One of the downfalls of doing my Flashback posts is the strong urge to go back and re-read the books I’m featuring. Not that it’s bad to re-read old favorites, but there are so many unread books for me to read I just don’t have the time! For now, my desire to go and re-read all of Nicole Edwards‘ library will go unfulfilled. I still enjoy these reminders of the books I love when doing my Friday Favorites posts.
You can find my original post here from July 3, 2017. As always with these posts, the following review is only edited for grammar, spelling, and formatting. I do not add content warnings since it’s been a while since I read these books. Although I can say I know there is domestic abuse in this storyline.
Hard to Hold
by Nicole Edwards
Release Date: May 30, 2017
Publisher: Nicole Edwards Limited
Book #1 of the Cain Cousins series
Number of Pages: 364
Contemporary Romance
Ages 17 and up
——————–
Wolfe Caine and his cousin Lynx know the small town of Embers Ridge like the backs of their hands. They grew up here, started more than their fair share of trouble on these back roads. They’ve been called wild, untamable, even crazy at times. And they’re okay with that.
Settling down has never been in Wolfe’s plan, but that was before they caught his eye. As far as Wolfe’s concerned, the two of them together … that’s his greatest temptation.
Getting close to either of them is difficult. But when Wolfe gets them both in his grasp, he’s determined he’s going to hold on, no matter how hard that proves to be.
Although I pre-ordered this book and received it on my Kindle the day it was published, I put off reading it for a few weeks. Not because I wasn’t really looking forward to the book. You know I really LOVE all of the stories this author tells. But it was published less than a month before the bridal shower I was planning and I had tons of books from the library that I wasn’t going to be able to renew if I didn’t get to them. On top of all that, I started seeing there was a cliffhanger. (I will explain and address that soon, please read on and don’t let that discourage you from reading this book.) Since I knew the next book would be out in July I figured as long as I could avoid spoilers I could put off reading the book for a few weeks.
I’m so glad I held off. I loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. This would have been very bad during my super busy weeks earlier in June. I don’t know how Nicole Edwards always is able to convey the chemistry between her characters so well. This story has HEAT! I loved all three of the main characters as well as their families (who we will see more of in the next book). The feelings Rhys had through the beginning of the relationship were so true to how I would imagine them being if this were real life. It always makes me happy when an author doesn’t totally sugar-coat everything…especially when dealing with an unconventional romance. The confrontation his feelings led to has to rank up there with my top 5 Nicole Edwards scenes. The raw emotion from Wolfe and the reactions of Amy and Rhys were so touching. Have I mentioned I loved this book?
Now for the cliffhanger. Personally, I don’t view this as a total cliffhanger. There are things (very big things) that are not resolved by the end of the book. There may not be an HEA (yet) but the love story has its resolution. Well, as much as a love story can have a resolution since love is always growing and changing. I’m sure you know what I mean by that, though. Being that there are many people involved in the part that was left open, I don’t know if it can be called a cliffhanger. Lynx and Reagan are the subjects of the next book in this series and they have almost as much to do with that underlying story as their brother and cousin are. Since the next book will be published about a week after I post this review, it shouldn’t matter to you anyway. If you are a Nicole Edwards fan already, you will want to read this book as soon as possible. Although this author’s books have a definite connection to each other, for many of them you don’t have to read one series to read another. So far that is very true with this book. Those that have read her other books get to visit with Travis, Cole, Z, and Ryan from The Alluring Indulgence series and the Sniper 1 Security series. But their part in this book is very small and you don’t have to know their back story to understand what they’re doing there.
One last thing. This will not change my rating of this book but it bothered me enough that I feel a need to mention it here. I am not a fan of this cover. Not that I don’t love the models or the pose. But the women who I am to believe is representing Amy looks pained. Plus, she’s way too tall in relation to the guys. I know, I know…I’m being petty. But it’s been bugging me since the cover was revealed months ago.
So I’m officially caught up on all books by Nicole Edwards…until next week when the next book in this series comes out. I just may have to do a re-read on those that I didn’t blog about to get my fix.
5 stars
All In Good Time 