TAKE ME DEEPER by Jackie Ashenden : Review

Posted November 16, 2016 in Reviews / 0 Comments

TAKE ME DEEPER by Jackie Ashenden : ReviewTake Me Deeper by Jackie Ashenden
Series: Texas Bounty #1
Published by Loveswept
Publication Date: October 4th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 240
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC
Goodreads
Buy Online: Amazon  B&N  Kobo

Disclaimer: I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely mine.

Jackie Ashenden’s tantalizing series introduces the men of Lone Star Bounty: three badass bounty-hunter brothers who will have readers begging to be caught.

Even as a Green Beret, Zane Redmond hasn’t faced a tougher mission than going home again. Loyalty to his brothers is the only reason he’s back in Texas, not that he intends to stay for long. Zane sure as hell isn’t going into the family business. One last bounty and he’s done—or so he thinks. Nobody warned him that his fugitive happens to be a red-hot brunette with a smart mouth, a body made for sin, and a brutal cartel on her trail.

Bad circumstances and worse choices have left Iris Callahan in a desperate situation. After getting arrested for a drug drop gone wrong, she skipped bail and hit the road to avoid testifying. Now the cartel wants Iris silenced forever, and she’s just lucky that Zane catches her before they do. Handcuffed to a bed, she surrenders to the cool-as-ice bounty hunter in order to survive. But as the chase heats up, Zane sneaks past her emotional defenses—and Iris is in too deep to let him go.

 

Review

I’ve found that to read Ms. Ashenden’s books, I have to be in a particular frame of mind due to the gritty nature of her stories and the copious amounts of testosterone flowing between the pages, so it took me several tries to get into this book and all the way to the end, but it was intense and filled with sexual tension, with flawed but likable characters and I enjoyed it.

Coming home isn’t easy for Zane Redmond, but it needs to be done, especially now that his dad has passed and he plans to make only a brief stop to check in with his brothers. But plans change and now he finds himself pulled into the family bounty hunting business against his will. Finding himself attracted to his skip, well, to say that is unexpected would be understating it, but that is exactly what happens and Zane finds his white knight tendencies taking over again.

Iris Callahan has been dealt a sucky hand in life in more ways than one. You probably couldn’t find a better poster child for bad choices and a less than ideal life (not exactly the words I had in mind, but these will do). Abandoned by her mother and left to raise her one year baby sister when she was still a teenager herself, she’s struggled to do her best but it also led to some poor choices which have left her on the lam, in fear for her life. And yeah, she is ready to trade anything to avoid going back to jail, even her body. Or is she?

It’s clear from the first page that Zane and Iris come with a lot of baggage and they discover that there is more to each other than their first impressions. I admired Iris particularly because in spite of how many times life knocked her down, she got right back up and tried to do better for her sister. For Zane, saving Iris would be some kind of penance for his past, but it was more than just that. The attraction between them was something he wanted to explore some more, even if he didn’t know what the future would hold for them.

TAKE ME DEEPER is the first book in the series, so the author takes the time to lay the foundation for other books in the series, but I didn’t mind because I’m looking forward to Zane’s brothers’ stories and exploring the undercurrents among the brothers.

 

 

 

About Jackie Ashenden

Jackie has been writing fiction since she was eleven years old. Mild mannered fantasy/SF/pseudo-literary writer by day, obsessive romance writer by night, she used to balance her writing with the more serious job of librarianship until a chance meeting with another romance writer prompted her to throw off the shackles of her day job and devote herself to the true love of her heart – writing romance. She particularly likes to write dark, emotional stories with alpha heroes who’ve just got the world to their liking only to have it blown wide apart by their kick-ass heroines.

She lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband, the inimitable Dr Jax, two kids, two cats and some guppies (possibly dead guppies by the time you read this). When she’s not torturing alpha males and their stroppy heroines, she can be found drinking chocolate martinis, reading anything she can lay her hands on, posting random crap on her blog, or being forced to go mountain biking with her husband.

You can find Jackie at her website or on Twitter.


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