Justice Lonesome has enjoyed a life of bounty.

Even so, she’s inherited the curse of the Lonesome. A poet’s soul. Which means she’s still searching for something. Searching for peace. Searching for the less…that’s more.

And when the foundation of her life is pulled out from under her, grieving, she goes to the mountains to find her oasis. She hits Carnal, Colorado and decides to stay.

Deke Hightower lost everything at the age of two. He lost it again at fifteen. His life has not been about bounty. It’s been about learning to live with less, because there’s no way to get more.

Deke’s also watched all his friends go down to the women who gave them what they needed. He wants that for himself. But he knows that search isn’t going to be easy because he’s a rider. His home is the road. That’s the only place he can breathe. And the woman who takes her place at his side has to do it sitting on the back of his bike.

When Deke meets Justice, he knows she’s not that woman. She’s cute. She’s sweet. And she’s into him, but she’s got it all and Deke knows he won’t fit into that. So he holds her at arm’s length. Establishes boundaries. And Justice will take it because she wants Deke any way he’ll let her have him.

But when Justice finds herself a pawn in a dangerous game, Deke makes a decision.

When he does, he has no idea he’s just opened himself up to bounty.

Review

I love this books return to the lush and long KA of old. I really like that time is taken to overcome the issues between them and that we get to spend nice time with all the other couples.

It is a sweet romance.

It’s no question that I’m a big Kristen Ashley fan. I will stop whatever I’m doing to read her latest book. She has a way with words that make you fall in love with her characters and her stories flow so effortlessly. The Colorado Mountain series has been one of my favorite series from KA. I’ve always loved Tate & Lauren, Ty & Lexie, and Chace & Faye’s story. So, you can only imagine how thrilled I was to finally get to the mysterious Jacob ‘Deck’ Decker’s story.

This book left me feeling conflicted. It’s not that I didn’t like the book because I did. I just felt that it was missing the ‘KA’ magic. 

Disappointed? In a sense, I was. Based on the first 4 books in her series, I was hoping for some ‘over the top’ crazy drama to happen (ie. Lauren & Lexie getting kidnapped, Faye getting buried …) and the camaraderie between the girls and the crazy situations they get themselves in. Sadly, none of that happened.

Instead, I found this book solely focused on the relationship between Deck and Emme and everything else was just in the background. Seeing their relationship developed was great and the cameos from the Hot Bunch and the rest of the Colorado Mtn men were a plus, but I still found myself wishing for ‘more’.

An old flame rekindled . . .

Zara Cinders always knew Ham Reece was the one, but he wasn't interested in settling down. When she found someone who was, Ham walked out of her life. Three years later, Zara's lost her business, her marriage, and she's barely getting by in a tiny apartment on the wrong side of the tracks. As soon as Ham hears about Zara's plight, he's on her doorstep offering her a lifeline. Now, it will take every ounce of will power she possesses to resist all that he offers.

Ham was always a traveling man, never one to settle down in one town, with one woman, for more time than absolutely necessary. But Ham's faced his own demons, and he's learned a lot. About himself, and about the life he knows he's meant to live. So when he hears that Zara's having a rough time, he wants to be the one to help. In fact, he wants to do more than that for Zara. A lot more. But first, he must prove to Zara that he's a changed man.

Review

This book was a strange journey for me but overall it was good read.

The book opened with prologue that made me cry. Perhaps, I am a tad hormonal but it is actually very rare for me to tear up during a book and within the first few pages it almost never happens. There is something so touching and wrenching about the dilemma that Zara faces in moving on from Ham (I am just letting go my resistance to this awful not biker related nickname and ignoring it).

We, then, flash forward to three years later when Zara is a bad place with the recession (I love that KA deals with this) stressful time) and the ending of her marriage. Ham comes roaring back into her life with his own near death experience having caused him to reevaluate his life choice of being a rolling stone.

I enjoy much of what happens in the book but it all seems a bit disordered and without the lushness I love about KA. The sexy times are wonderful but even though Ham explains a pile of his behavior and comes through with flying colors in the end, it seems he could have groveled a bit more. I also didn't really care for his big compliment for Zara being that she was easy (as in to be with). Things we learn should happen earlier or in a different order. This is the best I can explain my response to the events of book as less than glowing without giving the plot away.

There is family drama and for once the women that are seen as villains are more grey and change in some cases so this makes me happy.

The epilogue is sweet but could have been much more gluttonous.

So, I liked it but if this was the first book I had ever read by KA I wouldn't glom her backlist. This might be because I didn't care for the Burgs series and Ham's backstory is in there. However, as an already established reader of this writer, I was happy enough.

