I could not put this down in the beginning. It was pure KA gold but once the bad guy was caught and they reconciled it got a bit slow. It took me forever to finish it. It pains me to say it because I love KA. I wish the bad guy scenario had played out more and until the end. ( )

this was not good ( )

4.1 stars

I am a little bit mixed on this book. I loved certain parts of it but others seemed tedious. There was a lot of fluff in here that I think could have been weeded out, such as Cady's brother. I struggled to connect with the characters at first but eventually fell under the spell of KA and her trademark alphaman. I did have a few issues with the story in regards to the why's. Especially the timing because seriously who waits decades and pines for them. However, this is fiction and it works in fiction.

Loved seeing some of the old characters of this series as well as from Rock Chicks. It felt like coming home because that is the beauty of this author, her ability to create characters that feel like family and that make a person want to go back and reread all of the stories again. Loved the dynamic of Cady and her "family" and loved the truly special moments between her and Coert. ( )

I love this series so much. ( )

In this last book of the series it's Sheriff Coert Yeager's turn at romance....and it's someone from his past. Cady Moreland. But she wasn't a Moreland when he met her.

Coert met a young Cady 18 yrs prior when he was an undercover cop in Denver. His first assignment to get close to a local drug dealer, get the evidence and shut the operation down. Now Lar's isn't the trusting type so how does he "get in"?

Cady's best friend Maria and her boyfriend Lonnie are part of Lar's crew. Yup, his Capt. tell him to use Cady to get close to the others. He doesn't want to because he knows she's trying to break free from those people because she knows something bad is going on, she doesn't know what but she doesn't want any part of it. But to get close he needs to keep her involved with that crowd. Seriously her friend Maria is crazy. She ends up shooting Lonnie in the face to prove loyalty to Lars. She really want to get with him.

The bust happens and things go horribly wrong, I know...who didn't see that coming right? But they way they handled it...WOW!

Cady ends up married to an older, and I do mean older- he's in his 60's she's 23, man. We learn that their's was not a conventional marriage in fact. They never shared a room. He wanted to take care of a young, lost girl. He had lost his wife and daughter during childbirth. He had been blessed with 4 sons but that little girl named Katy and his wife was what he regretted the most. Her family always put her down and when her friends are busted they blame her for making yet ANOTHER bad decision and disown her. They sounded like a**holes from the beginning and nothing during the book makes them any better. Her brother has to be the worst of them all. After their parents die he still doesn't want anything to do with the only blood relative he has left.

But she marries him and ends up taking care of him through his bought with cancer. His children thought at first she was just a gold digger but as they spent years with her, seeing her care for Patrick Sr they learn to love her, protect her and give her support like she never had before.

He on the other hand has left Denver for Magdalene, ME. HE becomes the sheriff and has a couple of "serious" relationships but he can never fully commit to any of those women. Although one, Kim, tries to trap him by poking holes in his condoms and getting pregnant. It backfires in the sense he still leaves her but he's there for their daughter whom he didn't plan on having but loves her more than anything else in his life.

We start out with Cady moving to Maine, Magdalene to be precise, after Patrick Sr. has passed away. He encouraged her to go because now both Coert and her brother are living close to one another and he knows in his heart she wants to mend fences with both men. He has high hopes for Coert and not so sure about her brother. So what does Cady do.....she buys a rundown lighthouse and renovates it. She fell i love with it thinking it was a beacon to her, showing her the light to lead her out of the darkness of regret that lives in her heart.

Coert is not fond of this plan at all. He fights tooth and nail not to fall into her trap again. He's under the illusion of her being a gold digger since she didn't wait for him to explain what happened and that yes, he lied to her but for the job and that it wasn't all lies. He did love her, still does.

Now I could go on and on about who said what, how her family (Patrick's kids, grandkids) come to Maine to make sure she's okay. How they have her back....how the eldest son, Patrick Jr. tracks Coert down for a little man to man talk and sets him straight on a few things. (the separate bedrooms and her being more adopted daughter than wife in the family's eyes.) But you'll get more out of it reading it for yourself. There are Kleenex moments. Time when you are seriously going to want to smack someone. And, if you read the other two books in the series you'll know the name, Boston Stone is up to his old tricks. Still no one is buying his line of bull.

We do see Jake, Josie, Junior, Alyssa, Mickey and Amelia (couples from our other books) but not until more than halfway through this story. There's a lot of ground to cover with these two and these folks while entertaining would have taken too much time from Coert and Cady.

OH....and be prepared to think WTF when her brother shows up. But only a woman with a HUGE loving, forgiving nature would give him the time of day and do what she does.

All in all another good book from Kristen. She never fails to make me feel like I'm reading about real people whom I want to befriend. ( )