Play it Safe by Kristen Ashley

4.5 Stars

So if you have visited my blog before you know I love, love, love a good Kristen Ashley book.  On her website she posts the first few chapters of her books so you can get a feel for it.  I had read those first few chapters like lightening and went straight away to get the whole book…but then…it sat…and sat…and sat on my poor overworked kindle.  Why you ask?  Who in the heck knows!  I know that I loved those first few chapters so what took so stinking long?  We may never know the answer to the mysteries of how my brain works, but we do know how great this book turned out.

Brief Summary:

Ivey is moving through town after town with her old brother.  They stop in Mustang, Colorado and one things leads to another, but they stay awhile.  It turns out these siblings have had a hard life and are on the lam.  To make money, Ivey hussles pool and Casey (her brother)…well, I’m not quite sure what he thinks he does to contribute.  In Mustang is where Ivey meets Grayson Cody.  He is a rancher/cowboy and the entire town looks up to him.  He does the right thing…always…but you also do NOT want to mess with this good guy rancher/cowboy because he will mess you up!  A conspiracy is…conspired and Ivey leaves Mustang and Gray behind for a LONG tragic time.  Mustang reaches out to Ivey although they turned they back on her a long time ago and while she is older, wiser and hard as nails, she still does what she can to help knowing she’ll get no thanks from Gray for this. 

Thoughts:

The first 70% of this book was AWESOME!  I loved reading about Gray and Ivey’s burgeoning romance and I LOVED reading about their time apart.  This is weird, I know, but KA wrote this tragedy so well.  I understood exactly how Ivey felt during those seven years.  I felt what she felt everytime her little heart took a beating.  The only reason why this gets 4.5 stars instead of 5 is that I wish there was a little more danger/drama in the last 30%.  It kind of fizzled out for me.  I still tore through it because I wanted to see how it ended.   

Favorite Quote: (This is Lash talking trash to Buddy Sharp…its great)

“I understand you’re a big fish in a small pond,” Lash said softly, his deep, cultured voice carrying a more eloquent threat than Buddy could ever hope to pull off.  “But I’ll explain that if you want to swim in the ocean, you must understand that the ocean is populated by sharks and sharks never sleep.”