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Alaska Dating Games #2
Jackson's Redemption
Four Alaskan Oil Riggers. One Contest. Four Blind Dates. Who says there are no more mail order brides…
Kate
It was an insane thing to do. Take a risk on a contest. Fly to Alaska for a blind date. Except I was desperate. I had recently lost my father, my job… my world. I needed to escape my life. Why not Alaska?
I had no idea a man like Jackson would be there waiting for me. This big, burly man who wanted to take me into the wilderness. Who found a way to take away all my pain. He was my drug of choice and I had no shame in taking him as often as I needed him.
He told me it was okay to trust him… but could I? When I know he has secrets he’s not telling me.
Jackson
This wasn’t a contest for me. This was a plan. To bring Kate to Alaska and make her mine. If only for a time. She didn’t know about my criminal record. She didn’t remember our shared past.
By the time she leaves Hope’s Point, she’ll remember me. And I plan to make damn sure she never forgets me.
Kate
It was an insane thing to do. Take a risk on a contest. Fly to Alaska for a blind date. Except I was desperate. I had recently lost my father, my job… my world. I needed to escape my life. Why not Alaska?
I had no idea a man like Jackson would be there waiting for me. This big, burly man who wanted to take me into the wilderness. Who found a way to take away all my pain. He was my drug of choice and I had no shame in taking him as often as I needed him.
He told me it was okay to trust him… but could I? When I know he has secrets he’s not telling me.
Jackson
This wasn’t a contest for me. This was a plan. To bring Kate to Alaska and make her mine. If only for a time. She didn’t know about my criminal record. She didn’t remember our shared past.
By the time she leaves Hope’s Point, she’ll remember me. And I plan to make damn sure she never forgets me.
180 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 31, 2019
138 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
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August 9, 2021
Marana, Arizona
Fifteen years ago
Jackson Warner
A high school senior, it’s hot and he’s running, but he’s unwilling to remove his shirt “no one wanted to see my bony chest.”
He comes from verrry humble beginnings, his family has a less than stellar reputation, his alcoholic father tells him he’ll amount to nothing, his mother earns a meagre wage waitressing to barely support them all. His brother Marco has gang affiliations and runs drugs.
Kate Lazio is Jackson’s dream girl, the unattainable one, beyond his reach both physically and socially. A sophomore at Arizona State, she was two years ahead of him in high school…the daughter of the chief of police, a pillar of the community.
They met on the track, she fell and injured her ankle and he came to her rescue, offering to drive her home in her car. On the drive, he confesses his dreams of attending community college and then transferring to Arizona State “I want to be a geologist.”
“Oh. That’s really awesome. What got you interested in that?”
“I always liked collecting rocks. One year, my mom got me this book for Christmas about the study of rocks and I was hooked.”
“Ah, so you’re a book nerd.”
She meant it as a compliment. Not as an insult. I could tell the way she said it and it made me feel like…a man. Like a grown man who had plans and ambitions and wasn’t afraid to study for them.
Instead of like a kid in high school who had the shitty family holding him down
Instead of her father being thankful for his help, he was utterly despicable, “You lay eyes on my daughter again and we’ll have words.”
‘The next time I ran into the Chief of Police, we didn’t have words. Other than him reading me my rights’.
Hope’s Point, Alaska
Present Day
Kate Lazio
Not for the first time she wondered what was doing in Hope’s Point, Alaska. A dating contest?
“Did I really sign up for that”?
Obviously I did or my a*s wouldn’t be sitting here in this Cessna on a runway, where I could see no other buildings around.
I turned my head and saw him. The man who had introduced himself to me as Jackson Young through email. He was standing at the end of the runway and he was…huge.
A shorter blonde woman was walking toward me. She also had a bag over her shoulder.
“Welcome to Hope’s Point,” she said with a smile and a Southern accent. “I’m here to tell you you’ve got nothing to worry about up here. These are some good guys. Although that one there is a little grumpy.”
I stared over at him. His arms were crossed over his chest like he was expecting a fight.
Holy sh*t. He was scary looking as f…, what had she been thinking?
“He may look ferocious but trust me, he doesn’t bite. He grunts a lot though so be warned. And good luck!”
“I have to tell you, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life, I’m not exactly sure what to expect.”
“I guess this is the part where I ask you out. Probably should do it properly. Kate, will you go out on a date with me?”
Eli, Ark and Jackson decide to advertise for dates Jackson purposely targets a particular woman. Her name is branded on his skin.
A woman whose world imploded and is in turmoil, as she clicked that contest ad.
