Reviews

Craving Heat by Adrienne Giordano

beckymmoe's review against another edition

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4.0

Reviewed on my blog, Becky on Books, on 7/29/18.

A Steele Ridge spin off series--woot!

I love that Maggie Kingston's story is first--she's a female sheriff! And her cousin Reed's main competition for the family record on his training center's absolutely insane obstacle course! (She spends the entire novel trying to beat his time, but I'm not going to tell you if she makes it. You've got to read it yourself to find out. :D) Jay is the perfect match for her--she's the only woman on the planet who will call him on his crazy, and he's the only guy that can make her see that yes, sometimes she does go a little too far when she thinks she and only she knows the *right* way to get things fixed. (Okay, her mom and another cousin helped her here too. But it's Jay that made her reconsider in the first place.) Together they're just awesome--and his inner fixation with her handcuffs made me LOL. Every. Time.

The suspense part of the plot was solid--even though, looking back I can see that there were some clues to who the bad guy was, I still didn't suspect until we found out for sure. I loved that Ms. Giordano had Maggie use cutting edge technology to find out who was behind it all, too--very timely!

Since this is the first in this spin-off series, you could absolutely start your Steel Ridge binge-read here. Many (most? maybe even all? I lost track) of the original series characters at least get a mention here, and several play a role in the story, but you don't have to have read their books to enjoy this one. A word of warning, though--chances are that seeing them all interact here (I. Love. This. Family!) will increase your TBR dramatically. Not that this is a problem...and hey, it will give you something to do until the next series book comes out :)

Rating: 4 stars / A-

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

mimireadsromance's review against another edition

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4.0

Craving Heat is the first book in the new The Kingstons series, a spinoff of the Steele Ridge series that I loved in 2017! If you read the Steele Ridge series yet, you'll get to see many of the original characters make an appearance in this book. That's always a plus for me! If you haven't read the original series, don't fret. This book can be read and enjoyed as a standalone.
I am a fan of both sports romance and romantic suspense, so this book checked lots of boxes for me as a reader! I've been anxious to see who Maggie, our favorite small town sheriff with a big personality, would be paired up with in this book. Enter Jay, a seasoned quarterback needing to lie low while his drama gets sorted. Even better, Jay's the good guy that treats other with respect and is extremely supportive of Maggie. Let me just say, his actions on the obstacle course absolutely won me over in the romance department! The romance is slow-burn as Maggie and Jay try to uncover who is behind all of the drama that is impacting Jay's (and his sister's) career. I really enjoyed the way the couple addressed their individual issues and played to each other's strengths. Even better was that they didn't try to "fix" one another. I read this book weeks ago, twice in fact, and I'm still swoony over Jay and Maggie! The Kingstons come across as another family that will be lots of fun to get to know and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
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