The Promise by Kristen Ashley (The ‘Burg Series #5 )

3 Stars

I have been looking forward to Benny and Frankie’s story since I met them in “At Peace”.  The beginning was spectacular! I love every second of Benny trying to convince Frankie to stay with him.  There is a lot of back story with Frankie and Benny and I feel like it might have been good if I read “At Peace” again before reading this. 

There were actually two books in between “At Peace” where we meet Frankie and Benny and their book but the book takes place right after “At Peace” ended where Frankie is shot.  Benny comes to the hospital and Frankie pretends to be asleep every time he is there.  I cannot blame her with the way the Bianchi’s treated Frankie after Vinnie was killed.  I actually feel like she lets them all off the hook too easily but that probably says more about my poor character huh? 

The ‘Burg series is supposed to be more about crime and (although I haven’t finished #4, I am having a hard time getting into a heroine with the name of Dusty) the rest are about serial killers and the mob and a human trafficking ring.  What is going on in this book is not nearly on the same level as the other books and in fact Frankie isn’t involved or actually ever in any imminent danger.   Which brings me to my next point.  When we meet Benny I felt like he was a typical Kristen Ashley hero (meaning: alpha, macho, tough guy, etc) but I didn’t get that feeling from Benny in this book.  In fact when one of the Hot Bunch (I won’t tell but it spurred me to read his book again) makes an appearance it is abundantly clear that they are not on the same level. 

The best part of the book was that Frankie got her happily ever after.  But when I read a Rock Chick book or a ‘Burg book I want action, danger, kidnappings, near misses, and angst.  The angst was present at the beginning of the book, but that is all I can say.  I was disappointed for how long I had been looking forward to their story.   

Golden Trail by Kristen Ashley (The 'Burg #3)

4 stars


This is the third book in The ‘Burg series. We meet Rocky Merrick and Tanner Layne. They were high school sweethearts, but Rocky ended things 18 years ago for reasons unknown. I am not sure I would have noticed this but another reviewer noted that the only narration happens through Tanner (or at Rocky calls him “Layne”). We are never in Rocky’s head. I didn’t really miss this, and since we didn’t find out until the end, I can see why the author chose to stay in Layne’s head. It gets really old if you have to read vague references to situations two dozen times before you get the details. So although we knew Rocky was hiding the secrets from Layne, we didn’t have to listen to a narrator who was hiding her thoughts from herself (which doesn’t make sense) and the reader.

Layne is a private investigator for The ‘Burg. There is so much drama going on in this book! Layne’s ex-wife has a live in boyfriend who is trouble so he is working on gets the goods on this guy to get him outta his kids life. There is something weird going on with the local youth group and Rocky is determined to figure it out so that forces Layne to get involved. One of the local cops is dirty and Layne already almost died from getting too close to this situation, but he is back in action here. His boy’s football coach is a big jerk and turns into an even bigger jerk.

In true Kristen Ashley alpha male fashion, Layne is able to fix all the problems. What he can’t fix is Rocky because she won’t let him in. When you find out her secret you kind of want to punch her brother and father because they could have helped her, but instead they kept it “in the family” and let this crap fester for twenty years.

I can’t wait for #5 in The ‘Burg series to be released! It is going to be the bomb.com!

At Peace by Kristen Ashley (The 'Burg Series #2)

4.25 Stars (is that possible?  I don’t know but it is my blog and I can give 0.25 stars if I want)

This story takes place in a small Indiana town outside of Indianapolis.  I happen to be from Indiana and am familiar with the area that the author writes about, which brings an element of fun that most novels don’t have (as not many take place in Indiana J). 

The main characters are Violet Winters (I love the name Violet!) and Joe “Cal” Callahan.  They are neighbors and live across the street from Colt and Feb from the first book in The ‘Burg Series.  Violet moved there with her daughters from Chicago after the death of her husband (Tim) of 17 years by a psychopath who has followed her movements down to Indiana.  Cal is security to the stars and specializes in stalkers and wiring installations for security systems.  Violet had lived there over a year and had never met her neighbor but one night she does, while wearing pink rain boots and a ratty old robe.  Thus begins a tumultuous affair with lots of ups and lots of downs.  Cal has his own demons and does so many 180° turns that the reader gets dizzy.  He’s hot, he’s cold, who knows!  There is another love interest in this book, Mike Haines (who I also love but apparently I have to wait a while to read more about him! boooo!).  We also meet Cal’s cousin/cugino, Benny, and although it is planned for him and Frankie to get their own book, it hasn’t come out yet and I really, really, really, really want to read their story! 

Ok, all done.  Daniel Hart the crazy, stalker man comes after Vi and Cal is not having that.  I liked the ending of this book because the drama with the crazy man lasted longer than in some of the author’s other books. 

For You by Kristen Ashley (The 'Burg Series #1)

In many ways this book was a typical, awesome KA book. But as The Burg series is listed under the subject of "Crime" on KA's website, I think it is understood that one can expect more...um, crime. Having said that, the bad guy in this book is a psychopath and has been on this path of destruction for 22 years. Not that he has necessarily been killing people for 22 years, but destroying lives nonetheless. What the means for the hero and heroine is that they missed 22 years together that should have been some of the best years of their lives. That, more than the killing spree, was hard to read about (not that I am ok with killing spree's!).

February Owens, known about town as Feb (what a great name) dated Alexander Colton (known about town as Colt). The author painted this relationship as epic. The whole town knew Feb and Colt would be together always. But of course they weren't. This is not a spoiler. (Now if I told you were they weren't together or who the psychopath was then that would be a juicy, juicy secret, but I'll never tell!). Now, I can completely dig this epic love between Colt and Feb, but there were numerous things that happened throughout those 22 years that didn't make it feel very epic to me. So this book, is the story of how Feb and Colt get back together and all the goings-on during that time (***spoilers***which include but are not limited to: aforementioned psychopath, family reunions, ex-wives, hidden cameras, and of course the typical KA heroine-moving-in-with-the-hero)

I haven't yet decided if I will read the next book in this series. I liked the story (as usual), but it was really long and could have used many pages being edited out (as usual). I found myself skimming long sections about descriptions (I never did this before KA and I hate that I do it, but I love the books so much I just can't walk away).

Favorite Quote:

"Since I was three, there's never been a day when I wasn't in love with you." --Feb