Free ticket to Alaska. Free ticket to Alaska.
Escape.
“From my job, my life, my town. My grief. My anger”.
From the whispers of “Kate must have known about her father. She must have known he was dirty. Of course she had to, she was working with him. Why wouldn’t he bring her into all his criminal deals?”
Helping Kate that day, placed him directly on her father’s radar, subsequently landing him a prison sentence. He wanted to be with her since high school but life and circumstances got in the way. Three months later after helping Kate home, her father caught him walking by their house and set him up.
She relives nightmares of her father’s death notification that he had been killed in the line of fire. A drug deal gone bad. A drug deal he’d been involved with. Not in intercepting but coordinating. The years of corruption and crimes, until it finally it caught up with, and killed him. Leaving a wake of devastation and destruction in its place.
Everyone’s assumption that she had been part of that life. Her partner not believing in her professed innocence.
Their first date ends in several mutually satisfying hours together in bed, she then decides it’s best to keep the next two weeks platonic…that doesn’t last very long.
This transitions periodically…
Sentencing Day
Fifteen years ago
Jackson
The day the legal system perpetuated a grave miscarriage of justice, for a crime he didn’t commit and a system that failed him. A man that abused his badge and placed an innocent teenager in the criminal system.
His attorney encouraged him to accept a plea to afford him a lighter sentence, acknowledging that the rumours of the chief were simply rumours. Kate briefly appeared in court to see her father not knowing her father had deliberately put him there. In part because of her. In that moment, he hated her more because it felt like everything he had ever wanted, was lost to him the second he accepted the deal.
“I knew the stories, knew all about the threat of rape. But I also knew I had been fighting my brother my whole life and I had never lost. I never lost because I didn’t play by any rules. Ever. I wouldn’t inside, either, if it came to that. I had spent the last three months since this happened physically getting stronger, getting bigger. My six-three frame was finally starting to fill out. I wasn’t someone anyone wanted to mess with. No, I wasn’t worried about however long I would be locked in cage. I was worried about who—or what—was going to come out when they opened the cage and let me free. What kind of person I would be then. What kind of life I would make for myself.
She finally sees his tattoo and makes the connection. “Why wouldn’t you have just told me? Don’t tell me this is some kind of twisted coincidence?”
“No. I ran the Facebook ad for the contest. There are ways you can target people. I knew enough about you to know how to get that ad to appear in your feed every day. Whether or not you clicked it…that was the unknown. Thought you might. That getting away would appeal to you.”
“Why would you…” The pieces started falling into place.
He’d been to prison in Perryville.
He was from Marana.
“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t do it? That I was set up?”
“Your father planted the drugs in the trunk of my car. Part of it had to do with getting my brother to flip. Part of it was because of you.”
“Me?” I said, looking up at him.”
“Because I dared to take you home that day. Your father didn’t think I was worthy of you. Turns out he was right.”
Their confrontation doesn’t end well, in his head he knew her father was dirty.
“When I saw he’d been executed, I knew what that would mean for you. I was trying to give you an out. A life raft.”
He had read the news about her father being killed, exposed for his criminal proclivities. His initial thought…was to go to Marana and offer her support. But then Angel came up with the idea for a dating contest and it was the perfect solution.
Don’t go to her there, bring her up here. Away from everyone.
I just had to hope it worked. If not, there would have been a Plan B and Plan C and Plan D if I needed it.
Kate was the reason Jackson remained focused throughout prison. She was the reason for him taking classes. The reason he stopped fighting and worked on his temper. The reason he worked three jobs and took night classes. The reason he followed through on his dream.
She was a constant reminder that if he ever wanted to date a woman like her, he had to be worthy, educated with ambition.
Kate was just Jackson’s version of an ideal woman.
The best five days of his life and she thought he was plotting a secret revenge. This was supposed to be about helping her put her life back together. From him, the one person who knew what a dickhead her father was but didn’t hold her accountable for it. And he didn’t. When she said she didn’t know he’d been dirty he believed her. He never expected her to believe him when I said I didn’t do it, because she was a cop.
He confesses that he’s an ex-felon, secrets are revealed, heightened emotions ensuing disaster, prematurely ending their two-week ‘date’.
Jackson saw Kate for the first time on his first day of high school. She was a junior doing orientation for all the freshman and he recalls thinking she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. “I didn’t have a lot in my life then. Drunk father, punk-a*s brother. My mother was killing herself trying to keep it altogether. You became this…thing to me. You were an idea. You were hope. You were something for me to point to and say, I’m not going to be like my family. I’m going to be different and someday Kate Lazio is going to go out on a date with me. Then we met that day when you hurt your ankle. I told you I was going to Arizona State and you told me you went there as if I didn’t know.”
