Tobias Gamble knew from a young age precisely the kind of woman he was going to make his. She was not going to be like his mother. She was going to be like the mother he claimed.

In other words, she was going to be just right.

And when Toby returns to his hometown of Matlock, Kentucky and claps eyes on Adeline Forrester, he knows she’s the one.

The problem is, his brother Johnny has a new girlfriend. And Addie is her sister. Last, Toby would do nothing to hurt Johnny’s chance at happiness.

Toby hangs around town to get to know the woman Johnny fell in love with. He also hangs around to get to know Addie.

But he’s fallen hard, and he knows the best thing for him—and Addie—is for him to leave.

Addie Forrester is thrilled her sister Eliza found a good, solid man. Johnny Gamble is the salt of the earth. The best guy in the world.

The best except for his brother, Toby.

Toby doesn’t know it, but Addie’s fallen hard too. He’s perfect, except for the fact that he’s hands off and it’s torture, being friends with Toby when she wants so much more.

Addie also has a lot on her mind. She’s got bills to pay, her young son needs food, Christmas is coming and her job at the grocery store just isn’t cutting it.

Toby is steering clear of Addie. Addie is steering clear of Toby. But everyone around them knows this is the slow burn.

Because just like Eliza and Johnny, Addie and Toby were made for each other.

Series:

Moonlight and Motor Oil Series

Book 2

Can be read as a standalone

Book Type:

Contemporary Romance

Review: The Slow Burn

With SLOW BURN, Kristen Ashley delivers a story about the families we’re born into and the families we forge. About the strength life often makes us summon, our heads held high despite the difficulty of it. About searching, and finding the kind of love from which dreams are made.

Toby and Addie had upbringings punctuated by both happiness and heartbreak. But thanks to those who loved them most, their spirits soared with the promise of tomorrow and they survived the worst of their past. Addie, however, still didn’t have it easy. She struggled to make ends meet for her and her little boy.

Toby came into Addie’s life on a day far from great. Slowly, he became the calm she depended on, an unwavering source of strength. And despite their instant connection, they hid their feelings for each other… until one day, they couldn’t hide them any longer.

Addie had to accept Toby’s love, his help, and open herself up to a new set of experiences without the taint of her past. But those years would come back to threaten the present, shaking their newly laid foundation.

Tobias and Adeline’s story is a testament to family, resilience, and hope. And while this was undoubtedly a love story, much of the narrative centered on family dynamics—brought to life beautifully in that Kristen Ashley way.

It’s impossible not to fall in love with Addie’s resilience, with Toby’s steadfastness, with Toby and Johnny as brothers, with Addie and Izzy as sisters, with the family they all forged. The story was romantically less angsty, but it mined a well of emotion from the journey they traversed together. I loved every moment of it.

I’m so sad to leave Matlock, and these wonderful characters we’ve come to love so much.

A Gamble man went after what he wanted, locked it down, and then…onward.

“Listen, I’m not saying anything against Toby,” I spoke into her silence. “I get it. He’s not into me. That’s understandable. I am baggage. And Deanna, you have to remember, I watched this kind of thing happen with my mom over and over again. After my dad, she looked for love. She had an open and hopeful heart. She wanted that for herself. She wanted stability for her girls. And she got knocked down again and again by guys who wanted in her pants but wanted nothing to do with some other man’s kids. At least Toby’s honest about it. That genuinely says good things about him. Really good. And I appreciate it.”

This was a total lie.

I did not appreciate it.

I was attracted to Toby Gamble.

I wanted to taste his mouth and other parts of him.

I wanted to feel his skin and see what his body looked like under those tees and jeans.

I wanted to fuck him. I wanted that to be wild and intense and so enthralling, the world ceased to exist, all of it, except what we were doing to each other and how it was making us feel.

I wanted to sleep beside him.

I wanted to wake up next to him.

I wanted to feel his arms around me. Not like they were that terrible afternoon when I’d sobbed into his neck and he’d carried me to Izzy’s bed or that other, far more terrible afternoon when my baby had been stolen from me.

I just wanted him to hold me.

I wanted Brooklyn to grow up with a man like Toby Gamble. Not just as his somewhat uncle who would lift him high and make him fly or let him crawl all over him when we were at a diner eating burgers just because me and my son were there, and he was a decent guy who liked kids. But as a guy who was always there, eventually showing my boy the way in matters his mother could not.

I wasn’t in love with him.

But I knew if he gave me even the barest hint he’d even think of going there with me, I’d take that fall.

And when I did, if it didn’t work, I also knew it would annihilate me.