ARC Review + Tour: Walk Through Fire by Kristen Ashley

“She draws me in with her sexy alpha male heroes and her sassy heroines until it’s impossible to escape, and quite frankly why would I try? ”
~ Under the Covers

Millie Cross knew, even though she was young, that  Logan “High” Judd was the one, she would do anything for him, even walk away from him, if it would make him happy. However, even now years later High doesn’t know why Millie left him, leaving him devastated and when she appears back in his life he is determined not to let her hurt him again, he would have walked through fire for Millie, what he doesn’t know, is that she already has.

I’m a big Kristen Ashley fan, there are very few books that she has written that I haven’t fan-girled all over, it’s disgusting really, the drooling, the book stroking, the victory dancing…I should really stop doing that in public places. She draws me in with her sexy alpha male heroes and her sassy heroines until it’s impossible to escape, and quite frankly why would I try?

However, I am not blind to the flaws in Ashley’s books, the way her characters are all very similar, her tendency to be over descriptive and lets now forget how much she detests personal pronouns. But, that magic mixture of supposed flaws seems to do it for me, I don’t know what I would do if suddenly Kristen Ashley started to write beta heroes. Having said that, I struggled a bit with the premise of this book. I thought the reason Millie split up with High was ridiculous and all those years of misery for both of them could have been sorted out with a single conversation. Books based on miscommunication (or in this case no communication) tend to wind me up.

If I ignore that though, I did enjoy the relationship between High and Millie, together they were sexy and sweet together. I just didn’t like the needless emotional drama, as no matter how much I was into it, I was too exasperated by the cause of it to be appreciative. But, it wasn’t just the relationship between High and Millie, I liked seeing the previous characters play their parts in Walk Through Fire and then there was Millie trying to build a relationship with High’s kids.

Another good book by Kristen Ashley, and although this isn’t my favourite I did enjoy and as always will be waiting eagerly for her next release.

INTERVIEW w/ Kristen Ashley

There’s a line in the book: “There are only a few words in the Vocabulary of Badass but each one had a number of meanings.” What is your favorite word/meaning from the Vocabulary of Badass.

“Babe.” A badass can make “babe” say anything with just a change of inflection. “Babe” can be “shut up.” “Babe” can be “you crack me up.” “Babe” can mean “I cannot believe you just did that.” “Babe” is an all-powerful word that badasses have an innate ability to use and they use it frequently.

What do you hope readers can learn from WALK THROUGH FIRE?

That there’s strength in sacrifice. We are the most important people in our lives. We have to look out for ourselves. But sometimes doing that, we need to do something that will cause us extraordinary pain but the reasons we accept that are the right reasons. I believe (and hope) readers will debate if Millie made the right or wrong decision for her and Logan (High) when they were young. There were other ways to go about that and other paths they could have taken to get what they both wanted. But in the end, there was Cleo and Zadie. And it’s unthinkable that they wouldn’t exist. So the debate is moot. What needed to be was…because, losing what she loved most in order to do it, Millie made that happen. There’s extreme beauty in her sacrifice that, in the end, was totally worth the pain.

Finish this sentence: My heroine will never…

Make herself a higher priority than maintaining and strengthening her relationships, any relationships, be it friend, family or lover.

What’s next for you?

I actually haven’t quite decided. We’re getting my independently published books in print. There’s a lot of work involved around that and I’ve been traveling quite a bit this summer but home for a good stretch and nesting. It’s been a week since I finished SEBRING, the last in the Unfinished Heroes series (this book coming out in January). And now that week is done and I’m done with nesting! I’m itching to write another book.

I’m really feeling the pull of the mountains so I suspect it’ll be Deke, the next in the Colorado Mountain series. His heroine has hit me strong in the heart. So I’ll be wanting to deal with that!

 

EXCERPT

I beeped the locks and had a hand to the handle when I heard, “Lookin’ for me?”

When that deep, coarse voice came at me through the dark, my body became paralyzed, my eyes glued to my hand on the handle.

