Review: Holden out for a hero!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 22, 2013
This is my first read by this author and after reading the blurb I was eager to get started. I did think it would be a little more hard core than it eventually turned out to be but it was a nice home town kind of read.Danni is a home town girl who has been away for the past decade making her way in the World as a high flying accountant. But since the death of her father, the guilt she felt for not being there for him and maybe saving him from his heart attack, has had her rushing back to live back with her mother so she can at least be there to look after her should anything go wrong. This however brings her back in to the fold of her two older step siblings who also happen to have a meth problem. This causes confrontations on a daily basis but she cannot stop herself from putting others first, ahead of her own desires and dreams.Coming back home also brings her back face to face with her first love, Gage, who she left to pursue her dreams all those years back. Gage has stayed stagnant where she left him, same town, same job, and same life and as such he feels they should pick up from where they last were as he is still in love with her. But Danni knows she was right to leave in the first place and there is something more for her besides Gage and her dead end job she has picked up on her return. But it would transpire that there were things that had changed about Gage too.On a rare night out with her best friend and co-worker she first sets eyes on Holden and what an extreme situation that was with him getting happy with the local town slut on her knees in front on him. This sets off a chain of events that would eventually bring them together but leaves Danni in a quandary – should she remain self-less and live her life for others or should she take the chance, be selfish and live her life for her?Right from the start I fell for Holden. He was from out of town, moving from place to place where his job as an oil worker for his father’s company takes him. He’s been a player and doesn’t have to work hard to hook the ladies, until that is he meets the headstrong and dynamic Danni. She’s definitely a match for him but Holden is just so delish. He was so laid back and appealing, nothing held him back. But again he was hiding his own demons and the pressure he gets living under the watchful eye of his father, a domineering man who has Holden’s life mapped out for him. This leads to the question is he not exactly like Danni, living his life for others?I loved the parts with Danni and Holden and the development of their relationship. It was a slow build and at times did go around in circles but you just knew they were deemed to be. It wasn’t an overly sexual romance, although there were some instances of sexy times but not enough for me. I would have liked to have had a further insight on Holden but at some stage he disappears from the story and I would have preferred to still have his POV even whilst he was out of the plotline when the issue Danni is having with Gabe and her siblings is going on. The book kind of lost me for a while at this point.However the epilogue was a total winner and pulled me right back in love with Danni and Holden. Obviously I won’t divulge what happened as they would be a total spoiler to the new reader but it was a wonderful culmination of the story’s end.If you are looking for a romance with a dash of angst, a pinch of yearning and a whole lot of love and understanding then this is a read I would recommend for you.