I was given this book for my honest review. So, there you have it!

The problem here is that this is a carbon copy of the previous books in this series. They are all exactly the same. I specifically read all the books in this series so I could compare.

Abused or mistreated heroine. She says things are cool, awesome and beautiful.

Troubled hero. Has his own language.

"Yeah" means "Right?"

"Yeah" means "Ok?"

"Yeah" means "Do you understand?

Serious lack of the use of "you" and "I" when beginning a sentence. Half the time, it's not clear who the person is referring to until later in the sentence. "Don't wanna fuck with that, because it's good." Ok, who doesn't want to fuck with that? Him or her? 

Heroine must be kidnapped. In every story. And it has to happen at 90%.

At least a dozen times, when the heroine finally realizes something, she has to go through this:

Oh.

My.

God.

Oh my God. Oh my God.

There has to be a Big Misunderstanding that results in the hero or heroine leaving. That is always followed by the other person coming to get them - across state lines, in another country, hiding away in a cabin, whatever. Usually while baffled that the other person would dare to leave.

Heroine says "I love you", hero says "Good" until she demands he say the three words, usually the result of a fight or right after the big kidnapping rescue.

Hero has to hit a wall with something - cell phone, fist, chair, whatever.

Motorcycles.

Southern accents in Colorado. I've been to Colorado. People don't sound like that. Even characters from England end up talking with a southern accent, it's weird.

Hero has to give the heroine a nickname: Duchess, sweet pea, cookie, etc. Which everyone else finds sooo adorable, but she has to demand that he not use it, even though she secretly loves it.

And then... and then... and then... and then it was cool. Which was so awesome, it was beautiful.

That's in every single book. And that's not even all of it. I mean, the author doesn't use the exact same sentences and dialogue, but she might as well. I'm beginning to wonder if I compared fights, and kidnappings, etc the page numbers would match up. I always know a kidnapping is just around the bend because things are starting to wind down a bit at 90% and you expect a wrap up and epilogue. Nope, you get a kidnapping, declaration of love, and then the most epic epilogue of all time. Babies, weddings, mild family drama, warm fluffy bunnies. It's unreal.

Not as unreal as the fact that Kristen Ashley has somehow managed to publish 6 of the same freaking book and nobody has cottoned on. That also, the use of "cottoned on", is used liberally throughout all the books. I'm really not sure where it came from, but now that I've read it 800 times, I can't help but use it. 

However, I think the fact that these stories - though identical - are sometimes-fluffy bits of white-hot romance with a little bit of suspense and mega-alpha males, means people will eat them up. Regardless of how similar it was to the previous. Whatever. I bet I can tell you how all Kristen Ashley's other books go without having to read them. I'll still read them, because they're juicy. And that's how she keeps publishing more. We like juicy.

I know I shouldn't read the same author three times in a row. I know, from experience, that this makes any repetition very clear and the similarities between the stories are so glaringly obvious that I can't stand it.

But Kristen Ashley wrote this awesomely brutish alpha male that totally barreled in and took over the MC's life. She wasn't able to make the cliche choices that ruin other stories because the dude wouldn't let her. This guy is probably too domineering for some and just right for others. I am currently dating a beta and I'm cool with it. But I like my fictional boyfriends to be alphas. And Kristen Ashley wrote one that I adored. So I looked into some other stories and it sounded like they all feature these crazy alpha males. And of course, I am not one to neglect my vices - I read two more. In a row.

And I hate myself for it because the similarities are so damn obvious that it was difficult to read at times. But damn she writes an awesome alpha male. Still, the writing is ridiculously familiar.

Everything is cool, awesome, and beautiful. I want to buy this woman a thesaurus. At the same time, I've noticed that the writing is specific to the scenes in which the story is told by the female MC. So I think it's the female's voice that's doing all the "and then-ing"... And then we did this. And then we did that. And then he did this while I did that. And then we did something together. The other characters don't seem to do it. That being said, she needs to give her three different MCs three different voices with their three different personalities. The MC in this book was so naive and clueless about sex, she came across more like a teenager getting her first kiss from the older college boy and recounting it to her friends, but without the adult words to go along with the adult activities. They kissed and it was awesome. And he used his tongue! In her mouth! And it... was... awesome! I didn't make that shit up, I just changed "my" to "her". Yes, there were italics. Yeah. I KNOW.

So, while it's insanely juvenile and repetitive at times, I really enjoyed the story. The writing, not so much, but the story is a good one. A little whackadoo-never-happens-in-real-life kinda, but still delicious.