Lieutenant Alexander Colton and February Owens were high school sweethearts. Everyone in their small town knew from the moment they met they were meant for each other. But something happened and Feb broke Colt’s heart then she turned wild and tragedy struck. Colt meted out revenge against the man who brought Feb low but even though Colt risked it all for her, Feb turned her back on him and left … left town.
Fifteen years later, Feb comes back to help run the family bar. But there’s so much water under the bridge separating her and Colt everyone knows they’ll never get back together.
Until someone starts hacking up people in Feb’s life. Colt is still Colt and Feb is still Feb so the town watches as Colt goes all out to find the murderer while trying to keep Feb safe.
As the bodies pile up, The Feds move in and a twisting, turning story unravels exposing a very sick man who has claimed numerous victims along the way, Feb and Colt battle their enduring attraction and the beautiful but lost history that weaves them together.
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I’m a fan of the author and when I got this chance to try one of her books in audio format, I jumped on it. I loved the blend of Anytown USA charm, average joe characters, sensual romance and intense suspense. The book got a bit long at times, but overall, I was into it.
The story opens with a horrific murder discovered at the back of J&J’s bar. Detective Alexander ‘Colt’ Colton is called in to investigate and it is soon obvious that the killer was making a statement to February Owens co-owner of the bar. The butchered body of long-time bar patron and slutty woman is the killer’s valentine to Feb. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. Everyone who has ever wronged Feb is now on the killer’s list. The case is brutal, but the close contact with his one-time childhood sweetheart that he was ready to marry until she inexplicably broke it off, went wild, married a loser, divorced, and then ran off for a couple of decades before coming home and treating him to more distance, makes it even harder. He was hurt so badly by her actions and now she acts like he’s got the plague or the rare times when she acts like he did something to break them up. But, he was adopted into her family and against his own better judgment, he still loves Feb Owens.
Feb lost herself in the years since she broke things off with Colt, but she finally found her way home to run the family bar with her brother, Morrie. It’s a small town and its tough knowing that everyone thought she would end up with Colt just like she did and then she earned that wild reputation before stupidly marrying a guy who mistreated her with Colt being her rescuer. She couldn’t stand the whispers and looks so she ran. But now, someone watches from the shadows and has a sick fascination with her causing her to have to rely on Colt and his ability to both protect her and figure out who is doing all this. Her stupid heart still wants Colt even after what he did all those years ago. She’s held in a lot of hurt and thoughts for so long. Maybe its time to let it all go and start fresh? That is if a cunning killer will let her.
Alright, so this one has a lot going on. It leaps out the gates at the start with the intro of a murder. But then once that story line gets going, it takes a breather to establish the setting, the characters and the connections in the present and the past. Right away it is obvious that there is a BIG (with all caps) misunderstanding between Colt and Feb. She seems to think he did something awful enough back in the day that warranted breaking off their relationship and basically losing herself for a few decades staying silent about it even with her family while on the other hand, Colt never did know what caused her to break things off and start treating him the way she did. The story spends a long time going back and forth progressing both the suspense line and slowly bringing things steadily toward a head with this romance barrier.
This was a tough one for me to have patience because as the reader I was well aware that the way the author described the hero meant the heroine had it all wrong and she broke them both and hurt her family when she pulled the cord and bailed. I really don’t like it when someone has a problem and their solution is to cut the lines of communication. In this instance, she holds her grudge for over twenty years. It was utterly ridiculous and I really wanted to smack her good. The author realizes this so when the big reveal happens and the truth comes out, Feb gets to feel it all- the remorse, the guilt, and the pain of what she did to her own relationship, to Colt, to her family, and all the years that were lost. And Colt isn’t instantly forgiving and understanding when he realizes her part in his pain when she ditched him without checking things out better.
If that wasn’t enough, there was what I thought were unnecessary scenes when Feb’s past friends with benefits while she was out playing wanderer were throw up in Colt’s face. One, Ham Reese, is actually the hero in one of the Colorado Mountain series books. This really didn’t have to be in the book to make it work so I would have been good to have missed it since it really didn’t do anything for my already iffy respect for the heroine. The book kept telling me that she’s special and I suppose she did have some good qualities, but all this stuff left me not really in the Feb Owens fan club.
So, that being said, this was still a really good romance and I loved these two together once they ironed out the issues. They were playful and hot and really worked.
The circle of friends and family was a big plus. I loved several of the secondary characters particularly Feb’s brother. These folks are so down to earth.
