would make me 'cuss' Joe out every time I read it. Joe has deeper feelings for Vi and her girls but he's so afraid of falling for her that he messes over Vi not once but twice. The second time he does it, he does it in such a mean way, hurting both Vi and her girls that I had to put the book down for a minute, I was so angry at him and hurt for Vi and her girls.KA does such a great job portraying these characters that you would have thought Joe betrayed me the way I was cussing him out in my notes and giving Vi tips of what she should say to Joe.As always, there are great, hot, juicy love scenes and great secondary characters. I hope future books feature Mike, who was also falling for Vi, and Benny and Frankie and even Lindy, Joe's receptionist , who has a very minor but memorable moment toward the end of the book. We also got to visit with some of the characters from the first book, notably Colt and Feb so we get to see how they're doing. The finale of the book is excellent, with lots of suspense, and one of the most wonderful HEA I've ever read; pull out your tissue bc you'll need it for the ending. My only criticism is the book is a little too long, about 3/4 into the book it dragged a little but then it was full speed ahead.  This is one of those books that you will think about for a long time with a smile on your face, it's also one if those books that you wish would go on a little longer, it's one of those books that you wish you didn't have to finish because you will miss the characters.I have read KA's Dream Man series (my favorite), all but one of the a Colorado Mountain series (just have the last one, Kaleidoscope to read), , one of the anti-hero books Knight (good, but my least favorite thus far), and the first Rock Chick book. I wasn't even going to read the Burg series but decided to do so because one of the characters in Jagged was also in the For You book (Reece). I'm so glad I started this series and I plan to continue to read them. As I said in another review, even a 3-star KA book (I've only given 2 of the books 3 stars) is a much better read than most of the romance novels out there and I read a LOT; I probably average 3-4 books a week. Her characters are always well developed, sexy but flawed alpha men, GREAT SEX (I told a friend that if we all were having the kind of sex people have in a KA novel, we'd have world-wide peace bc no one would ever get out of bed, except to eat and go to the bathroom!). In most of her books the women are realistically drawn, strong, not wimpy, they know when to yield to their men but it's always THEIR CHOICE. The men are dominant but not domineering. I also LOVE the fact that KA writes about adults, her characters are typically in their 30s and 40s, often with teen kids so there are a lot of blended family issues in her stories. Some of the family blending is a little too easy and probably unrealistic but hey, it's a fantasy, this is probably how we'd all wish families could blend. My only wish for a KA book is that she would write a book about folks in their 50s, just one book, where kids are grown or nearly grown so we can see that folks in their 50s need love and romance too, can have hot sex too, and can be romantic and passionate too!