Review: Soaring (#2, Magdalene) by Kristen Ashley

My Thoughts

A heartwarming, super sexy story of love, healing and hope.

• Related Posts: Review: The Will (#1, Magdalene) | 2015 Favorite Singles | Kristen Ashley Reading Orders
• Soaring: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes

Synopsis

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.

My Review

The second installment in the Magdalene series draws you in with heart, hardships and family as two people work to soar beyond a past that has been riddled with mistakes and disappointments. Two people who work to start anew amidst entanglements that continued to tether them down.

For Amelia Hathaway, it was a past where her own errors in judgment had cost her everything—her children and her sense of self. For Mickey Donovan, it was a broken family who internalized the effects of having an ex-wife and mother who found escape at the bottom of a bottle. Our story begins here, with Amelia moving to Magdalene to start over… to get her two kids back… to prove to them she had changed.

“I had to make a home.
I had to heal my family.
I had to find me.
I had to let go of the old.
I had to pull myself together and start anew.”

Problem was, her children hated her. Her cheating ex-husband hated her. And on the fateful occasion when her ex stood at the doorway of her new home, yelling at her openly and loudly, Amelia met her new neighbor—intense, tall and muscled firefighter, Mickey.

Mickey, who glared fiercely at the man who symbolized the past from which she was trying to break free.

Mickey, the stranger whose eyes spoke to a future she hadn’t dared to dream.

“Those eyes were angry now but I knew with one look they could be many different things. They could be warm. They could laugh. They could be frustrated. They could be impatient. They could be determined. They could be joyful. They could be heated. And I knew with that one look I wanted to see those eyes every way they could be.”

Although Mickey was struggling through the woes of his own split, it was Amelia who was lost. She knew nothing could ever happen between them. She wouldn’t bring her mess into another person’s life. Amelia was wealthy, an oil and shipping heiress who seemed to have everything. But she’d been left behind by her ex husband and lost it, in every sense of the word. She lost everything. Everything that really mattered, because the money certainly didn’t. She just needed to prove to her two kids, Pippa and Auden, that she was the same mom they had once loved.

Mickey and Amelia continue to see each other and what started off unexpectedly, quickly turned into a war of words each time they collided. And with that charged dynamic, desire pervaded. Their path to each other is rocky, bumpy as hell, and full of misunderstandings, and even when they acknowledged their intensifying emotions, complicated becomes way more complicated as children and exes get involved.

“No safer place than in my arms and when you’re here, Amy, you can give me anything.”

This is a story that broaches multiple topics. It’s about exploring what having everything truly means. It’s about families and the sometimes all-too-fragile connections between its members. It’s finding a sense of self and believing in who you are enough to chase after those you love and what you love. Soaring captured that same ‘fork-in-road’ kind of feel that The Will evoked, where our protagonists faced decisions later in life that could finally give them the happily ever after that had eluded them. It was intensely sexy, with so many moments that made my heart warm, that made me feel, that made me hope that these characters could find their own brand of happy. I love this series from Kristen Ashley. I love these stories bleed emotion and tackle issues that are real and run deep. The Magdalene series concludes with Coert’s story (town sheriff) and I can’t wait to fall back into it once more.

“All my life… I was the girl who everyone thought had everything or could get it. But the only thing I ever wanted was a man like you. You’re the best man I’ve ever met, Mickey Donovan.”

Reading Order and Links

Click each cover to purchase from Amazon U.S.
Each book can be read as a standalone.

Connect with Kristen

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