American heiress Amelia Hathaway needs to start anew.
Her husband cheated on her, and when everything she wanted in life slipped through her fingers, she fell apart. When she did, she took another heart wrenching hit as she lost the respect of her children.
When her ex took her family from California to live in the small town of Magdalene in Maine, Amelia decided it was time to sort herself … to sort herself out. In order to do that and win her children back, she moves to Cliff Blue, an architectural masterpiece on the rocky coast of Magdalene.
Her boxes aren’t even unpacked when she meets Mickey Donovan, a man who lives across the street, a man so beautiful Amelia takes one look at Mickey and knows she wants it all from him.
The problem is, she finds out swiftly that he’s friendly, he’s kind, but he doesn’t want everything back.
Amelia struggles to right past wrongs in her life at the same time find out who she wants to be. She also struggles with her attraction to the handsome firefighter who lives across the street.
But Amelia will face a surprise when her friendly neighbor becomes not-so-friendly. As Amelia and Mickey go head to head, Amelia must focus on winning back the hearts of her children.
She soon discovers she also must focus on winning the heart of a handsome firefighter who understands down to his soul the beautiful heiress who lives across the street is used to a life he cannot provide.
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These books lately are giving me all sorts of mixed feelings. Soaring was probably among one of the worst because I loved this story and everything Amelia overcame from the ruthless heiress she once was. However, Mickey just GRRR!! He was a big ass through about 85% of the story and not in your typical KA alphahole way either. Nope, he was just a straight up ass.
“You have absolutely no idea what I need,” I whispered. “And the sad part about that is that you didn’t notice you’d already given me everything I’d ever need just letting me sit at your dinner table with your family.” And on that, I closed and locked the door.”
After her ex left her Amelia went off the deep end and ended up dragging her kids down with her. Now, after everything that conspired after the divorce, she has decided to move to Magdalene Maine to be where her children are and to make a fresh start. Making a fresh start is proving to be easier than getting back in her kid’s good graces but Amelia is not giving up. Her boxes aren’t even unpacked when her ex shows up and she is rescued from his verbal abuse by her neighbor. One look at Mickey Donovan and she is a goner. He is everything she could want but she quickly finds out that while she might ache for Mickey the feelings are not returned.
As Mickey gets further under her skin, Amelia starts to find things to keep her busy and before she knows it her kids are starting to soften around her, she has a volunteer job she loves, and her house is getting set up to be everything she thought it could be and more. Life rarely stays that simple though and her feelings for Mickey grow with each day, she is getting unwanted attention from the towns resident douche and before she knows it her whole life is tied up into this beautiful small town she has grown to love so fiercely.
Amelia’s story was so powerful!! Often enough in books we see the dad who made the mistakes or the dad that didn’t stand by his children, but KA gave us the mom who had to overcome her past and become a better person. Watching her become this whole new person was just refreshing in a way I haven’t seen before so that part of the story was five stars. Then there was Mickey who just didn’t really redeem himself in the way I would have hoped. He had his own past issues to overcome with his ex-wife, but he was just a genuine rude guy most of the time and that didn’t sit well with me. I felt like Amelia deserved way more but I guess all heroes can’t be perfect.
All in all, I really did enjoy this book, especially the family aspect we got with both Amelia and Mickey’s children. Looking forward to the last book in the Magdalene Trilogy but I just don’t see how any story can top the first book in this trilogy The Will.
I loved this addition to the Magdalene series. We met Mickey in The Will and I wanted his story and here it is. He’s a great guy – the kind every girl wants (but, sorry Mickey, Jake’s still my favorite!) And Amelia is a strong female for Mickey. She has worked so hard to get past the betrayal from her now exhusband and truly only wants to focus on her kids. She knows she blew it big time and it will take time to earn back their trust but she is in it for the long haul. This samll town in Maine will help her do just that!
Soaring was an exceptional read! It was filled with so much goodness and heart with excellent details and an amazing build. I honestly couldn’t get enough. It’s a beautiful story of healing, redemption, and love.
Loved reading this story. As ALWAYS K Ashley did not disappoint!
Soaring is book two in the Magdalene series, and introduces us to the second couple in the small Maine coastal town that finds exactly what they never expected to find, but exactly what they needed.
Summary:
Amelia Hathaway is ready to start anew. Discovering her husband’s infidelity made her world crumble, but making matters worse, she then threw what she had left, away. Falling apart may have been an appropriate reaction to the heartache she endured, but losing the respect of her children was never something she intended. So moving to the small coastal town of Magadalene is her new beginning, and the beginning of an all-out war to win back her family. With the scorn of her ex-husband blanketing her, Amelia sets about sorting herself out and making a home where her children, Auden and Olympia, can be comfortable and want to stay. A home like the architectural masterpiece, Cliff Blue. Before her boxes are even unpacked, Amelia meets Mickey Donovan, the most beautiful man she’s ever seen, and a man who lives across the street. With one look, Amelia knows she wants it all from this man, but she also knows that’s something she’ll never have, and not just because Mickey doesn’t want it all back. Fighting her attraction to the hot firefighter next door is hard, but luckily she has her struggles to right past wrongs to occupy her mind and time. Her priority is winning back the hearts of her children, but her life once again takes a surprising turn when her friendly, kind neighbor becomes not-so-friendly. Sparks fly as Mickey and Amelia go head to head, but they’re the good kind. The kind of sparks that lay testament to the fact that something more exists below the surface, and lights a passion that burns bright. But with her focus needing to be on her kids, can Amelia devote the time needed to win a hardworking firefighter’s heart, who swears to his soul he can’t provide a life the likes of which a beautiful heiress is used to? Understanding who she wants to be, Amelia goes about securing everything she’s ever needed, but can her and Mickey endure when exes attack, and the blending of families doesn’t go quite as smoothly as they hoped?
