Reviewer: Tracy Don't Let Go (Hope Series #6) by Jaci Burton
Series: Hope Series #6
Also in this series: Hope Flames, Hope Ignites, Hope Ignites, Hope Burns, Love After All, Make Me Stay, One Perfect Kiss (Hope #8)
Publisher: Penguin, Jove
Publication Date: July 26th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
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Series Rating:
Brady Conners is hardly the settling type, but when tragedy strikes in his family, he has no choice but to return home to Hope, Oklahoma. Setting up shop to work on custom motorcycles and pass the time, Brady has no intention of letting anyone get close—until he meets Megan.
Pastry shop owner Megan Lee is drawn to quiet, brooding Brady. Their connection is undeniable, and it quickly develops from physical attraction into something much stronger. But with Brady putting up barriers, Megan is afraid to truly open her heart—unless she can convince him to let go of the past…
Brady Conners is biding his time working at his friend Carter’s garage doing body work. He works nights and weekends painting bikes and loves it. His ultimate goal is to open his own shop where he can paint full time. He just doesn’t know if he wants to do that in Hope as there are too many memories there.
Brady grew up in Hope with his family but his brother, Kurt, died after a life filled with drugs and Brady can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that he’s dead. Everywhere he looks he sees Kurt and he’s cut himself off from everyone he knows in the false belief that if he has no friends he can’t get hurt if something happens. He may not be aware that’s what he’s doing but it is. He ends up falling for Megan who owns the local pastry shop and they begin what each thinks is strictly a fling, but both start to get more involved. Unfortunately, Brady isn’t ready for something more permanent and when he realizes this he may break them both too much to recover from.
In this story Brady is such a sweet guy. He starts to come out of the hole he’s buried himself in and ends up spending time with his friends. Yes, they’re friends despite the fact he was trying to keep them at arms- length. When he starts dating Megan he is wonderful. He’s sweet, thoughtful and kind. When he finds a dog behind the dumpster he takes it in and turns little Roxie into a biker pup – it’s freakin’ adorable. Little Roxie is a great dog and anyone who can take such good care of a stray is a good person. Unfortunately when Brady realizes that he’s getting in too deep he turns it all around and becomes a bit of a jackass for a time. I didn’t like him at all during those parts of the book but I did understand his thinking and why he did it. Didn’t make it right, but I understood.
Megan was just a whirling dervish! She opened her shop every day, baked and ran a booming business and then went home and baked and cooked. She seemed like she had everything in her life in perfect order except for someone to share it with. I thought Brady was perfect for her but I could see where he would get scared. Megan was wonderful but she lived and breathed “Susie homemaker”. Any man not wanting to get in too deep in a relationship could see this. I guess that’s why I found it so strange that Brady was so good to Megan as it was so obvious that what she wanted was permanency. Also, after hearing about her baked goods I want to try them myself. J
While the book held a sweet romance it was slow reading at times. As much as I usually like Burton’s writing I found myself putting the book down more than once and moving on to another book. I would always go back and pick it up but…it didn’t completely hold my attention all the time. Despite that I liked finally reading about Brady and his life as well as the wonder of Megan.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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