She’s high heels, he’s hiking boots . . . and they’re perfect together.
Chasing Serenity, an all new steamy and emotional opposites attract stand-alone from New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley is available now!
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Ashley brings a new novel in her River Rain series…
From a very young age, Chloe Pierce was trained to look after the ones she loved.
And she was trained by the best.
But when the man who looked after her was no longer there, Chloe is cast adrift—just as the very foundation of her life crumbled to pieces.
Then she runs into tall, lanky, unpretentious Judge Oakley, her exact opposite. She shops. He hikes. She drinks pink ladies. He drinks beer. She’s a city girl. He’s a mountain guy.
Obviously, this means they have a blowout fight upon meeting. Their second encounter doesn’t go a lot better.
Judge is loving the challenge. Chloe is everything he doesn’t want in a woman, but he can’t stop finding ways to spend time with her. He knows she’s dealing with loss and change.
He just doesn’t know how deep that goes. Or how ingrained it is for Chloe to care for those who have a place in her heart, how hard it will be to trust anyone to look after her…
And how much harder it is when it’s his turn.
Fall in love today!
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Excerpt
Considering the fact he’d brought in a coffee for his buddy, Rix, who managed the store, Judge was down on the floor where Rix’s office was, not on the top floor where his was, so he saw her when she walked into the shoe section.
He’d dated Meg.
And before Meg, there was Jess.
And before Jess, there was Kimberly.
They all had different color hair, Meg and Jess were tall, Kim was not.
But even so, Judge had a type.
He knew it.
And that woman who’d strolled up to the shoe displays?
She was his type.
Multiplied by a thousand.
Christ, she was beautiful.
And bad news.
He could tell that last by the outfit, including her ridiculous, high-heeled booties.
He’d worked at River Rain Outdoor stores for nine years—starting as a sales associate when he was still going to college and advancing to director of the Kids and Trails program.
In all that time, he didn’t think he’d ever seen a woman walk into any of their stores wearing shoes like hers.
And when he came down again a half an hour later to hit Rix’s office to make some copies because the copier in the corporate offices at the top level was busted, he noticed she was still there.
He also noticed he had further evidence she was bad news.
That evidence?
The sheer number of boxes of boots that she was trying on scattered around her.
She looked like she’d not set foot on a hiking trail in her life.
And she looked like she was there because she’d already trolled through all the boutiques around the square, but this hadn’t assuaged her shopping fix, because nothing really did.
Therefore, there was a possibility, after making a member of staff bring her fifteen pairs of shoes, she’d walk out not buying anything.
She’d do this not thinking a thing of it.
However, he noted some of the boots she was trying on were riding boots, and Judge could see that round ass of hers in the saddle on top of a horse.
Wearing a riding habit.
Even if she was trouble, and he had not the slightest interest (or he was telling himself that), he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.
Because he was a moron.
That said, she caught his gaze every time.
So he was looking.
But so was she.
His instincts proved true when he came down for the third time with more to copy, and he again walked through the shoe section to get to the office in the back. Doing this close to where she was seated, still trying on boots, because, yes, in the fifteen minutes between then and now, he had not stopped being a moron.
And again, she caught his gaze.
He had no clue why, but as her gorgeous hickory brown eyes hit his, he muttered, “Nice booties.”
Her back shot straight, and she demanded, “What did you just say?”
Review:
3.5 stars
***
This was an okay read for me. Chasing Serenity is book one in the River Rain series and is Chloe and Judge's book. We met Chloe in After the Climb, the prequal to this book and her mother's book. Chloe came off as a very flighty woman who talked in French half the time because she spent time there. In Chasing Serenity, we see that there is much more to Chloe and she is in fact a complicated person. Judge works for Bowie, Chloe's new step father, running outdoor camping adventures for young kids. When Chloe and Judge meet, she is not in a good place in her life but they have an immediate connection of some kind. But Chloe has some personal issues to work through before she is ready for a relationship, dealing with her father's cheating and her parents' divorce. Judge is willing to help her work out those things and sees she is worth it.
This was an okay story for me. Most of the story was Chloe internally dealing with her parents' divorce, her father's cheating, and the beytrayal and suicide of her uncle-figure/family friend Corey. It was more of a character driven book, instead of action driven. And I didn't completely love either Chloe or Judge's characters. Judge was fine. I liked him in general. He was nice, but not an alpha and didn't have a ton of personality. Chloe, I had a harder time with. She was a deparature from the usual KA heroines, which I didn't mind. She was different, but I still didn't love her. She was the alpha in her relationship with Judge. Chloe was supposed to come off a someone who cared so much about her friends and family and wanted to fix all of their problems for them. But, instead, to me she came off as someone who took on everyone's problems and made them about her, letting them overwhelm her and loving the drama. I found her self-centered and childish in her temper and reactions. She often came off as b-itchy, yuppie and unrelatable. I do think she improved somewhat by the end and I did like her more by then. Chloe and Judge's relationship was a slow burn with some pushing away by Chloe until midway and then once they got together, it was smooth sailing relationship-wise. But I just didn't feel any chemistry between them and their sexy times were boring. There were also some questions I had left unanswered concerning Chloe's relationship with her father and conversations they should have had about his cheating, why it happened and how it affected her. Still, I did like the Arizona setting. I also enjoyed that this felt like a bit of a new and different KA and not just a clone of her previous work. This series has potential and I look forward to reading it.
Overall, while I did not fall in love this book, I still enjoyed it in general. It was entertaining and kept my attention. I was happy that Chloe worked out all of her issues over her parents' divorce and losing her Uncle Corey, so that she could find peace and move on in her life to a happy relationship. I like the set up for this series and I have hope that I enjoy the future books.
About Kristen Ashley
Kristen Ashley is the New York Times bestselling author of over sixty romance novels including the Rock Chick, Colorado Mountain, Dream Man, Chaos, Unfinished Hero, The ’Burg, Magdalene, Fantasyland, The Three, Ghost and Reincarnation, Moonlight and Motor Oil and Honey series along with several standalone novels. She’s a hybrid author, publishing titles both independently and traditionally, her books have been translated in fourteen languages and she’s sold over three million books.
Kristen’s novel, Law Man, won
the RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award for best Romantic Suspense. Her independently published title Hold On was nominated for RT Book Reviews best Independent Contemporary Romance and her traditionally published title Breathe was nominated for best Contemporary Romance. Kristen’s titles Motorcycle Man, The Will, Ride Steady (which won the Reader’s Choice award from Romance Reviews) and The Hookup all made the final rounds for Goodreads Choice Awards in the Romance category.
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