★BOOK REVIEW★ Soaring by Kristen Ashley

I really enjoyed “Soaring”, alas, not as much as The Will ! I loved both Mickey and Amelia, and I must say Kristen Ashley did really good with the angst, my heart really was breaking for Amelia… Though I enjoyed most of the book tremendously, the story dragged enough for me to rate it 4 stars instead of 5.

Publisher : Self published
Series : Magdalene series #2

Pages : 597
Release date : March 16, 2015
Genre : Romance.

The Story

81s1B4-Z1gL._SL1500_American heiress Amelia Hathaway needs to start anew. Her husband cheated on her, and when everything she wanted in life slipped through her fingers, she fell apart. When she did, she took another heart wrenching hit as she lost the respect of her children.
When her ex took her family from California to live in the small town of Magdalene in Maine, Amelia decided it was time to sort herself out. In order to do that and win her children back, she moves to Cliff Blue, an architectural masterpiece on the rocky coast of Magdalene.
Her boxes aren’t even unpacked when she meets Mickey Donovan, a man who lives across the street, a man so beautiful Amelia takes one look at Mickey and knows she wants it all from him.
The problem is, she finds out swiftly that he’s friendly, he’s kind, but he doesn’t want everything back.
Amelia struggles to right past wrongs in her life at the same time find out who she wants to be. She also struggles with her attraction to the handsome firefighter who lives across the street.
But Amelia will face a surprise when her friendly neighbor becomes not-so-friendly. As Amelia and Mickey go head to head, Amelia must focus on winning back the hearts of her children.

She soon discovers she also must focus on winning the heart of a handsome firefighter who understands down to his soul the beautiful heiress who lives across the street is used to a life he cannot provide.
.

My Review

Could it be possible that I read too many Kristen Ashley’s books?

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That’s the question I asked myself when I finished Soaring. Don’t get me wrong, Soaring was a beautiful read, I enjoyed most of it, and even teared up. No, I’m asking myself this question because some things in the book really felt repetitive and maybe formulaic for her to write. (Aha!) I’m usually rejoicing for long (LOOOONG) KA’s books but this one, I must admit, dragged a bit.

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I waited for this book for months, you could say I was eager to start it, and eagerly I read the book in 1 day, more or less.

Eager because I knew the characters would be older than usual, KA being one of the few that doesn’t hesitate writing about lovers above 30 years, eager to get absorbed in KA awesomeness, eager to add a new very alpha male to my collection… Damn but I was ready to meet Mickey!

“He was built. He was rough. And he was gorgeous. Men from Maine. Who knew?”

 

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Soaring, if you haven’t read The Will yet, is not set differently, meaning this is a story about an older woman, who’s seeking peace and wants to start her life anew.

Youngsters, I’m not trying to scare you, older doesn’t necessary mean old like Yetta, who the fuck is Yetta? Youngsters, this is Yetta :

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No, we’re talking mature old. In your 40’s old. Not that I would call a woman this age old. (Get off my back, older women, alright?) Amelia is 47 and Mickey is 48.

Anyway.

This is the story about Amelia Hathaway, she seeks a new beginning, she made mistakes, huge ones as it appears, and wants to get a new life for her kids’ sake and for her own.

She had a bad marriage, got cheated on, lost her children, and has lost any purpose in life. It’s time for her to get her act together, and that’s when she decides to move to Magdalene, Maine. To be closer to her kids.

She wants a new start with them, and maybe she wants a try at happiness too.

“And maybe I was insane to hope.
But the idea of losing hope terrified me to extremes.
So I hoped.

Living right across her street is Mickey Donovan. Hold on. Mickey Donovan. Donovan. As in Irish Hotness Donovan? Yeah. You get that right, right on time (almost) for St Patrick’s day, KA delivers her new alpha, an Irishman at that.

I bet KA fans, wouldn’t need more infos and would just dive in. But let me tell you a little bit more about Mickey.

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“And those eyes. Those eyes that were angry now but I knew with one look they could be many different things. They could be warm. They could laugh. They could be frustrated. They could be impatient. They could be determined. They could be joyful. They could be heated. And I knew with that one look I wanted to see those eyes every way they could be.
…But most of all, in that moment, I found myself wanting, in a myriad of ways, to make those beautiful blue eyes HEATED.”

