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Review
4 stars
Another great story from Abbi Glines featuring a manwhoring bad boy who gets knocked off his feet by a sweet yet strong heroine. Book 7 in the Rosemary Beach series features Grant – best friend and sort-of brother to Rush, and series regular since the very beginning. I’ve loved Grant from the first book, his story has been building away in the background throughout the series, and it all became even more exciting with the addition of Harlow to the story. I’ll admit, his hook up with evil-bitch-from-hell, Nan turned me off, but I’m really glad I chose to dive back into this series.
While this story is very much Grant and Harlow’s, I would definitely recommend reading these books in order so that you know all of the characters and how they interrelate before making a start on this one.
Grant has a huge heart. He wants to be there for the people that are in his life, and he wants to feel needed. This explains his ‘thing’ with Nan – she’s bitter and broken a result of her epic anger, and Grant tried to be there for her. Not that I feel any sort of compassion for her at all, but for the first time I could understand where he was coming from.
“She had needed me. No one had ever needed me…. As sick as it was, I had wanted to be her hero.
Grant has never been interested in relationships or commitment, but seeing what Rush and Blaire have together, and now Woods and Della, it has him thinking. And when he meets Harlow, he realises exactly what he’s been missing.
I love Harlow. She is the daughter of a famous rocker (and just to make things more complicated – she is Nan’s half-sister), but has lived a sheltered life. She’s sweet and somewhat innocent, but is incredibly strong and definitely has her head together. Her life has been hard, but she deals with it and just keeps on going, and I really like that about her.
There’s a spark between the two of them that has been evident in previous books, and I really like the way their story in this book is put together – with Grant and Harlow running into each other by surprise after Harlow moves to Rosemary Beach, and then flashbacks to the months previously where things started happening between them. Things had been progressing slowly but beautifully, but then Grant’s world is turned upside down and he is terrified of falling in love and losing that one special person, and he pulls away. Honestly, this really pissed me off. It’s lame reasoning, and he did some infuriatingly stupid things because of it (including Nan… again!), but it forms a good basis for him to grow from, and he certainly did that!
Once he realises all that they could have together, he is single-mindedly determined. And his all-out effort to win Harlow back and prove to her that he is a good guy and that he wants only her, is beautifully done and incredibly swoony.
“You’re all I can think about, Harlow. Where I’m headed is new to me, but I damn well want to go there as long as that’s where you’ll be. You’re worried about getting hurt, but I don’t think you understand yet that you’re holding all the damn cards, sweet girl. All the damn cards.”
And OMG, totally freaking hot. Like the rest of the boys in this series, Grant is a dirty talking sex god, and he and Harlow get down and dirty with great regularity.
But they don’t have an easy road ahead. Grant is adjusting to a relationship for the first time, Nan in still trying to stir things up, there are some huge bombshells dropped for Harlow’s family, and then there is the secret she is keeping which she fears could change everything.
Like other books in this series, things move along at a great pace, and I was completely sucked into Grant and Harlow’s story. There is some back and forth and a little bit of stupid behaviour, but nothing that impacted on my enjoyment of the story, and things are dealt with quickly and functionally (for the most part). I loved getting to catch up with the characters that have appeared in previous books, and really liked the introduction of Harlow’s half-brother, the big-hearted cowboy, Mase – I’m looking forward to his book!
The story ends with all hell breaking lose for Harlow’s family (what a fantastic twist that is!), and Grant and Harlow having a nasty showdown, and of course – a cliffy. I’m so fully invested in this story, I’ll be going straight onto the next one.
I loved it – 4 stars.
Note – I listened to this as an audiobook, and love the dual narration! It’s really well done and I highly recommend listening to this one.
For full series info, see our Rosemary Beach series page.