Gage Hunter, lead singer for the rock group, Engage, made a mistake five years ago. He let the girl of his dreams get away. When an unexpected encounter brings them together again, fate is offering Gage a second chance. But will Cassie?
Cassie Wagner never expected to see Gage again. The man who shattered her dreams as well as her heart, five years ago. He’s asking for forgiveness, but he’s not … but he’s not the only one who needs forgiving, for she too made a mistake.
As they struggle to mend what’s broken between them, an outside force threatens Cassie, and Gage’s relentless pursuit, turns into an overwhelming desire to protect the woman he loves. Can Gage stop the danger before it destroys their second chance at happiness?
This is a full-length, steamy, contemporary romance. While Engaging can be enjoyed as a stand-alone, it is part of a series started with Alluring and contains some spoilers.
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Sarah Curtis brings us another sexy dose of alpha male possessiveness with Gage Hunter. Engaging is book two in the Alluring series, and contains a small amount of overlap with book one.
Summary:
Gage Hunter has spent the last five years regretful and miserable after he let his dream girl get away. He’s finally come face-to-face to her after searching unsuccessfully for so long, and he’s not wasting a second. Cassie Wagner never thought she’d see Gage again. He shattered her heart and now he wants her forgiveness and a second chance. But Cassie made a mistake, too, and it’s life changing. When danger finds Cassie, Gage steps up his already relentless pursuit. A second chance isn’t always easy to get. Can they discover just who wants to hurt Cassie before their second chance is shattered, too?
Engaging ended up being just an okay read for me, with spots of amazing. I actually really enjoyed the book, but the things that bothered me, bothered me enough to lower my rating. I loved Cassie. She was strong, fun, down-to-Earth, and caring. I loved how unimpressed she was by Gage when they first met. After what happened between them, I also don’t fault her for any of her decisions regarding Logan. Her dedication to animals and rescuing them was admirable, but it also made her take some dangerous risks that irritated me to no end. Her reckless decisions towards the end of the book just kept eating away at my good opinion of her. Gage, though, was an amazing hero, and the source of all my amazing moments in the book. He made a mistake, but it was clear from the start that it was also his biggest regret. He also did everything in his power to correct it. I loved that Gage wasn’t blinded by his fame. He was pretty laid back and cool. When it came to Cassie was when his alpha side came into play, and I loved it. Gage could be intense, sensitive, loving and strong. I adored how possessive and protective he was of Cassie. He knew and found what he wanted, and did everything he could to grab hold and never let go. I loved Cassie and Gage together. They had history, but the relationship they built in the present was so sweet, caring, and right. Cassie made him work for it, but Gage never gave up and his grovel game was on fleek. Their intimate scenes were intense, steamy, and sweet. I loved that they had that edge of familiarity wrapped up in exploring all the new. Overall, this was a quick and easy second chance romance with a swoon worthy hero you will want for your own. Gage stole the show for me, and gave Jack a run for his money as my favorite. Logan was the cutest, and of course, seeing Mason’s crazy is always fun. In all honesty, I could have easily given this book one more star, if not for Cassie’s TSTL actions in the last third or so of the book. I just couldn’t fathom why she would take those chances after all that had already happened, and Gage’s warnings. I found myself rolling my eyes at her rationalizations, and I wasn’t even surprised by the outcome because I knew it had to be coming. Regardless, the writing was easy to read and flowed well. I’m really looking forward to Mason’s story up next.
Engaging is book two in the Alluring series by Sarah Curtis. So far in this series, I have read the first book, Alluring, and skipped ahead and read book #3.5, Enchanting. The fact that I get so easily sidetracked is my only excuse for taking so long to continue this series because I love it so much. This is a second chance romance.
Cassandra “Cassie” Wagner lives and works with her Aunt Laurie at Tail Wagners, a place that takes in abused dogs, and finds them forever homes. Cassie loves to work with the dogs to help to socialize them so they will be adoptable.
Gage Hunter is lead singer for the group Engaged. Five years ago, Gage met and fell for a nineteen year old college student. But when it came time to leave for a long tour, Gage ended things, thinking that a long distance relationship wouldn’t work. It was the biggest mistake of his life. He soon realized that he couldn’t live without her but she disappeared.
