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Get ready to fall for Anson and Rhodes <\/b>in this brother\u2019s best friend, age gap, small town romance<\/b><\/p>\n
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The scowl should\u2019ve been my first clue to stay far away from Anson Hunt. The sexy smirk and the fact that he\u2019s my brother\u2019s best friend? Reasons two and three. Not to mention, he\u2019s the new contractor working on my house.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s everything I\u2019m not: grumpy, rude, and more than a little attached to his solitude. It doesn\u2019t matter how many times I try to kill him with kindness; the man simply won\u2019t crack.<\/p>\n
Until he sees me shatter.<\/p>\n
Because when my world comes crashing down around me, Anson is the one catching me as I fall. And as so-called accidents start plaguing every part of my life, it\u2019s Anson who steps in to keep me safe.<\/p>\n
As he does, I can\u2019t help but feel a flicker of heat. And it only takes a single moment for that spark to ignite into flames, engulfing us both.<\/p>\n
But Anson\u2019s a man with secrets, and they have a price. When they\u2019re revealed, neither of us will make it out unscathed\u2026<\/p>\n
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Add to Goodreads<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4 stars<\/b><\/p>\n The first book in a new series from Catherine Cowles, this is a small town grumpy\/sunshine, brother\u2019s best friend romance that is full of chemistry and emotion, and a gorgeous, slow burning love story between two people who have both suffered loss and trauma. It\u2019s a standalone, and a strong start to the series, and I loved it!<\/p>\n Rhodes\u2019 happy world was rocked by the devastating loss of her family when she was a teenager. Taken in by her best friend\u2019s family, she lived her teenage years surrounded by a loving foster mother, grandmother and siblings that became her whole world. Now she\u2019s reclaiming her family home, fixing it up with a plan to live there, and her brother and his construction team are working with her to get the job done.<\/p>\n Anson is an ex-FBI profiler who has faced his own devastating tragedy. Drowning in grief, he fled his old life and is working construction with his best friend\u2019s crew. He doesn\u2019t socialise and keeps to himself, engaging as little as possible, but he\u2019s working on Rhodes\u2019 house when he sees her break down and he rushes to her rescue to comfort her.<\/p>\n I loved the dynamic between these two. Sure, Anson is closed off and broody, but he\u2019s something else entirely with Rho. Sweet, friendly and kind-hearted, she gets to him and he can\u2019t keep away, and as he spends time with her, he slowly starts to come back to life. There are little smirks, kind words and gentle touches, and then there\u2019s the fact that he is uber protective over her\u2026 *swoon*. And when it looks like Rho is in actual danger, he moves himself into her cabin, so we get the close proximity aspect as well, and I loved it all!<\/p>\n The romance is a slow burn, full of chemistry, feels and sexual tension, and it builds beautifully, and I loved but watching Anson and Rho fall so easily and so hard for each other.<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t handle being away from you,\u201d he croaked. \u201cEspecially not when you\u2019re hurting.\u201d He swallowed hard. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to care about anyone. But you shot that all to hell \u2026 You didn\u2019t sneak past my defences, you bulldozed them. Reckless to the bone. And maybe you made me brave enough to be reckless too.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n But it\u2019s not just romance. Yes, Catherine Cowles brings the suspense again. Not only does Rho seem to have a stalker who has it out for her, but the serial killer who Anson tracked in his job with the FBI has started killing again. There\u2019s danger coming from all angles, and Anson will need to throw himself back into the life he walked away from in order to protect the woman he feels so much for.<\/p>\n I really enjoyed this book. The characters are fantastic, their stories are emotional, the mystery\/suspense is well done and kept me guessing, and the love story owned my heart. The series set up is fantastic. We are introduced to each of Rho\u2019s siblings, a tightly-knit group each with their own distinct personalities and demons, and I cannot wait to read more about them as the series continues. And more grandma Lolli please, because she\u2019s hilarious!<\/p>\n I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Andie Arndt and Zachary Webber, and they do a fantastic job. They both bring SO much emotion \u2013 especially when narrating Anson and all of his darkness, and this is a great book to listen to.<\/p>\n Loved this one \u2013 4 stars.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fragile Sanctuary (#1) <\/strong>(Anson & Rhodes) Delicate Escape (#2) <\/strong>(Shep & Thea) Broken Habor (#3) <\/strong>(Cope & Sutton) Beautiful Exile (#4) <\/strong>(Linc & Arden) Chasing Shelter (#5) <\/strong>(Trace & Ellie) Secret Haven (#6) <\/strong>(Kye & Fallon) <\/p>\n Writer of words. Drinker of Diet Cokes. Lover of all things cute and furry, especially her dog. Catherine has had her nose in a book since the time she could read and finally decided to write down some of her own stories. When she\u2019s not writing she can be found exploring her home state of Oregon, listening to true crime podcasts, or searching for her next book boyfriend.<\/p>\n Connect with Catherine:<\/p>\n Amazon\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Twitter\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Pinterest\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Goodreads\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Bookbub\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Website<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Stay up to date with Catherine by joining her mail list<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fragile Sanctuary by Catherine Cowles is live! Get ready to fall for Anson and Rhodes in this brother\u2019s best friend, age gap, small town romance Buy at Amazon Blurb The scowl should\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[1218,634,1554],"class_list":["post-74714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-news","tag-catherine-cowles","tag-release","tag-sparrow-falls"],"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\/2024\/03\/Fragile-Sanctuary.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-jr4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74714","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=74714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81883,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74714\/revisions\/81883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nReview<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Sparrow Falls<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nAbout Catherine<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Catherine-Cowles-e1610374981733.jpg?resize=228%2C285&ssl=1\")
<\/strong><\/h4>\nFind more great reads in our\u00a0Catherine Cowles Author Spotlight<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n