Review: Wholehearted by Cate Ashwood

Reviewed by Whuppsy
Wholehearted (Hope Cove #2) by Cate Ashwood
Dreamspinner Press
Novel: 208pgs
3 Pants Off

Blurb:
Hope Cove: Book Two

Officer Declan Grant responds to a call at the Hope Cove docks to find Lucas Hale barely alive after being beaten and tossed off his fishing boat. The violent crime rocks this tranquil community where everyone knows each other and doors are rarely locked. Despite Declan being new to Hope Cove, he wants to keep his new home and Lucas safe. He starts by volunteering to care for Lucas after he’s released from the hospital.

Lucas just wants to put the whole incident behind him and move on, but the more he gets to know Declan, the harder he finds it to push Declan and his do-right attitude away. The investigation into the assault continues, but Declan will soon face a moral dilemma, a choice that may topple his tidy life and force him to choose between Lucas and the law.


Review
Book Two of the Hope Cove series starts with Declan Grant responding to a call to find Lucas Hale bloody and beaten on the docks. Something clicks in Declan and he’s just KNOWS that he’s got to keep Lucas alive and with him. He goes to the hospital and spends all of his available time sitting by Lucas’ bedside. It’s confusing to him as well that he’s got such strong feelings for this guy that he’s never seen before and yet can’t stop thinking of.

Lucas Hale is a young man who finds that he’s not one school so he tries a couple of different jobs before finding work on a fishing charter. He’s been working on this particular fishing charter a couple of times and he’s surprised when he’s attacked by the crew. He is scared and he’s hiding the truth about the attack from Declan and not really willing to help the investigation in any way. He’s snarky and mean to Declan to begin with. But he comes around.

Declan invites Lucas to go home with him after he’s allowed to leave the hospital. Lucas accepts knowing that he’s got no place to go and that he needs to heal. Lucas and Declan find a way to co-exist and they both start to fall even more for the other. Things are looking good for them as they start to open up and share their life stories.

Then it happens, the angsty moment arrives when Declan must make a choice. The choice that he’s made doesn’t turn out the way he anticipated. Lucas is hurt and heartbroken and leaves Declan. Declan is heartbroken and just wants Lucas back in his life. Lucas has cut all contact with Declan. Mack (from Brokenhearted who makes some great cameo appearances) tells Declan that he’s got some work to do on him and to allow Lucas the time and space to feel what he’s feeling and to decide what he wants to do.

I am torn regarding my feelings on this story. I love how the story isn’t just a romance, that there is a mystery and a bit of suspense that needs to be worked out. I just can’t help but feel that something was missing from the story. Something kept me from being fully invested into the characters. I cared kinda. I’m not really sure what it was that just wasn’t working for me.

I liked seeing Mack and Oliver and even Hadyn. I liked Declan’s character. He’d been through some horrible things from his prior job in Texas and still was a good, kind man. Good at his job. There was a lot to like about him. Even Lucas was a pretty good character. I liked that he was honest about how he saw himself. He was young and hurt. I get all of that and yet something was missing. The end of the book came about so abruptly that I was turned the page and was like what happened? Is this really the end?

I will say that it was a good book. I did like aspects of the book. I liked that each character had to find who they were and who they wanted to be. I loved the growth that each character must go through in order to be stronger and come back together and make their relationship work.

3 Pants Off

Review: Book #1 Brokenhearted

Review: Brokenhearted by Cate Ashwood

Reviewed by Whuppsy
Brokenhearted (Hope Cove #1) by Cate Ashwood
Dreamspinner Press
Novel: 210pgs
4 Pants Off

Blurb:
Hope Cove: Book One

Oliver Parrish has been alone in the world since he was born. So when Sheriff Owen “Mack” Macklin shows up on his doorstep to deliver the news that Oliver’s sister has died, he’s beyond surprised. Still, Oliver returns with Mack to Hope Cove, Maine, hoping to get to know the sister he never knew he had. As he tries to snap these new elements into his solitary life, he’s not sure how they might fit.

His life is shaken up further as he falls in love with the irresistible town of Hope Cove, and with Mack, its equally irresistible sheriff. But when he receives devastating news about his sister's cause of death, Oliver doesn't know whether to stay and fight for love and a good life, or cut his losses and run.

Review
Oliver Parrish has been alone his entire life. He’s living alone and works as a sous-chef in Seattle. He has wants to own his own restaurant and is working to learning everything that he can to accomplish this dream of his. He wants to move ahead, however, as he’s not gone to culinary school and hasn’t the degree behind him he can’t get an executive chef position. But he’s still hopeful that something good can come of this.

As he’s walking home one night from work, he sees a guy on his doorstep. As he gets closer, a sleeping man wake up and says his name. This begins the events that will change his life. From what he thought his life would entail to what his life will be.

Sheriff Owen “Mack” Macklin comes to explain to Oliver that he had a sister named, Maggie. That recently she’s passed away and since he’s her only surviving relative, he gets everything. Maggie owned her own bakery and her apartment. What Mack also tells Oliver is that Maggie was his very best friend.

That Mack and Maggie had been best friends since childhood. He offers Oliver a one-way ticket to Hope Cove, Maine to see what Maggie’s life was like and who she was. Oliver takes the night to think it over and calls Mack and agrees to go back with him. Thus the adventure begins. Oliver had never been on a plane before, he’s lived his entire life in Seattle and this is wonderfully new to him. Once arriving in Hope Cove, Mack offers Oliver to stay with him. Oliver accepts.

Now that Oliver is in Hope Cove, he goes to Maggie’s bakery and upstairs to her apartment and gets some of her journals to read. He hopes, as well as Mack hopes that by reading Maggie’s journals, he can get a sense of who Maggie was. He meets Hadyn, who was talking with Maggie about a business partnership. Hadyn owns the video rental shop next door, who also becomes friends with Oliver.

Not only does Oliver start to fall in love with Hope Cove, he and Mack start falling in love with each other. Slowly but surely, the two men get closer and closer. This is a new thing for Mack, falling for a man. Oliver has been gay his entire life, so this wasn’t new to him. But what was new to him was falling into a relationship. The guys start to get closer and closer and then….They find out why Maggie died. To make matters worse, it might be hereditary. The news floors Oliver. Oliver runs back home to Seattle and tries to get his life back that he had before leaving for Hope Cove.

I will say that I really liked this story. There was Love, Hope, Angst and Happily Ever After. The pace of the story flowed along and I was never bored. I didn’t feel the need to slap any of the characters for being silly and not talking things out. There were of course miscommunication issues, but they actually talked about them and managed to work them out. The characters rang true to what their back-story implied they would be. This book was a great read and it didn’t take long at all. I enjoyed the falling for my boys and only wanting the very best for them and you will too.

I’ve read that this is going to be a series and I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Cate seems to love writing about romance and falling in love and having actual plotlines going, which works for me in a BIG WAY!! Read this book and fall in Love with Mack and Oliver.

4 Pants Off