Hello everyone!
Looking at my choice for tonight, I'm realizing I might have left it for Christmas, because the book just so happens to take place over that holiday ... but then again, I love it SO FREAKING MUCH there's no way I would have been able to wait.
So instead you're getting it tonight.
And by 'it', I mean a believable, age gap romance, where the guy is the ex-boyfriend's father, and well, if you think it sounds complicated ...
It is.
Until it isn't.
So let's not mince any more words, shall we?
Instead, let's hop straight into Where We Burn.
As this is the first book by Lea Rose that I picked up and read, there are no other links down at the bottom of this page, HOWEVER.
There will be more.
Because GUESS WHAT? Your girl applied for Ms Rose's ARC team, and SHE GOT APPROVED.
My physical copy of Where We Burn is on the way to me as we speak, but I do own the digital one and I devoured it. DEVOURED.
It's been a while since a book gripped me quite as much as this one (although I only now realized I inconveniently DO NOT have one of Emma Hamm's best books on here yet ...), so I'm not gonna cut corners anymore and just get on with it.
Piper moves to Rosewood Falls after her older sister, Violet, who basically raised her while their dead beat mom was doing everything else, and their dad was long gone. There, she gets a job as a bartender at The Velvet Stag, the local watering hole for cowboys and anyone who wants to put on a Stetson hat ... which is where she meets Tall, Dark and Handsome.
Aka, Christian Crawford.
The man, the myth, the legend, the eldest of the Crawford brothers who's running the family ranch which doubles as a tree farm for anyone wanting a real pine tree over the holidays, he's the kind of guy who, in Piper's own words, can ruin you before breakfast and still have time to saddle his horse while he's at it.
He and Piper keep making eyes at each other, until his son Travis walks in, and Christian backs off, while Travis asks Piper on a date.
Six months later, it turns out she must have blacked out because he's an asshole of the highest order, and she's seriously considering dumping him, but she doesn't want to do it until AFTER the December stint at the Crawford ranch, because she REALLY wants to help out there.
And no, she totally isn't still covertly looking at Christian. Not her.
Who is she even kidding, of course she is, but she's trying to be good, okay?
So is Christian, but the convenient double POV in this book lets you see just how difficult it is for these two to keep their hands to each other when their chemistry burns so damn hot, especially once they're all on the ranch together.
Travis is a complete dick, though; Christian had him young, after a one-night stand, and he drew the line at marrying the mom, saying no and being there for the kid for as much as the mom's family would let him - which results in Travis being spoon-fed lies about the guy, how he left the mom to her own devices, how it's HIS fault her family basically pulled the drastic plug to prevent any more unplanned pregnancies, etc.
Listen, I get childhood trauma and whatnot, but there are lines, and Travis refuses to listen to anything Christian says, but because Christian is who he is, he wants to keep trying with this relationship thing.
And he knows - just as Piper knows - that the two of them can NEVER happen if he wants Travis in his life, because the kid will blow a gasket.
Only, he then smacks Piper, and she breaks his nose in retaliation, after which Christian kicks him off the ranch property, as no real cowboy actually hurts a woman ... and then all bets are off when Piper demands Christian stops looking at her like she's Travis' girl.
Oooh, the sexy times. You'll need ice, A/C, and potentially several cold baths.
Of course the douche has to make one final bid to try and break them apart, and he even admits to Piper that actually, he only asked her out because he could see the way his dad was looking at her, to take her from him - so while she's like SCUSE ME, ASSHOLE about that, she DOES attempt to leave Christian to try and salvage his relationship with his son.
Then she has a monologue with her sister about how everyone always leaves him and he gives everyone everything, but no one gives HIM anything back, and changes her mind, after which it's a Christian versus Travis showdown, wherein the kid basically shows he was only ever in it to get financial gain from the ranch, but Christian changed the deed so his younger brothers, Callahan and Colton, are also on it, to prevent his SOB kid from doing something with it.
