At Peace ('Burg, #2)

by Kristen Ashley

[stacey_is_sassy]

Still bloody brilliant.

One of my all-time favourite Kristen Ashley reads/listens. There are so many things that I feel I could hold against Joe but by the end, you can't help but love him. His relationship with Kate and Keira always makes me smile as he steps into their lives so effortlessly. Cradling them in his arms when they face heartbreak could make anyone's heart melt.

It's sexy, emotional and it's enthralling. I will be back again...soon...ish. :-)

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Baking can be very, very emotional...

An Audio Review

How’s my form…baking cookies and cupcakes with tears pouring out of my eyes. Hubby walks past and doesn’t even ask if I’m OK? He just shakes his head and keeps on walking. I mean, I could have burnt myself, be recovering from a concussion after slipping in egg whites or sprained my wrist with all of the mixings with a hand mixer. I’ve been hinting to hubby I need a Kitchenaid stand mixer. I have this one recipe for coconut cookies that you have to beat for 5 minutes, my arms feel like they’re going to fall off by the end. Anyways… Noooo, he just walks on by. To be honest, he knows me too well. The bugger knows I get a wee bit emotional when I’m living in KA world.

So I’ve read At Peace a few times, absolutely love the highs and low of Joe and Vi’s journey. When the audio went on sale for $1.99 (that price is from Audible if you own the Amazon ebook already) I snapped that sucker up. I started hesitantly after some complaints that the narrator was quite monotone, but that wasn’t my complaint. I could hear swallowing…I hate that in real life let alone right in my ear. It wasn’t throughout the whole book but it did happen. So was it worth $1.99? Too bloody right :-)

Vi and her two daughters Kate and Keira, have moved to The Burg trying to get away from a madman who killed her police officer hubby. The mad man has the hots for Vi and wants her. Unfortunately, she didn’t get far enough away. He finds her and starts harassing her again. Lucky for Vi she moved in across from Alex (Burg police) and Feb Colton, and next door to security specialist Joe Callahan. The first time Joe and Vi meet isn’t ideal, but they feel an instant attraction to each other. Joe has issues and I mean serious ISSUES. This is the journey two people make to find happiness.

Unfortunately, the journey is fraught with barriers…mostly made by Joe. His issues date back 17 years and he still hasn’t gotten over them. What starts off as the two of them finding mutual satisfaction in each other's arms, becomes more for Vi. Vi’s husband was her first love and she doesn’t have a lot of experience, especially handling no strings attached sex. When Joe sees Vi getting attached to him, he does some very horrible things to make it clear that he’s not in the same headspace. There are more casualties, though…Joe started a friendship with Vi’s teenage daughters. One other issue, when Vi tries to move on, she starts a more “normal” relationship with Mike a detective in the Burg. It’s not great…and she does keep them both on the line…I can only blame her inexperience.

Not saying anymore…I’ve probably said too much already. But I wanted to make clear that even though Joe does some really douchey things…when he comes good he comes really, really good. That brings us to another point. This man is HOT!! I mean he takes her to market, he takes her at home, he cooks her beef on the barbie and makes sure Tina has none, And then Joe gives her O’s O’s O’s all the way home.