After the little teaser we got into Ridley’s character on Bad Apple I’ve been counting down the days to get my hands on his story, and I not the least bit disappointed because Ridley was everything that Lani Lynn Vale showed us in that book and more.

Going in, and as the blurb hinted, both main characters, Ridley and Freya, have suffered great losses amongst their loved ones.

For Freya, the recent loss was the last drop, because she didn’t only lose her brother, Corey Capone, but her best friend, her pilar – and in reality she doesn’t blame on Ridley or Kit – , and now she finds herself in a pit of desperate, lonely and hopelessness. Her character is, for me, beautifully written. I felt her despair, her anguish, and I cried with her. I loved her vulnerability and apparently fragility, but I wished she had a stronger backbone – yes, I’ve been spoiled by the usual LLV’s kickass heroines, LOL – and stood more for herself, even though I understood her reasoning and the explanation she gives Ridley for that, I wanted more from and for her, and Lani gives us a bit of that close to the end ( I don’t want to spoil anything but it really was a ‘Holy F@ck’ moment, and I freakin’ loved it! ).

Ridley has been alone ever since his wife’s death five years prior. And in this lies my hang up ( besides the previously mentioned wish on her personality), because death wife trope is one of my least favorites tropes, specially if he considered her to be the love of his life, and in the very beginning Ridley did mention something along those lines, as did he refer to Aerie sometimes all throughout the story. Like I said, this is a personal pet peeve of mine, and will always be, but I wished that the references were much rare in appearance, and that I didn’t feel he was still hung up, even if no longer truly in love with her. That is my wishful thinking, of course, LOL, because nonetheless, from the very first moment he meet Freya, a connection was immediately established and palpable, from that I have no doubt. If we didn’t consider his past – even though we know everyone has one – he was the perfect book boyfriend. Alpha to the core, he was an amazing hero, loyal, protective, caring and loving, and Freya was one lucky girl!

She looked completely oblivious to the world around her.
She was also the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life.

All it took was one look and an inexplicable and surprising  – even to himself – wave of protectiveness overtook him, and from that point on, we feel, like he did, that he needs to take care of her, that she needs him. And he needed that himself, just as badly.

Freya was beautiful, yes.
 She was honest, playful…and most of all, she needed me.
And I wanted to be needed.

I wanted someone to take care of, someone who would give me the same in return.
 And the more I spoke with Freya, the more I realized just how much I wanted that someone to be her.
 All of her.

Their relationship slowly – given his undercover situation, result of the side plot – develops into something more, as we expected from the very beginning, and we really feel how important Freya is to him, and how, slowly, she took hold of his heart, healing him while he simultaneously was healing her. By the end we have no doubt that Freya is the love of his life, like he is hers.

Lani Lynn Vale gave us a truly beautiful story of healing, and proved yet again what an extraordinary author and story teller she is, because even considering my personal hang up, I couldn’t put it down as soon as it landed on my kindle, and never once stopped for any reason related to the story. And that is why she is one of my all time favorite authors, and one of the few I loyally and restlessly stalk for each release. I’m already counting the days for Rusty Nail, because I’ve been itching for Wolf’s story even since the Code 11 – KPD SWAT Series.

And I never felt so much happiness and love in my life. 

COMING SOON…

RUSTY NAIL (Uncertain Saints #6)