Hold On: The ‘Burg, Book 6

Author: Kristen Ashley
Book Name: Hold On
Series: The ‘Burg
Order: #6
Genre: Romance
Rating:  Really Good

Blurb:  Since she was young, Cher Rivers knew she was not the kind of girl who got what she wanted. A girl who could hope. A girl who could dream. She knew a happily ever after just wasn’t in the cards for her.In love for years with the last bastion of the ‘burg’s eligible bachelors, Garrett Merrick, Cher worked hard at making him laugh. Being one of the guys. Having him in her life the only way she could. All this knowing he was in love with another woman.The Merrick Family is known for loving deep. So when Cecelia Merrick was murdered, it marked the Merricks in a way none of them recovered. Both Cecelia’s children found love. Both turned their backs on it. But Garrett “Merry” Merrick knew in his soul the woman he divorced years ago was the one for him.Until the night when Cher took Garrett’s back and things changed. The Merrick family loves deep. They also protect fiercely. And with his eyes finally open, Garrett sees the woman who truly is for him and he goes after her.

Review:  Way better than book 5.  The characters and story in this book are more along the lines of what we see in the majority of the Colorado Mountain or Dream Man series than what is seen in most of this series, which is a huge plus as far as I’m concerned.  There is a bit less on the suspense side than in those series, but the rest is similar.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this one as I wasn’t a fan of Merry in Rocky’s story, Golden Trail.  I also wasn’t so sure about Cher’s character from what bits about her showed in previous books either.  Merry’s character is much better presented here and Cher actually comes out way stronger than I expected, so I was relieved.

The suspenseful aspects in this book seemed a little bit more random and almost forced into the romance parts to give it that extra we expect, but they just kind of frustrated me a bit.  The part of the story line about Ethan’s dad was really intriguing initially, but then it kind of falls flat.  Same thing with the ex, Mia.  Either of those would have been fine, if lacking a more fully rounded out line, but I wasn’t a big fan of the major drama really getting only lightly touched on and then, bam!  That is where the forced feeling kind of blew up because it just didn’t make a ton of sense.  It is as though there needed to be a tie to the first book, so there was this random thing that got tossed it there to make it work.

I loved the romantic line of this story, though.  The Merry and Cher characters came out way more balanced in their relationship than we’ve seen from other pairings in this series and their story absolutely worked for me.  Both having their issues, but neither one really having those issues become a huge thing for either of them just emphasized their strength as characters.

It was also really great, since this was the last book in the series, that we kind of got a last taste of all the other characters in this series and how their lives ended up.  Totally teared up several times to the point where I couldn’t see the words for a bit in places, it was just that awesome.  It was a great way to finish this off.