After that, and after they basically go public with their relationship, Christian proposes to Piper, and in the epilogue, we see them raising twin boys and a girl together as a family unit.
THE END FOR NOW
This book would get ten blooming stars from me if possible.
I honestly thought it would be like plenty of others currently on the market, more smut than plot, and I was totally down to reading that, too! But then Christian Crawford rolled up in his black cowboy hat, and shattered every single expectation.
Yes, he and Piper have an age gap. Yes, some will clutch their pearls over it. Yes, she dates his son before they get their shit together. Guess what? It all works out and makes sense because the writing is just that good, the characters are consenting adults who yearn for each other as adults, and Travis can go eat dirt somewhere with his misplaced rotten anger.
I honestly thought it would be like plenty of others currently on the market, more smut than plot, and I was totally down to reading that, too! But then Christian Crawford rolled up in his black cowboy hat, and shattered every single expectation.
Yes, he and Piper have an age gap. Yes, some will clutch their pearls over it. Yes, she dates his son before they get their shit together. Guess what? It all works out and makes sense because the writing is just that good, the characters are consenting adults who yearn for each other as adults, and Travis can go eat dirt somewhere with his misplaced rotten anger.
Christian Crawford is a godsdamned gift from heaven and hell combined, and he knows how to show a girl a good time.
But the sex isn't what makes this book great.
What marks it as special is the way he and Piper choose each other. Despite the obstacles, the whispers, the fallout they know will come. They have their hiccups, but they choose one another every. single. fucking. time.
That's where the magic is.
It's not in the (admittedly fan-fucking-tastic) sex scenes. It's not in the lust and the goo goo eyes.
It's in the way Christian treats Piper; the way he would burn the world twice over for her, protect her from hell, worship at her altar, make sure she never has to doubt a single thing. It's in the way Piper gives her ex the finger and walks back to Christian with everything on the line; the way she takes care of him.
In today's world where so many people feel even the bare minimum has been lost and potential partners just ... don't have what we might want, Piper, and especially Christian, define what it is readers of these books really want.
Not the sex (though that's a perk), not even the possessiveness the world keeps trying to convince us is wrong (when it's only between consenting adults and not in a degrading fashion). It's the unconditional love and respect and commitment, the honour and family and loyalty, we read on these pages.
Christian makes us swoon not because he's six foot plus cowboy alpha (not that you'll hear anyone complaining ...) but because he NEEDS Piper and would lay down his life for her. She's his girl. Period. And that kind of belonging and force of nature at your back is what so many are missing nowadays in this confusing world of ours.
My hat off to you, Lea Rose. And here's to reading Callan and Colton's stories in the future 💙
But the sex isn't what makes this book great.
What marks it as special is the way he and Piper choose each other. Despite the obstacles, the whispers, the fallout they know will come. They have their hiccups, but they choose one another every. single. fucking. time.
That's where the magic is.
It's not in the (admittedly fan-fucking-tastic) sex scenes. It's not in the lust and the goo goo eyes.
It's in the way Christian treats Piper; the way he would burn the world twice over for her, protect her from hell, worship at her altar, make sure she never has to doubt a single thing. It's in the way Piper gives her ex the finger and walks back to Christian with everything on the line; the way she takes care of him.
In today's world where so many people feel even the bare minimum has been lost and potential partners just ... don't have what we might want, Piper, and especially Christian, define what it is readers of these books really want.
Not the sex (though that's a perk), not even the possessiveness the world keeps trying to convince us is wrong (when it's only between consenting adults and not in a degrading fashion). It's the unconditional love and respect and commitment, the honour and family and loyalty, we read on these pages.
Christian makes us swoon not because he's six foot plus cowboy alpha (not that you'll hear anyone complaining ...) but because he NEEDS Piper and would lay down his life for her. She's his girl. Period. And that kind of belonging and force of nature at your back is what so many are missing nowadays in this confusing world of ours.
My hat off to you, Lea Rose. And here's to reading Callan and Colton's stories in the future 💙
xx
*image not mine
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