“I told you to find me on campus. That I would buy you a drink as a thank you,” I said, remembering our conversation.
“Which made me even more focused. More driven. I started walking around your neighborhood after that. Hoping I could catch you out running or something. Your father picked up on it, decided I was getting too cocky, I suppose.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m sorry.”
“No. You didn’t do it. He did. I didn’t bring you here to take his blame. I didn’t tattoo your name on my arm because I hated you. I did it to help see me through. To remind me who I was and what I wanted so I wouldn’t get lost in prison. When I heard the news about your father, I thought about going back to Marana, making sure you were okay. Maybe it seems crazy, but I felt connected to you. You were this guiding light to me and I wanted to make sure you were safe. Then Angel came up with the idea for the contest and giving away the tickets…I thought maybe giving you an escape was a better option.BIt was a chance, Kate. Something I threw out into the universe to see what would come back. You. You came back.”
It was hard to process what he was saying. Hard to imagine I was even worthy of being the woman he held in such high esteem. A guiding light? When for the last few months I had felt so stuck in the dark. It didn’t make sense to me.
“I don’t know what to say. I just assumed, back at the cabin, that you hated me. I was the reason my father targeted you.”
“My brother, too.”
“Do you hate your brother?”
“My brother is dead. Drive by shooting. My father, too, of a heart attack”.
“I can’t—”
“Can’t or won’t?”
I sighed. “I’m not in a place where I can give you anything, Jackson. At least not what you want”.
“Jackson Warner, I’m not done with you yet!”
She came charging down the runway, and my first thought was to turn and run. Kate was a formidable woman. But of course, I was so damn happy to see her, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, I made my way toward her even as she was cursing up a storm at me.
“Who do you think you are to tell me what to do with my life? I happen to like Alaska. Yes, I think I might love you. And yes, that scares the crap out of me. Because I don’t know what’s real from fake anymore. So it’s going to take me time to get there, and you are just going to have to deal with that!”
I moved in and picked her up, lifting her over my shoulder.
“What the hell are you doing?” she screeched, kicking her legs so hard I had to wrap both arms around her to hold her still.
“Taking you to bed.”
“Oh no! This is not going to be about f…… anymore! I want a proper relationship. Where we will go on dates, you will buy me flowers and you will kiss me!”
“I’m not really a flowers kind of guy.”
“Get there,” she growled.”
That was all I needed to hear. I took her red cheeks in my palms and tilted her face so that I could see her and know she was real. She’d come back to Alaska for me. She’d come to Hope’s Point for me.
Bending down to kiss her, I whispered, “Please don’t bite me.”
“Not yet anyway,” she muttered just as my lips met hers.
Her taste, her tongue, her breath I wanted all of it. Like I could pull part of her soul out of her body and into mine with the power of a kiss. She put her hand on my chest and pulled away from me.
Together, we were breathing heavy.
“I mean it, Jackson. We’re going to do this slowly.”
A sweet reconciliation.
Minor grammatical errors.
Kate eventually reconciles her memories of the man her father had been and the lives he destroyed. The injustices he inflicted on innocent lives without a smidgeon of remorse.
It was disheartening to see the revulsion of those ‘closest’ to Kate when her father’s misdeeds are brought to light.
Fifteen years ago
Jackson Warner
A high school senior, it’s hot and he’s running, but he’s unwilling to remove his shirt “no one wanted to see my bony chest.”
He comes from verrry humble beginnings, his family has a less than stellar reputation, his alcoholic father tells him he’ll amount to nothing, his mother earns a meagre wage waitressing to barely support them all. His brother Marco has gang affiliations and runs drugs.
Kate Lazio is Jackson’s dream girl, the unattainable one, beyond his reach both physically and socially. A sophomore at Arizona State, she was two years ahead of him in high school…the daughter of the chief of police, a pillar of the community.
They met on the track, she fell and injured her ankle and he came to her rescue, offering to drive her home in her car. On the drive, he confesses his dreams of attending community college and then transferring to Arizona State “I want to be a geologist.”
“Oh. That’s really awesome. What got you interested in that?”
“I always liked collecting rocks. One year, my mom got me this book for Christmas about the study of rocks and I was hooked.”
“Ah, so you’re a book nerd.”
She meant it as a compliment. Not as an insult. I could tell the way she said it and it made me feel like…a man. Like a grown man who had plans and ambitions and wasn’t afraid to study for them.