The suspense portion was horrific, but also pretty sad and pitiful. I shouldn’t feel that way about a villain who does what he does, but this person is sick of mind and not just in his actions. Lots of twists and exciting moments so that knowing who and why was only half the battle.
The narration was decent and I was pretty impressed considering this was a long one with lots of characters. Her voice is on the raspy side, but I thought she did well conveying emotion and personality for each character. Hearing a KA story in audio really brings out her writing style which as those familiar know can get choppy and not full sentences.
In the end, I enjoyed this one and enjoyed my time in The Burb world. I would definitely listen to more from the series and other books by this narrator. I would recommend the story for Romantic Suspense fans who don’t mind a long-developing story.
Her books are addictive if somewhat repetitive and her heroes are borderline alphaholes yet her writing is addictive and I am always completely absorbed.
I love everything Kristen Ashley writes and FOR YOU is no exception. This is the first book in the Burg series and I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series. It’s an exhilarating story about Alec and February, high school sweethearts who broke up years ago, but still love each other. Now, years later, they are thrown together again when a wacko starts murdering people close to February. Alec is a hot, alpha male detective and I fell for him immediately. KA has a way of making her heros masculine, but also vulnerable. February and Alec are two passionate people and when they are together, their relationship is combustible. Another perfect read!
My reviews are always so mixed with KA. She has a lot of elements to her books that I love and crave. But then she also has a lot of elements I do not like.
For this one, a 25 year separation is crazy to me. I hate separations. I won’t stop reading because of it, but they make me sad. All I can think about it is how much time the couple has wasted. They are lucky if they aren’t too old to have kids. Yes, I do like to see the couples settled with kids by the end. I get a kick out of these big tough men with kids.
An element I love about her books? Her men are loyal, protective and really take good care of their women. Going so far as to spoiling some of them. I crave books with men like that.
Another element I do not like? The same man treats the heroine not so nicely when he has a misconception about her. She suffers and he moves on with other women. Thankfully in this one, she moved on to other men too. After all, that’s only fair.
Another element I love? The heroines are genuinely nice people. They are well liked and usually someone I can see myself being friends with if she was a real person.
These are all the things I felt about Colt and February, and what you will get in this book. I did feel like the last half of the book dragged a bit.
I can’t get enough of Kristen Ashley.
A second chance romance with the thrill and suspense of a serial killer’s obsession makes for a great book. This is a book you will not want to put down.
I don’t know how she does it, but KA sure knows how to write a book. A lot of them in fact, and each one is so awesome, I feel a bit off kilter if I don’t get a dose of KA during my week. Even if its a reread. For You is the first book in The ‘Burg series, and really sets the bar high for the rest of the books to come.
Summary:
Alexander “Colt” Colton and February “Feb” Owens were high school sweethearts. Everyone in their small town knew it, and it was expected, even encouraged. They both knew that their lives would entwine together, that is, up until certain events occur that tear them apart, and lead them each down a dark path with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel. Feb is the daughter of Jack and Jackie and the sister of Morrie, who is Colt’s best friend from age five. Its been since that age that Colt was unofficially adopted into their family. Colt’s own mother and father were far from good parents, but better at being alcoholics and addicts, not to mention a lot worse from his dad. Feb’s parents took him in. Made sure he was healthy and as happy as he could be with parents like he had. They also moved him in at sixteen when he was forced to defend himself in a serious way. The minute Feb saw Colt, she fell in love. It was much the same for Colt, and they went through the years with only each other in their eyes. No matter Colt was two years older, he knew what he had in Feb and no way in hell he’d ever let it go. Not until Feb let him go first. It was unexpected, heartbreaking, not to mention confusing. When Feb proceeded to go wild and start seeing other men then marrying one that severely beat her, Colt did his best to move on. He knew it would never be the same without Feb, but he stayed celibate as a sign of respect to the family he loved and Feb, and she hurt him. He also ended up saving Feb from her shitheel of a husband. After that Feb skipped town, moving from place to place, not so much running as hiding and she did it for fifteen years. Feb had men she got close to over the years, but none like Colt, and Colt had his women, even got married, but the specter of Colt and Feb lived on and was hard for people to look past. Years after Colt’s marriage ends, and they have been avoiding each other all this time, Feb moves back to town to help with her family’s bar. Of course, both think there is no finding their way back, and Colt doesn’t even know why Feb broke it off wi him all those years ago, and Feb finds it unbelievable that Colt