Do I need to spell it out for you? Irish Alpha Badass Firefighter boxer in his spare time. What can be better than this, I’m asking you?

“Mickey Donovan. The Irishman. Total score.”

He’s a single dad, he’s been burned by his ex-wife as well, he’s very protective of his kids, he works in construction and is a volunteer firefighter.

First part of the story focuses on Amelia’s plan to get her kids back. Her relationship with them is non-existent, she has to build everything back. Those moments were hard to read, Kristen Ashley really pulled all the strings to make me cry. It was hard and I found myself saying out loud “FFS someone gives these kids a shake their mother can’t be that huge of a monster!”
It was truly heartbreaking, and maybe a bit exaggerated. I was expecting the reason for their behavior to be unforgivable, but not quite. Amelia acted like most of women would have, and I believe this could have been toned down a bit. Poor Amelia waited to be called all through the book!

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Parallel to this, she get to make the acquaintance of her neighbor, Mickey. Their relationship was a long and a slow building. It started as a neighbor to lovers, then verged toward a friends to lovers, to finish as an enemy to lovers trope. All of this mixed together.  I loved their banter, they were bickering NON-STOP. It made me laugh, a lot! The building was really good, it served a purpose and we get to meet many versions of Mickey, hot blooded Irishman.

“You need to get checked. You clearly have an overabundance of testosterone in a way it’s harmful to your health. The harmful part to your health is ME murdering YOU.”

“You take me out, it’s back to that toy in your nightstand and I’m thinkin’ you don’t want that.”

Protective, charming, good dad, seductive, short fused, jerk, friendly, smart arse, caring, jerk again, insecure, repentant, beast in the bedroom.

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Oh yes, Mickey was all of the above.

“I’ll warn you, might make me crazy, might make me a dick, don’t give a shit, but I get off on goin’ head to head with you. So if you feel like keepin’ your gloves up, baby, bring it. ‘Cause I know after doin’ it for a while and then gettin’ that kiss from you, you keep doin’ it, when I finally fuck you it’s gonna WRECK YOU.”

Something I really enjoyed, and something this author never fails to write to a perfection are the sex scenes.

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Mickey most definitely kept his promises, he wrecked her.

“I wanted to be wrecked.
I wanted to be wrecked by Mickey.
Needed it.

(Not my internal dialog, but I wholeheartedly agreed!)

“I was soaring, arching, moaning, shuddering and coming.”

Amelia comes from big money, she is trying to find a purpose, something she’s good at, something she would enjoy in life. She volunteers at a retiring home, she helps getting funds for the young boxing team, she makes new friends… She truly had the redeeming act to a T. We get to say Hi again to Josie, Jake, Alyssa…

“This is just Mickey being a good guy.”
“Bet, you go ver there with cleavage, his good guy will get better.”

A KA book wouldn’t be a KA book without a girl posse, and yes, Amelia had hers… Getting her a make-over, hence the shopping trips, clothes, new furniture… As in every KA book, you can expect the same level of over descriptiveness. Personally, I enjoy it, it really makes me “see” myself as the heroine, and that’s a very important fact in a romance book.

Moving, on, Amelia eventually wins her kids back, I thought maybe this part was a bit rushed… They were definitively hating her, but all of sudden she was their favorite thing in the world, going from a zero talking policy to a sweet and friendly relationship… They didn’t think of sharing what was happening to them, but as in many families, a good Thanksgiving meal solved it all.

And we just reached the part where I think the book dragged… The last 20% could have been easily cut from the book. Nothing of interest is happening, or at least, nothing meaningful to the story.

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Overall I really liked this story, some parts I truly LOVED, KA knows best, and she really did a great job with some good angst, the push and pull between the main characters, and I honestly think you cannot NOT like Amelia. She was strong, determined, the absolute opposite to a door mat. Only KA would insist on the fact that she (Amelia) wouldn’t let it get to her that her kids, friends, family kept on ignoring her, and this really hurt ME.

The family and friendship as usual were perfectly written, and it’s one of the few things I love about this author, it’s her way to make you feel part of the family.

A little friendly warning, you’re going to read a Kristen Ashley’s book, so you either got to have dinner/lunch/huge breakfast already, or have a snack ready on the side while reading this, because this book will get you hungry! I wish I was kidding but I am not. 🙂

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