This book was way more than I expected, and I expected it to be fantastic. I adored Mickey and Amy. Amy made some very big mistakes, and had I read them as they were happening, I might have had a difficult time forgiving her, but luckily we saw only her determination to right those wrongs. For being an heiress, she was incredibly sweet and down to Earth. She was used to living a life with money, but not an overly lavish one that might have made her a snob. Mickey was all the good of both a fighter and a firefighter times about a hundred. Yowza! He was hot. He was alpha and could be coarse in his use of language, but that only made you love him more. He was who he was, take it or leave it. His protectiveness and the type of father he was, was a huge draw, as well. The obstacles between them as a couple were real, and could be identified with easily by a lot of readers. This made me fall deeper into the story of finding oneself and grabbing hold of the important things in life. I loved every second of Amelia and Mickey’s journey, and I hated for it to end. The lessons in this book are many, and can be absorbed by pretty much everyone and put into practice. That’s just an added bonus. This is a great addition to the KA library, and again, it just keeps me coming back for more and more. <3
I love the author and how she brings all her characters from other series’ togethet and it makes a great new world.
Audiobook edit: I loved this book when I read it. I loved the narrator’s voice for Amelia. My only issue is actually because sexy Mickey sounds like constipated Mickey. Which is hilarious. I still enjoyed listening!
Second time reading this and I’m just as in love with Mickey and Amy as I was the first time. Such a awesome book that kept me up way too late… AGAIN!
You have to love Kristen Ashley’s writing style and how Alpha the men are in her stories. In this case I think the female lead is pretty Alpha as well. She took nothing off of anyone. I liked that. Amelia has recently moved to be near her children after her divorce. Her children live with their father because Amelia kind of lost it after the divorce. She is trying to win them back. Once I got to reading I totally understood why she lost it after her divorce. Mickey is your typical Alpha male who calls his women, “Babe.” He lives next door to Amelia. There are sparks, but because Amelia has money he doesn’t want a relationship with her. He is afraid he can’t keep her in the lifestyle in which she is accustomed. Their banter causes sexual tension even when they are angry with each other. This is a middle aged couple. They both have children who are either preteen or teenagers. I won’t lie. This is a long book, but it is very interesting. We only get Mickey’s point of view twice in the story. Most of the book is told through Amelia’s eyes. No cliffhanger. Worth the read.
Mickey his compliments are unique, “His eyes went dark. “Jesus, baby, it’s a nice effin’ dress. What’s your problem?” He has a tendency to blurt things out that gets your heart pumping, “he asked irritably, “Why is it when you’re a smarta** I wanna eff you more than I normally wanna eff you.” Mickey is a fun guy when he lets his guard down, “He grinned at me. “My heiress and her perverted fantasies about guys comparing d***s.” Not sure what it is about fight night maybe it’s the adrenaline but hot Damon these couples sure get horny, “You leave the kids in their seats next fight. They can come back after I eff you in the locker room.” I loved this book which isn’t a surprise as I love all of Kristen’s books
And I knew in the casual way Mickey said them was the same way, but worse. Any woman was “babe” to him. Or his other, “darlin.”
It wasn’t just me.
It wasn’t special.
I’d never been special.
I just was.
Oh my gosh, Amelia. First off, some of her insecurities are totally in sync with my own. Getting to know her, though, was difficult for me. She did seem a bit immature, but I can absolutely understand why she wanted to do those things. Her choices, on the front of reacting to her ex husband, really disappointed me because she was a mother and should have been focusing on healing her children!
When Amelia comes to Magdalene, I do see some of that immaturity/spoiled behavior, but she does seem genuine in wanting to change and get her family back. She’s spent so much time away from that part of her life, that she is quite awkward in mothering situations, and her children already have a low opinion of her. Turning that around is HARD, especially when they’re into their teens. I am glad that she did begin to grow in that respect.
Mickey … I’ve been a bit intrigued by him since The Will. Upon meeting him in this book, I was more … conflicted. He has many admirable qualities, and appears to be a pretty good father, but there was something … just not quite as outstanding as other KA men. There were many times that he seemed not quite alpha, but more jerk. And, I know that KA men tend to be alpha jerks, but there’s always some scar buried deep down that corresponds to why they react the way they do. For Mickey, there didn’t seem to be any of those deep, deep wounds and I couldn’t really justify (in my head) a lot of his more terrible moments.
Overall did I enjoy this story? Yes. Unfortunately, it’s not necessarily one of my favorites. I love the town of Magdalene, I love the dynamic of family that flows through (most) of its residents, and the story line was intriguing and kept me guessing. But, somehow, these characters sort of fell through the cracks for me & didn’t really make me fall as deeply into love with them. That said, it would still be a recommended read from me.
Love Kristen Ashley. She does not disappoint.