Then it kept coming at me.

“Bitch, followed you the last forty-​five minutes. Reb got in touch. Told me you hit Scruff’s.” On the next, the voice was nearer. “You’re lookin’ for me. So tell me what the fuck you want so you can quit lookin’ and I can quit lookin’ at you.” Slowly, I turned, my head going back automatically because I felt him close and I knew what close to Logan meant.

I was five-seven.

He was six-​one.

He towered over me, or at least that’s what it always felt like because he wasn’t only tall, he was also a big guy with a big presence.

And right then, it felt like that, especially since his big presence was an angry one.

His face was in shadows, I could barely see it.

But I could feel him.

And I could smell him.

God, I could smell him.

He didn’t wear cologne or aftershave. His scent was all his. And I remembered lying in our bed holding his pillow to me, my face shoved into the sheets, taking him in after I’d made him walk away.

His scent hadn’t changed. Not even a nuance.

Smelling it without warning felt like walking unsuspecting into the street and having a truck slam into you. And that feeling was so strong it was a wonder my body didn’t go careening through the trucks and bikes, slamming into them, shattering every bone.

He moved forward so he was in my space, the smell strengthened and my body tightened to guard against it.

“Woman, after all this time, whatever shit you gotta hand me, fuckin’ do it,” he ordered irately. “You got two seconds to spit it the fuck out. You don’t, you won’t get another chance, and you know I’ll make it that way. So this is your only shot. Take it or get in your fuckin’ car and get your ass outta my world.”

I stared into the shadows of his face, wishing with everything that I could see it.

Apparently, I did this for two seconds because Logan bit out, “Right. See nothin’s changed. Weak. Now get your ass . . .” he dipped his face to mine, “gone.”

And when he did, I got up on my toes and kissed him.

It was totally crazy.

But I also totally couldn’t help it.

He smelled so fucking good.

And he was Logan.

Close. Right there. His face in mine.

He jerked away, muttering a disgusted, “What the fuck?”

But the words or their tone didn’t penetrate.

I smelled him and I’d had a taste.

I was gone.

I lifted both hands to either side of his head, yanked him down to me, and went back in, going for it, giving it my all. Even when his fingers clenched painfully into my hips pushing them back to set me away, I held on tighter and shoved my tongue between his lips.

It touched his, just that, just a touch, and then I cried out into his mouth when I found my back slammed into my SUV.

But it wasn’t his way to get me to let him go.

No.

His head slanted and he forced my tongue out of his mouth when his invaded mine.

And that was when I was gone.

I was already gone but right then there was nothing to me.

Nothing at all.

Except my hands on Logan’s head, his body pressing mine into my car, his smell all around us, his tongue plundering my mouth, all this exploding fire everywhere.

He drove a hand into my hair, twisting it, the pain bristling over my scalp and I cried out into his mouth again even as I arched deeper, pressed closer, willing, like it had always been, to give it all because he was Logan, he got it all.

But also because I knew I’d get it back a hundredfold.

He swayed us forward so his other arm could lock across my back and he kept at my mouth as I rolled way up on my toes, pushing deep, wrapping my arms around his neck, consumed by the kiss and not giving that first fuck.

I was ready to ride it out.

No, I needed to ride it out.

No matter where it went.

He broke away and that was when my hand went into his hair, fisting tight in protest.

“That what you want?” he growled, his voice lower, the abrasion physical, and I shivered with delight.

I wasn’t entirely certain of the question but I answered a breathy, “Yes.”

“That’s what you want,” he repeated, a statement this time, seeking confirmation.

“Yes, Logan.”

He let me go but took my hand, his skin rough against my fingers. The feel of it back after all these years washed through me and I fancied I remembered every time, in quick succession, from the first night we met to the night before I broke it off when he’d taken my hand and guided me somewhere.

Lost in it like I’d always been lost in it, I followed blindly.

Attached to Logan, I’d go anywhere.

Even if we were walking through fire.

[about-author author=”Kristen Ashley”]

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