Gina is the sole heir to the Davidson farm. Her father wants her to marry her childhood nemesis…Eric Sandberg.Gina Davidson is comfortable working with her father on the family farm and nursing an unrequited love for her older brother’s, best friend Jorgen Backman. Her world is thrown upside down when Eric Sandberg, a man from her childhood, Gina is the woman for him. He is willing to fight for … him. He is willing to fight for the chance to win her heart.
After a series of failed relationships, Eric Sandberg heeds his parents’ advice to court a woman who is set to inherit more than him–Gina Davidson. Her father agrees with the pairing, so it should be an easy match. Except Eric didn’t take into consideration that she’d remember how poorly he treated her when they were growing up. Nor did he expect Jorgen Backman’s attempts to keep her for his own.
Jorgen isn’t going to sit back and watch Eric whisk away Gina and her family estate without a fight. The tug of war they play with Gina’s heart, and her father’s insistence that she get married, force her to forget everything she thought she knew about love.
Gina’s father has made it clear. Marriage is in her future. He doesn’t want his daughter to be alone when he moves on. Has Jorgen ruined a plan that was set in place when Eric and Gina were children? Can Eric convince Gina to put the past behind them and give him the chance to win her heart?
Read this second book of the Ashbrook, Montana series to meet friends and families that will stay with you long after the last page is turned.
While this book is part of a series, it is a stand-alone novel that delivers a happily ever after.
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Gina’s father wants her to marry and give him grandchildren even more so after he’s in a bad car accident and has a heart attack. Eric, who used to bully her and made her feel ugly in their teens wants to marry her, boorishly bringing up marriages of conveniences and how theirs was arranged previously by their parents. Gina has a crush on her deceased brother’s best friend Jorgen and he only starts to show an interest in her when Eric does. He knows she has hardly dated and still seduces her and then pushes her away going back to sleeping around with other women, until it comes to his attention that their might be consequences. I immediately thought for someone who is such a player why didn’t he take precautious, otherwise he potentially exposed Gina to an std too. At first I was highly unimpressed with either man and they were buffoons at times, but one does change his ways and wins her heart.
This is an interesting story with strong characters. It’s set in small town America with the author doing a great job describing her scenes in detail. She packs the story with life’s ups and downs and adds in all the emotions. Overlooking the editing , I felt it was a good story.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own and freely given.
The characters are well done, and they stayed in character throughout the story.
The dialogue seems pretty natural, too.
I think the characters are way too old to be going through what they do, but it fits with their personalities—I don’t mean an immaturity issue with them. It’s more like they were all in their little track and sudden something jumped the rail and all these lives are changed.
Although they say grace before eating and there is a scene where they talk with a pastor about Biblical love, this is not a Christian story… more of a “contemporary romance.”
Implied sex and its aftereffects play into the story… as well as fade-to-black sex with a different partner.
Jorgen and Eric both want Gina. One wants her for his forever and the other for right now. Honestly I didn’t really care for either man and she made some IMO stupid mistakes. But that’s how we learn. Jorgen was a really good friend and I liked him at first and then I didn’t. Eric was so arrogant until I got to know him and realized how much he really did love Gina. Her dad well he meant well. Gina didn’t take anything off of Eric and I think that is why I was rooting for them to be a couple. Who wins her heart? You gotta read the book to find out. Loved the ending.
This is book two in The Ashbrook, Montana series and the main character is Gina Davidson, who lives on the farm that has been in her father’s family for generations, with her father William. She has always had a crush on her dead brother’s best friend and their close neighbour Jorgen Backman, but another man, Eric Sandberg, has declared that she is to marry him and they haven’t even gone out for a date yet! Eric is the boy that used to torment her as a child, always putting her down and calling her ugly! Not exactly a great confidence builder. Gina is now thirty five and shockingly, has little to no experience with any sort of social life. Eric has been told since he was a child, due to his father and Gina’s father being best friends, as well as their wives, that since both families owned a lot of the land around town, that a marriage between the two families would be a good move.
Unfortunately, Eric is quite obsessed with being in control, saying what he wants without thinking of what he has actually said or to who, and is very persuasive when he wants to get someone to do as he wants! Jorgen and Eric were part of a group of friends who had all grown up together, but when Eric sets his sights on Gina, Jorgen isn’t so sure that he is after Gina for the right reasons. Jorgen suddenly sees her as more than just her brother’s little sister, who he had promised to always look after. Now, Gina suddenly has two men interested in her and she doesn’t quite know what to do. After one particular event, William tries to make it clear to Gina that he wants her to marry and give him some grandchildren before he’s gone! In such a small town, any gossip is quickly passed around to everyone and any mistakes on all sides, are soon made clear to the guilty party!
Jorgen makes his move and then farming and the harvest interrupts, plus a family member has an accident and she has lots to deal with. Eric gets annoyed at Jorgen’s actions and asks Gina out for a meal, watched by most of their friends and family! He has to work to prove to her that he is a changed person, from the person who treated her so badly growing up. He has his work cut out for himself, as neither are great at relationships and while both prepare for the date in different ways, he still likes to be in control and Gina hasn’t managed to be forceful enough about what she really wants from a relationship and how she wants to be treated. Will he manage to persuade her that he is the man for her and to marry him before the end of that year? Why he is in such a rush to marry will be revealed, but he isn’t the best at explaining this, before trying to force through a wedding asap. Gina has to figure out if either man is suitable, or if she will be better off going back to her single social life online. This one had me in a spin for quite a bit of it, as both men try to have a relationship with Gina and small town gossip gets in the way. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
Solid 3.5 star
I’ll be honest I struggled a little bit with the characters just because I felt Gina was a little too innocent especially with the friends she has I would of expected her to know a bit more about guys etc even if not in practice, then there is Eric and how well… arrogant to the fact he thought Gina would just say yes to everything. Jorgen surprised me with how things panned out with him especially the relationship he had with Gina’s family but I suppose not everyone does what you expect in real life so that shouldn’t change in a book. It was still a good read and you were always wondering just who Gina would end up with right until the end.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
What a terrible situation for a woman to be in! Gina Davidson was being pressured by her father to marry the man of HIS choice, Eric Sandberg, another wealthy land-owner who wanted the woman who would inherit more than he would. Oh my… can you say swoon, how nice to be so loved. I crossed him off my mental list early. As for Gina, not that she gets a choice, she has a long-time crush on Jorgen Backman who was her older brother’s best friend and the town playboy – and Gina looked at him like a “brother” up until he decided to win her heart against Eric. But until the tug of war for Gina heats up, he didn’t make his desire clear either. At this point, I didn’t like either man and would have run away from home rather than marry either one. I didn’t believe either loved her; it was just a competition to see who could win Gina and the wealth. And why, when she is in her mid-30’s, does her father get to pick a husband for her?
The important thing to me in getting into a book is to like the characters, or at least care about them in some way. I just didn’t like these guys, and Gina was unbelievably naïve for her age. She wasn’t ready to be a wife! How can there be a relationship when no one even dated her until the raffle… uh wedding battle… started? I had no trust in either guy, and Gina would have been wiser to go find someone else other than her two fickle choices.
I really liked the first book I read by this author. Sadly, this one did not gel with me. That may be the only reason. The characters weren’t connecting to me. I wish there was a bit more background. The overall writing style was great but the story was lacking a little “poof.”
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.