Brooke Cumberland

Took me longer to finish this one than it did the first. There was just so much new info added into this one, that it seemed to take longer to get to the true heart of the story. And while I appreciated the extras, there really seemed to be too many; almost like the author was trying to pack as much into this one as possible and couldn't really decide what to focus on.

While this is a great story, and I loved learning more about the characters, I could have done without the upwards of 5 add ins. Pick this one up just to know what happens with Drake and Molly!!… (meer)

My Review (May contain spoilers, fair warning upon reading this review)

My Rating (3.75)

Stay With Me is the second book in the "Sugarland Creek" series and I was eager to get back to this series and see how these two would find themselves together. I really loved the endearing setup of these two. There is something about two characters that are secretly pining for each other that I truly love more than anything else. Brooke Montgomery handled this fairly well, it did kinda confuse me though why the hero was taking so long to get with Magnolia when he was so devoted to her. But once they got together, it was so charming. I was so captivated by their relationship and how much they were invested with each other. We do see some great couple time in this book before the conflict in the story happens.

I will say that in regards to the conflict (which I believe is in the blurb so I don't believe I am spoiling anything) when she reveals the truth to him, I wasn't a fan of how Magnolia acted. I know she hadn't been treated well by men, but when your only dating at bars for casual hookups...not exactly the best setting for a solid man to treat you right. However, I will see that ALL the brownie points go to Tripp in this book. Because once he is with Magnolia, he is completely in for her and will do anything for her. He is so devoted to her and committed all the way and I just wish that we had seen her be just as committed because it definitely felt like he was doing much of the heavy lifting in the relationship and she wasn't giving anything back. And fair warning that this book is so much longer than it needs to be. Not really a fan of authors writing such long books. Almost 500 pages for a contemporary western is kinda ridiculous lol

Overall I found Stay With Me to be a sexy endearing read that had some powerful emotion and characters you wanted to get behind!… (meer)

My Review:

So I was very eager for this as I fell in love with the first book. But I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in this one. I still enjoyed some aspects of this book. There were some fun elements of the forbidden love and I really liked the elements of the age gap, for the most part.

I think what turned me off for the most part in this book is the over hyped focus of sex between these two. To be honest, I didn't really feel the romantic connection, it just felt like their foundation in their relationship is all about their sexual connection and nothing more than that. And this is NOT what was in the prequel. I had really high expectations too going into this one as well. I wanted to connect with this couple because the premise of their story really appealed to me so deeply. Another issue that I had with this story was how the reveal of them being together was handled with their families. It just felt very lackluster and anti climatic and fell flat. When you have a forbidden love and a relationship being kept secret and in the shadows, the reveal needs to be satisfying and it just didn't on any level for me.

So while there were some positive aspects to this story, and I still enjoyed it as a whole, there were elements to this book that turned me off completely and just ruined the enjoyment that I could have had from this one here. I will continue with the series though and hope the next book is much more of a positive experience.… (meer)