A hall of secrets. A deadly curse. Can their love overcome her dark legacy, or is it doomed from the start?Sofia Ambrose is on the brink of a new career, far away from the opulence and dark secrets of her family’s historic Texas estate, when she and her five sisters are summoned to the Ambrose Estate for a reading of her grandmother’s will—a grandmother who, at 88-years-old, is still alive and … still alive and kicking. Sofia is both bewildered and intrigued. But the truth is more shocking than she could have imagined– her grandmother has turned Ambrose Estate over to her, and she must give up every hope of a regular life in order to run it and protect her family’s legacy.
When an oil well disaster strikes, Sofia must act quickly to save the family fortune. Unfortunately, this means working with the rude and insufferable Gavin Spencer who assumes Sofia is just a spoiled, rich oil heiress. But once she gets to know him, Sofia discovers Gavin’s charm, intellect, and incredible bravery, and soon enough she is falling hard for the rugged firefighter.
Despite her feelings, Sofia knows their love is doomed. Ambrose Estate’s mansion, with its Hall of the Dead, contains so many secrets Sofia can’t even count them. An old family curse stands between her and happiness, and she must sacrifice Gavin’s love to save his life.
Desperately, Sofia searches for answers in her great-great-grandmother’s journal. Does it contain the key to breaking the curse—or will her heart have to break into a thousand pieces?
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This first book in the Women of Ambrose Estate Series by Kimberly Montpetit is an interesting book. Sofia’s grandmother wills the ranch, oil fields, and business to her alone which requires her to live on the estate. After a thunder storm one of their wells catches on fire, and she contacts a specialty company to extinguish it. The owner of the company, Gavin and Sofia enjoy each other’s company and the plot involves a family curse, accidents, trust issues, and an absentee mother. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it.
Story: (5 stars)
Mostly Dangerous: The Women of Ambrose Estate by Kimberly Monpetit (5 stars)
I really loved this story! The sense of location and the attitude of Texans regarding their heritage and land was spot-on! The details of putting out an oil-well fire were fascinating! Some serious research went into writing this book. Add in the element of the old journal and a family curse and you have the makings of an authentic and gripping story. There was the loose end of the lawyer but, meh, we all knew how that would end and didn’t need the boring details.
Some fun banter between the main characters and some wonderful attraction. I love that the Hero doesn’t dither. He tells her how he feels with no angst. The angst is on her side, but only because she doesn’t want him dead.
The book references Daphne du Maurier and although this is much, much shorter, the author has captured a bit of the feeling (it would take a lot more pages to write something as complex as du Maurier did).
Ms. Montpetit delivers again! An excellent book!
Narration: (4 stars)
Ms. Boggs has a lovely southern (Texan?) accent and I could listen to her narrate forever! (Loss of 1/2 a star because her attempts at a British accent, although good at differentiating that character’s voice, made her sound more Deep South than British. It was such a small part of the whole, though, that I feel petty mentioning it…) With that small comment behind us, she read at a good pace, with good expression and her male voices sound male. I hope she narrates the whole series, because I love her voice!
*poor, **ok, ***good, ****very good, *****something special
I’m excited about this new series. Kimberley Montpetit is still fairly new to me, but I love Heather B. Moore’s books, and since I’m always up for a little mystery I think I’m going to really enjoy these books.
The Ambrose women seem to be cursed. For several generations otherwise healthy husbands have suddenly died, experienced men have been killed in freak accidents, and none of the male children live long enough to get married and have children of their own. Could all of this really be due to a curse?
I loved the character of Sofia. She’s determined, takes charge and speaks her mind. When a oil well fire starts shortly after her grandmother puts her in charge of Ambrose Oil, she calls the best oil firefighting team in the business. I absolutely adored the conversation between Sofia and Gavin, especially when he assumed she was “a perpetually peeved spinster”. He got a big shock when he arrived at the Ambrose estate to contain the fire. I really liked these two characters together.
About the curse–reading the diary entries of the great-great-grandmother was one of the best parts of the story and brought the Gothic element to the book. I can’t wait to read the other books in the series to see how each of Sofia’s sisters choose to react to the curse.
This is a clean romance with a couple of mild swear words.
A clean 5-star book
Mostly Dangerous is the first book in the new series, The Women of Ambrose Estate, and features the story of Sofia. When she is summoned home, it is to discover that her grandmother, who is very much alive, has willed her the family estate and oil company effective immediately. Sofia feels trapped. There is a legend that the Ambrose women zre cursed. This leaves Sofia feeling trapped.
