stacey_is_sassy
Written on May 15, 2015
I received an ARC directly from the author to read and review.
The review has a wee bit of spoilerage, so please proceed with caution.
Engaging is the second story in the Alluring series by Sarah Curtis. In this story we have a rock star named Gage who meets a young woman named Cassie attending an outdoor concert at her university. Cassie, who is more of a country music fan, had been dragged to the concert by her best friend Monica who is a huge fan of Gage and his band Engage. Do you remember that scene from Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark where he reaches down and drags a very young Courtney Cox up onto the stage to dance with him? Well it wasn’t exactly like that, but it was pretty damn close…loved it. Gage is very keen on getting to know Cassie more and chases her down at her job at a pizza parlour. With a little wooing from Gage, Cassie becomes smitten. Things were happily humming along until Engage is set to go on tour and Gage makes the stupidest mistake of dumping her before hitting the road. Gage realises his mistake pretty quickly and heads back to Cassie to set things right. Unfortunately he gets there too late and she’s not there anymore.
In the beginning chapters we have a little bit of time warping where we see the mistakes play out when they were younger and present day settings 5 years later. In the present day, Gage is at a party and runs into a horrified Cassie. She does not want to see him and runs out of the party before he can stop her. Cassie was heartbroken when Gage broke up with her and never really recovered. She is also keeping a VERY big secret.
Cassie has a son named Logan. You guessed it, he’s 4 years old (do the math). This story then goes on to tell us why she made the decisions she made and how she coped being a single Mum. This part of the story wasn’t as big a struggle to get through as I thought it would be. Gage had matured through the years and had really missed Cassie. Yes, he was disappointed with her choice to keep him out of his son’s life, but he didn’t fully blame her. He left a young woman with tough choices to make and never gave her confidence that he would be there for her. Once he was over his disappointment, he made the decision that they would become a family.
I really enjoyed how the storyline progresses with Gage working his hardest to make Cassie trust him and his feelings for her. Cassie is very stubborn and it takes a while for her to see Gage is serious, but it was hard to deny when he becomes Logan’s Daddy with no hesitation.
A few warning because I have friends who need to know this upfront. Cassie’s aunt who she lives and works with founded Tail Wagners, a non-profit organisation that rescues abandoned, neglected and abused dogs. Her job is to prepare them and find homes for them. It also includes rehabilitating dogs that have been illegally used in dog fights. There are some scenes where she is dealing with dogs that have been hurt in fights and we have a description given of what the fight scene looks like. There is one scene towards the end at a fight, but no explicit details are given.
Overall I really enjoyed this story and was honoured to be given an ARC directly from the author to read and review. I’ll be honest and say this story wasn’t perfect for me, mainly due to our heroines TSTL actions towards the end of the story. She puts herself in harms way, knowing that she could get hurt. Does she hesitate…sure. Does she proceed…sure. Does she regret it…sure.
Another great read by Ms Curtis and I will definitely be reading more from her in the future.
This review and more can be found at http://edgyreviews.com/