cant even apologize. They are forced together for protection when dead bodies of people in Feb’s history start showing up dead, and not just any dead but brutally so. Colt is on the case, being a cop, but is removed as the FBI step in due to interstate play, and the fact that this all has something to do with Colt and Feb. Quickly, after a couple more bodies and some scary notes, it becomes known that a deranged man from Feb’s school years with an obsession for her is exacting revenge on people who wronged her, as a gift. That means, from the killer’s POV, that Colt is number one on that list. Amidst bloody, stomach-churning crime scenes, crazy exes with a grudge, and very talkative town, Feb moves in with Colt so he can keep her safe. Being in such close proximity forces up feelings and past heartache, but no until Feb sees a woman, Amy, from both her and Colt’s past with Colt, does shit hit the fan. See, Feb believes she caught Colt cheating on her with this woman and that was the catalyst for their breakup, but when this woman commits suicide days later, the awful truth comes out. A vendetta against Colt and obsession of Feb have been happening for twenty-two years. It started with a man named Denny going to extremes to push Colt out of Feb’s life. Extreme measures including setting up Colt and an innocent woman, drugging them both, and violating Amy in order to scare her into silence. Amy’s suicide notes tell the tragic past and truth of what really happened all those years ago. How Colt and Feb were played, and done so cruelly. After that, Feb and Colt regain some of what they had, although its fragile. As their relationship becomes more solid, Denny becomes more erratic, unpredictable. Who knows who is next on Denny’s hit list, but it doesn’t help that what they thought was his end game, is not even close to what he’s really after. Feb and Colt will have a long road fraught with mind-numbing danger, sadness, and love to find their way back to each other and claim the lives they were supposed to have. Colt will need to come to terms with being violated, working his cases, while trying to win Feb back, outwit a jealous ex, and decide on a course of action for an emotional reunion with his mother. feb will need to face up to what she buried all those years ago and learn to share her thoughts and feelings while staying safe from a psycho intent on having her. Can Feb and Colt grab on to a new life together before its too late or was the past a sign that they really don’t belong together?
It took me a long time to start this book. I’ve had it on my Nook for ages, but didn’t start it for a variety of reasons. One, I feel like I’m running out of new KA material and thats makes me feel cagey even though I’m no where near being done. Two, I’m always hesitant to start a new series by a beloved author. And three, I had read the brief words mentioning Reece’s boom in the Colorado Mountain Series, and I was a bag of nerves thinking this was going to be a big love triangle, and I didn’t want that at all. I’m so glad I finally gave in. Although there are some scenes showing Feb’s feelings for Reece, it in no way put me off as a love triangle scenario often does. In fact, I think those scenes just added more heat to the fire that is Colt and Feb. The book was fantastic and the characters signature to a KA novel. All interesting and doing their part to help the story along. I thought the killer was someone else for the longest time and it held a bit of humor, lots of suspense, and the requisite alpha hero romance. The ending was also amazeballs!! One of the best KA endings I’ve had the pleasure to read. Headed onto the next in the series! <3
Colt and February’s story was soo good! Talk about a page turner! I couldn’t put this book down! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I really like those two together. Definitely a must read!
Loved this book.
couldn’t put it down had to find out “who done it”!
Audiobook edit: I thought the narrator was freaking perfect and exactly what I pictured for Feb’s voice. Add the freaking amazing story, and this was brilliant!
Out of all the Burg books, this one is my favorite. I simply love Colt and Feb and the bond between them. Beautiful!
Slowly making my way to reading ALL of Kristen’s books and decided to give this series a shot. I don’t really think this series is for me I mean I loved the book (anything by Kristen is like bada**) but I’m not really into the mystery type books, and this book had a lot of mystery more than romance I think. Colt you know he comes off intense, like there’s a stick up his a** or something or needs to get laid but in the beginning he’s just a plain old a** a hot one yes but an a** none the less, “and for the last effing time, stop calling me Alec.” He got close, too close, and his head tipped down so he could stare at me. “You said you called me Alec because it’s who I was to you. I’m not that anymore, whoever that was, I haven’t been in a long time, so effin’ stop calling me Alec.” He’s also kinda lazy in my opinion, “all right, baby, I want my co** inside you but I’m wiped,” he felt her tense against him as he kept talking, “so seein’ as you spent the whole day sleepin’, I figure you’re up for doin’ all the work.” He’s also a big baby when it comes to driving what car and whose doing the driving typical man, “we’re goin’ somewhere, anywhere, I drive and I don’t drive a effin’ beetle.”
Colt and Feb’s story was a great blend of suspense, a wonderful second chance romance, and some really colorful characters. It’s taken me awhile to climb aboard the KA train and the Burg series was a fantastic way to start!