Reviewed by Cocktails and Books on
Caisey Quinn has a knack for creating so pretty stellar alpha males with a whole boat load of issues. Van Ransom is no exception...and it's hard not to love the man.
Van finds himself at Second Chance Rancho in a last ditch effort to save his band's upcoming contract with their new label. He figures he'll go through the motions and be out in 90 days and doing what he does best...boozing, women and sometimes destroying things. But there is so much more to Van than anyone knows and it's with the help of Stella Jo that he discovers the only way to be worthy of her is to fight his demons. They are some ugly demons and they weigh him down with guilt for things that were so not his fault. Despite his "I don't give a f" attitude, Van really does care and wants to be a better man. At first, he's doing it to be worthy (at least in his eyes) of Stella, but in the end he realizes that he has to want the recovery for himself, because that's the only way he's ever going to be able to make changes in his life.
Stella has her own very large set of issues. She feels like no one wants or needs her. Her parents pushed her aside, unless she was winning horse races, and then her college boyfriend tosses her aside for her best friend. She locks her feelings away, because she knows that if she were to let them become involved, she would break when she was tossed aside again. With Van, her emotions are let loose despite her best efforts to lock them down. She makes some wrong assumptions about Van and what he wants, but she proves to be the stronger of the two. She proves to him that he's worth fighting for. That she'll stand by him, even if to do that she has to be separated from him for a little while.
This was one I couldn't put down. Van and Stella just pull you into the story. Their banter is witty and fun, while their chemistry could burn a barn down. Definitely pick this one up. It's a challenging story about overcoming addiction, but one that is well worth it.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 9 May, 2014: Finished reading
- 9 May, 2014: Reviewed