All Wrapped Up with its dynamic characters is set against the small town backdrop smack dab in the middle of the holiday craziness and yet the author managed to keep the romance front and center making this one compelling and simply stunning love story. ~ Slick, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
Talk about a hot lead…
Christmas is coming to Pine Mountain—and it has a way of stirring up memories, good and bad. Nick Brennan may manage the Double Shot bar smooth as good whiskey, but his past is a hot mess. When he runs into a burning building to save a little boy, some people start thinking there’s more to his heroism than holiday spirit. And then the local reporter assigned to the story turns out to be gorgeous Ava Mancuso, the girl who got away.
Ava knows what it’s like to have a past. But the changes she’s seen in Nick since she knew him do more than set off her natural curiosity—his warm eyes and gruff charm have her instincts fired up. Still, all the chemistry in the world doesn’t erase history, even when Nick invites her to his little sister’s mistletoe wedding. Does he have a heart under all those secrets? Or is this going to be just another Christmas past?
Review copy provided for an honest review
I enjoy reading new to me authors especially those that have been recommended by other author’s
whose work I love or by friends and other reviewers whose judgment I trust so when an author friend recommended All Wrapped Up by Kimberly Kincaid, I took a chance and I’m so glad I did. A reluctant hero, a heroine out for a story, a reunion after seven years, secrets, and some delightfully hot sexy scenes all rolled in to one outstanding second chance at love romance!
Two and a half years after Nick Brennan’s life was turned upside down he is settled in the small town of Pine Mountain and his job as the manager of the Double Shot bar. He soon finds himself the talk of the town and the focus of the media’s attention when he rescues a boy from a burning building. He also finds himself staring into the eyes of the woman that left him seven years ago without so much as a goodbye.
Ava Mancuso will be the first to admit that her career is not going the way that she wants it and while she knows she made a mistake on her first big assignment she feels like she’s paid her dues so when she happens upon the scene of a big fire and realizes she knows the man carrying a young boy out of a raging inferno she’s determined to get the story even if it means facing the man she knows probably hates her for the way she left him without a trace.
I very much enjoyed the difficult start to this couple’s reunion and the fact that there wasn’t an easy fix to the trust that had been broken. I liked both these characters immensely and the author did a fantastic job of developing their characters. Throughout this story we learn so much about them and their lives and we get a feel for the things that have shaped their lives, what makes them tick and the regrets they both have. These are very complex characters and both some with a monogrammed set of baggage but somehow in each other they find calmness and a sense of peace that makes them less stressed and very, very happy.
It was hard watching Brennan work through his issues and with each layer that was peeled back it became obvious that he was hurting not only physically but emotionally as well. Ava was in a pretty good place in her life with the exception of a boss who bordered on unethical. The both made some mistakes in their relationship but it was easy to see neither one did so to intentionally hurt the other one. They were both simply trying to do what they thought was the right thing even when it didn’t seem that way to the other.
All Wrapped Up with its dynamic characters is set against the small town backdrop smack dab in the middle of the holiday craziness and yet the author managed to keep the romance front and center making this one compelling and simply stunning love story.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Slick