Smitten Bookblog

Soaring (Magdalene #2), by Kristen Ashley ★★★★★

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 everything 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.

4.5 Stars for Mickey & Amy.
★★★★★

My Casting:

Well, it wasn’t quite The Will, but it was pretty good. I always enjoy Kristen’s books. She just has a way of making me feel all warm and squishy about her heroes, and even inSoaring, which felt pretty uneventful in comparison to most of her work, I still loved Mickey.

This is a second chance romance about a super wealthy, single mother, Amelia, who has two teenage kids and follows them across the country when her husbands up sticks and moves them, and the single father, also with two kids, who lives opposite Amelia’s new home.

“Love you, Amy.” I stilled completely. He felt it. “I don’t care if that’s too soon for you,” he announced. “You do with it what you want. Keep it and hold it to you and hope like fuck you give it back when you’re ready. But you gotta know, it’s yours.”

As is often the case with KA heroes, Mickey is pretty full on from the word go. He sees something he wants in Amelia (or Amy, as he calls her) and he makes it his mission to integrate himself into her life in any small way he can.

You can always guarantee, with Kristen Ashley books, that you’re going to get a strong, pushy, protective, demanding male that will charm the pants right off of you. And Mickey Donavon fits that description like a glove. He’s got a history that will make you want to wrap him up in a bear-hug, but he’s totally alpha and unshakable.

“You clearly have an overabundance of testosterone in a way it’s harmful to your health.”

I was hesitant to love Amy. She kept referring to things she’d done to turn her teenage children against her and it left me a little apprehensive. But as the story progressed, it became clear that she was a good person and I was totally rooting for her and Mickey. She just needed the love and support of a good, strong man.

As was the case with The Will I absolutely adored the family dynamic in Soaring. The integration of Mickey’s family with Amy’s family. The relationship between Mickey and his children, and then between them and Amy, also. And the rebuilding of Amy’d relationship with her own kids. KA is so great at including surrounding characters in a way that adds to the story of the protagonists, instead of distracting from it, which I think is a super skill and one that many authors don’t totally nail.

“You have absolutely no idea what I need,” I whispered. “And the sad part about that is that you didn’t notice you’d already given me everything I’d ever need just letting me sit at your dinner table with your family.” And on that, I closed and locked the door.”

Overall, not a highly dramatic, fast paced read, but yeh, lots of warm, squishy feels to keep me turning the pages.

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