{"id":59853,"date":"2021-06-22T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=59853"},"modified":"2021-06-22T07:39:31","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T11:39:31","slug":"arc-review-courage-heroes-of-big-sky-1-by-kristen-proby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=59853","title":{"rendered":"ARC Review: Courage (Heroes of Big Sky, #1) by Kristen Proby"},"content":{"rendered":"

From New York Times Bestselling author Kristen Proby comes an all new novel in her Big Sky series, Courage. This is the first story in the Heroes of Big Sky, all about men in uniform in Cunningham Falls!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Amazon\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Apple Books<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Nook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Kobo\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Audible<\/a> (Narrated by Stephen Dexter & Erin Mallon)<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Blurb<\/b><\/h4>\n

From New York Times Bestselling author Kristen Proby comes an all new novel in her Big Sky series, Courage. This is the first story in the Heroes of Big Sky, all about men in uniform in Cunningham Falls!<\/p>\n

Natasha Mills feels like she\u2019s loved firefighter Sam Waters her entire life. Since she first met him during middle school, she\u2019s harbored a secret crush on her best friend\u2019s big brother. It\u2019s just something she lives with every day\u2014too bad he doesn\u2019t notice her. To Sam, Tash is his little sister\u2019s best friend and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Disaster strikes the Waters family, leaving Sam\u2019s sister and her husband dead, and their young children in the hands of Sam and Natasha. Suddenly, these two are navigating the loss of people they loved, while trying to figure out parenthood together. The grief is devastating, and raising twins is harder than either of them bargained for. But in working together, and leaning on each other, Sam and Tash learn that family comes in all different shapes and sizes.<\/p>\n

The more time he spends with Natasha though, the more Sam realizes just how sweet and sexy she really is. He finds himself slowly but surely falling for her. But when the time comes for him to let her go\u2014will he be able to walk away from the family he\u2019s helped build?<\/p>\n

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Add to Goodreads<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

3.5 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

This is a sweet, sexy and functional romance from the Queen of easy comfort reads. A friends-to-lovers romance with a single-parent twist, and a gorgeous story of family and friendship.<\/p>\n

Natasha has loved Sam her whole life. He is the older brother of her best friend, and she\u2019s crushed on him afar since she was a teenager. Sam is a firefighter who never really looked at his sister\u2019s friend like that, but the two are good friends.<\/p>\n

Their worlds crumble and collide when Sam\u2019s sister and her husband are killed in a tragic accident, and Natasha and Sam are left to raise their four-year-old twins. It\u2019s the most devastating of circumstances, but they have each other to lean on, and as they rearrange their lives to cope with their sudden parenthood, they pull together to do the best they can for the kids, and soon find their friendship changing.<\/p>\n

His face is mere inches from mine as we both share my pillow. \u201cDoes this change everything?\u201d
\n\u201cNo overthinking,\u201d he says gently. \u201cBut, yes. It changes everything.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a natural and effortless shift. Suddenly there\u2019s just more<\/i> there, and neither of them hide from it. They follow their hearts and embrace the chemistry that is blossoming between them, and they find themselves in a gorgeous relationship, and a family that becomes the whole world to them.<\/p>\n

But Sam\u2019s future has always been elsewhere, and when the initial \u2018settling\u2019 time comes to an end and they need to get back to real life, their new family will be tested. This is where the drama comes in, and I could feel it along with them as they deal with their situation and figure out what they truly want, and how they can have it all.<\/p>\n

This is such a sweet read. The characters are likable, their story is gorgeous, and the romance is easy, sexy, sweet and satisfying. The premise of the story is pretty heavy, but a lot of that drama is glossed over – the characters are grieving, but the story focuses more on them moving on after the deaths of their loved ones, so it\u2019s not too heavy.<\/p>\n

As an extended part of the Big Sky<\/i> series, there is a big cast of side characters, and quite a lot of crossover from previous books. If you\u2019ve read the Big Sky<\/i> books, you\u2019ll love the cameos, and seeing where the characters are now (and kids! So many kids!). But if you\u2019re new to the series \u2013 like me \u2013 this one reads fine as a standalone, and will have you keen to go back and explore more of the stories from Cunningham Falls.<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed this book. A sweet and easy read that left me smiling.<\/p>\n

3.5 stars<\/p>\n

An Advanced Reader Copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Heroes of Big Sky<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Honor (#0.5)<\/strong> (Nick & Jordan)
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Courage (#1) <\/strong>(Sam & Natasha)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Shelter (#2)<\/strong> (Seth & Remi)
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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About Kristen<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"Kristen Proby has published more than forty titles, many of which have hit the USA Today, New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestsellers lists. She continues to self publish, best known for her\u00a0With Me In Seattle<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Boudreaux<\/a>\u00a0series, and is also proud to work with William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, with the\u00a0Fusion<\/a>\u00a0and Romancing Manhattan Series.<\/p>\n

Kristen and her husband, John, make their home in her hometown of Whitefish, Montana with their two cats.<\/p>\n

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Website\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Goodreads\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Amazon\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Facebook Group<\/a> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Twitter <\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Bookbub\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Pinterest\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Book + Main<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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From New York Times Bestselling author Kristen Proby comes an all new novel in her Big Sky series, Courage. This is the first story in the Heroes of Big Sky, all about men in uniform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[443,25,9,1036,29],"tags":[59,1278,39,48],"class_list":["post-59853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brotherbest-friend","category-friends-to-lovers","category-romance","category-single-parent","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-heroes-of-big-sky","tag-kristen-proby","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Courage.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-fzn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}