I honestly had to think long and hard about what I could say in my review about this book. I was telling a friend of mine about it, and she said "whiplash phenomenon ahead". And that's exactly it. This book gave me whiplash. The only character who has been consistent throughout this entire series is Trapper. And I am really starting getting worried about his story when the time comes.
This was the story of Tamalyn and Judge (Bladen). We know from the previous books that Tamalyn was living at the women's shelter run by her cousin who is also Deacon's on again, off again hookup. Tamalyn and Bladen had grown up together in a town where both their fathers were cops and partners at that, as well as neighbors. They were both being very abusive towards their wives and children. And that is why Tamalyn and Bladen decided to leave their homes when they turned 18. They made the decision at the time for Bladen to drop her off at the shelter, while he took off and tried to keep their fathers off her trail and onto his. And they just stayed like that, her holed up at the shelter and him on the road, with barely any communication between the two, for nine years. Nine. Years. I have no idea why. I was not able to find out by the end of the book why these two were so freaked out. I got that they had been abused. However, their fathers, even though they were cops, they definitely did not get portrayed as the smartest tools in the shed. So why were they so determined to bring Tamalyn and Bladen back home...? At some point, Tamalyn figures out that someone is onto her, so she decides to take off. The author makes a point in telling us how Tamalyn's plan was to never set down any roots, just travel from seedy bar to seedy bar because they were paying cash and that was the only thing she was qualified to to, mix drinks. But then, when Bladen finally gets a hold of her, she doesn't want to leave because she was "settled" there. I just felt like she went hot and cold throughout the entire book. You could not count on anything she was saying because it was bound to be contradicted couple of paragraphs later. Also, Bladen aka Judge, he was acting like it hadn't been 9 years since he'd seen her, but maybe one. The story line could've been good, but it had holes in it the size of Texas. And it also felt so rushed, it was super short. I was left with so many questions, I could talk about it all day.
Looks like the next story will be Rowdy's. And I am still having high hopes for Trapper's story, although I am not as upbeat about it as I was after reading about him in the previous books.
*** I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review***