The author has written a superb book featuring great characters and a fresh plot. She writes expansively, allowing the reader to peak over the shoulders of her characters and watch their lives unfold. This is remarkable storytelling and leaves this reader anticipating the next book in the series.
This book started out just a little slow for me, but I think it was because there was so much background that needed to be introduced. It didn’t take too long until I didn’t want to put it down! Then I cried throughout the last number of chapters.
Sofia and Gavin’s Love was so strong, and the history revealed so devastatingly heartbreaking!
And Gavin really is a heartthrob!
This book is absolutely amazing. I could not put it down until I finished it. I don’t know how Ms. Montpelit thought up all the ideas she put into this book. Fighting oil fires reminded of the John Wayne movie Hellfighters which is one of my favorite Wayne movies. Then all the mystery of the Ambrose curse just added so much to the story. I could not figure how that curse would get broken. If you love mysteries you have to get this book. I love this story!!
Enjoyable story. Interesting premise for a series. I had wondered how in the world one could put out an oil fire so that was interesting. I think those that do so are incredibly brave but just a little crazy. We should all be grateful to them.
It will be interesting to see what happens with each of the sisters. We only got introduced to one of them in this book so perhaps she is next up? The grandmother is an interesting character. I never could quite figure her out. How much did she really know?
The romance moves from enemies to being in love super fast but I guess it happens.
Sex: kisses, reference to an extra-marital affair (no details)
Language: once
Violence: black magic
*I received a complimentary arc of this book and voluntarily choose to review it.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. It started and ended with a bang. The story line has a great premise. A curse that started some 150 years in the past has affected the Ambrose family line in a strange way. As you read the book you ask yourself has a Curse really caused all these deaths or were they just time and unforseen events? I’ll let you find the answer for yourself. Getting to the answer is a great journey.
I love history, old homes containing old journals and memorabilia. Add in secrets and a family curse and wow, what a great story. Of course you need romance as well to pull it all together. This book pulled me in. At first I was a little confused and things felt very cryptic, but eventually things started falling into place. I cried several times with and for Sofia. She’s a strong loving woman with a lot on her plate. I loved the relationship between Sofia and Gavin. Sparks were flying from the very beginning. 😉 I really liked Gavin’s character. He was perfect for Sofia. I’m anxious to read the sisters stories now.
I read this in one day, and I can’t wait to see how some of the other characters may get woven into the next books, especially since Heather and Kimberley are working together; two great authors for clean romance and/or mystery novels with some sassy women thrown in there.
I received a free copy of this book, and freely leave a review.
The author shared this story with us so uniquely by blending the past with the present in such a way that I was immediately caught up in not only what was happening in the current time frame but also wanted to find out more and more about what had happened in the past to bring about the family curse in the first place!
The give and take between Sofia and Gavin was so well done and I loved the quick comebacks from both of them. Neither one let the other ever get the upper hand!
This promises to be a very interesting series if this first book is any indication!
I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book.
Sofia is blindsided by her grandmother’s will. Will she let the curse keep her from true love? Great chemistry between her and Gavin. My heart broke for the writer of the diary Sofia finds. Romance, curse, mystery, family issues – has it all.
Mostly Dangerous is a very interesting book – a contemporary romance with a Gothic twist. The characters are amazing. I loved Sofia and Gavin – their chemistry, their banter, and those swoony kisses! There is a story within the story as Sofia reads through her great, great grandmother’s journal. The Ambrose Estate is almost a character in its own right. The bravery of the men who put out the oil well fires is awe inspiring. This book is just so well written that I want to binge read the rest of the books! I am really looking forward to reading Sofia’s sisters’ stories. I very highly recommend this book to readers of clean romance.
This is such a good book!
I truly enjoyed reading it!
It’s a captivating, intriguing & moving story. The anticipation keeps you
wanting to know what happens next.
Everything you want in a true romance.
Can’t wait to read Book 2 in the series!
I loved everything about this Must Read Story!!
I enjoyed this book, but I must admit that it gave my emotions a work-out. I loved the romance between Sofia and Gavin and found them both to be very likable characters. I especially enjoyed the banter between them. The plot has twists and turns and moves at a good pace. I found the part of the book that dealt with oil well fire-fighting to be very interesting, but the information is gained as part of the story, not in some information dump. I would definitely read more of this series and more from this author. I obtained a copy from KU.
Mostly Dangerous is a fascinating book with a storyline that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go until the last page was read. The characters are interesting and well developed and the narrator portrayed them nicely.
Too much, I guess what they call Gothic for me. The romance was great but there is too much of the occult and spiritism in story for me. I really didn’t like the ending. She really didn’t give up anything. I won’t be reading this series even though I usually like this author’s books.