Now, five years later, purely by accident, Gage has found her again. Only their reunion didn’t exactly go as he might have imagined. She wanted nothing to do with him. But Gage is nothing if not dedicated. He lost her once. He would not let her go again. She was his. The only woman he ever wanted. She just needed time to accept that fact. He would do whatever it took to prove to her that he was all in. That he wasn’t going anywhere ever again!
As Gage and Cassie are trying to find their way, danger is lurking. Gage just got Cassie back and he will do whatever is necessary to keep her safe, whether she likes it or not.
I enjoyed this so much. I loved Gage. He was just the kind of possessive, growly, alpha hero that checks off every one of my boxes! And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a rich rock star! The added bit of danger just made it all the more enjoyable. This book had all the “s” words I love, sweet, sexy, steamy and suspenseful. I can’t wait to read book three, Pursuing, which is Mase’s story. It sounds like an insta-love romance which is my favorite trope of all.
“You are and always will be, my Sunshine.”
Wow! Talk about your dedicated hero!
This is a wonderful second chance romance with a separation of five years between. Cassie doesn’t make it easy for Gage either. He hurt her beyond reason and she’s not letting that hurt go. Not due to pride but out of necessity. She can’t afford to have her heart broken again. Gage fights with all he has to win her and there were times that I thought he wouldn’t succeed.
I love this couple together! They are exactly what the other needs but unless they can move beyond the past, they may never be able to find healing beyond friendship. Of course, Gage, being the possessive hero that he is, was never going to settle for that and I absolutely adored him and the way he single mindedly goes after Cassie. He is perfection when it comes to correcting past mistakes. His is a grovel like only an alpha hero can do. Strong, persistent, heartwarming and beautiful. With each Sarah Curtis hero I’m struggling as to who will sit at the top of my favorites list and he’s definitely a contender.
This is a fast paced read and despite the past history this couple share, the angst is still relatively low. It also has secondary characters from Alluring as well as future books (already available) and a storyline that kept me intrigued until the last page. The chemistry between Gage and Cassie sizzles with heat and you may want to keep a fan nearby due to some scenes that are absolutely scorching.
This is definitely a read for anyone who loves a jealous, possessive hero who doesn’t know the meaning of give up.
Another great book by Sarah Curtis! When this author was offering a complimentary copy of this re-edited version of this book, I jumped at the chance. I am still relatively a newbie of her books but I have loved the few I’ve read so I was excited to read this one. Rock star romances are not always a favorite, but I have to say I did like this one. It was funny that Cassie was really not much of a fan of Gage’s music but just happen to be at his concert because of her roommate. I thought it was really sweet how it was Gage, the lead singer of his band, that saw her and fell. It was him doing the chasing. Unfortunately, it did not end well, my heart broke for Cassie, Gage decided that their long distance relationship would not work so just ended it. This completely devastated Cassie and hardened her heart from ever trusting love again. But by a chance meeting, Gage is given a second chance and he was determined to win her heart back. Even though it was his decision to leave, he never truly stopped loving Cassie. Don’t get me wrong, he was not celibate in the five years apart, but he never gave his heart to anyone else, especially since it was still with Cassie.
For me, I loved Gage so much more than Cassie. Granted I was not too keen on him leaving Cassie the way he did and I do feel like he had the means to actually find her when she disappeared. But life do tend to get in the way and he was a rock star. But he owned up to his mistakes and he even forgave the life-changing secret that Cassie had kept from him. He was looking into the future, he wanted his family and nothing, even Cassie, was going to stop him. He was the ultimate alpha, but he was still so patient with Cassie, I really loved him! Now Cassie on the other hand, my heart broke for what she went through when Gage decided to leave her and her family basically abandoning her, but some of the actions she took throughout this book had me shaking my head and yelling “NO!” multiple times. Some of the things she did really was frustrating and dangerous especially with so many people relying on her. However, I do have to say I loved the reasons for her actions, she devoted herself to abused and abandoned dogs so her heart was in the right place. She rehabilitated them and found them loving homes with veterans, now this is special. I really appreciated Sarah Curtis giving us the trigger warning and also that no dogs were killed in this book. I really really would not be able to handle that.
All in all this was a great book, I wasn’t too fond of some of the choices both Cassie and Gage made but at the end, I loved the chemistry between the two and their HEA ending was awesome.
I was provided a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.