Instead of like a kid in high school who had the shitty family holding him down
Instead of her father being thankful for his help, he was utterly despicable, “You lay eyes on my daughter again and we’ll have words.”
‘The next time I ran into the Chief of Police, we didn’t have words. Other than him reading me my rights’.
Hope’s Point, Alaska
Present Day
Kate Lazio
Not for the first time she wondered what was doing in Hope’s Point, Alaska. A dating contest?
“Did I really sign up for that”?
Obviously I did or my a*s wouldn’t be sitting here in this Cessna on a runway, where I could see no other buildings around.
I turned my head and saw him. The man who had introduced himself to me as Jackson Young through email. He was standing at the end of the runway and he was…huge.
A shorter blonde woman was walking toward me. She also had a bag over her shoulder.
“Welcome to Hope’s Point,” she said with a smile and a Southern accent. “I’m here to tell you you’ve got nothing to worry about up here. These are some good guys. Although that one there is a little grumpy.”
I stared over at him. His arms were crossed over his chest like he was expecting a fight.
Holy sh*t. He was scary looking as f…, what had she been thinking?
“He may look ferocious but trust me, he doesn’t bite. He grunts a lot though so be warned. And good luck!”
“I have to tell you, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life, I’m not exactly sure what to expect.”
“I guess this is the part where I ask you out. Probably should do it properly. Kate, will you go out on a date with me?”
Eli, Ark and Jackson decide to advertise for dates Jackson purposely targets a particular woman. Her name is branded on his skin.
A woman whose world imploded and is in turmoil, as she clicked that contest ad.
Free ticket to Alaska. Free ticket to Alaska.
Escape.
“From my job, my life, my town. My grief. My anger”.
From the whispers of “Kate must have known about her father. She must have known he was dirty. Of course she had to, she was working with him. Why wouldn’t he bring her into all his criminal deals?”
Helping Kate that day, placed him directly on her father’s radar, subsequently landing him a prison sentence. He wanted to be with her since high school but life and circumstances got in the way. Three months later after helping Kate home, her father caught him walking by their house and set him up.
She relives nightmares of her father’s death notification that he had been killed in the line of fire. A drug deal gone bad. A drug deal he’d been involved with. Not in intercepting but coordinating. The years of corruption and crimes, until it finally it caught up with, and killed him. Leaving a wake of devastation and destruction in its place.
Everyone’s assumption that she had been part of that life. Her partner not believing in her professed innocence.
Their first date ends in several mutually satisfying hours together in bed, she then decides it’s best to keep the next two weeks platonic…that doesn’t last very long.
This transitions periodically…
Sentencing Day
Fifteen years ago
Jackson
The day the legal system perpetuated a grave miscarriage of justice, for a crime he didn’t commit and a system that failed him. A man that abused his badge and placed an innocent teenager in the criminal system.
His attorney encouraged him to accept a plea to afford him a lighter sentence, acknowledging that the rumours of the chief were simply rumours. Kate briefly appeared in court to see her father not knowing her father had deliberately put him there. In part because of her. In that moment, he hated her more because it felt like everything he had ever wanted, was lost to him the second he accepted the deal.
“I knew the stories, knew all about the threat of rape. But I also knew I had been fighting my brother my whole life and I had never lost. I never lost because I didn’t play by any rules. Ever. I wouldn’t inside, either, if it came to that. I had spent the last three months since this happened physically getting stronger, getting bigger. My six-three frame was finally starting to fill out. I wasn’t someone anyone wanted to mess with. No, I wasn’t worried about however long I would be locked in cage. I was worried about who—or what—was going to come out when they opened the cage and let me free. What kind of person I would be then. What kind of life I would make for myself.
She finally sees his tattoo and makes the connection. “Why wouldn’t you have just told me? Don’t tell me this is some kind of twisted coincidence?”
“No. I ran the Facebook ad for the contest. There are ways you can target people. I knew enough about you to know how to get that ad to appear in your feed every day. Whether or not you clicked it…that was the unknown. Thought you might. That getting away would appeal to you.”
“Why would you…” The pieces started falling into place.
He’d been to prison in Perryville.
He was from Marana.
“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t do it? That I was set up?”
“Your father planted the drugs in the trunk of my car. Part of it had to do with getting my brother to flip. Part of it was because of you.”
“Me?” I said, looking up at him.”
“Because I dared to take you home that day. Your father didn’t think I was worthy of you. Turns out he was right.”
Their confrontation doesn’t end well, in his head he knew her father was dirty.
“When I saw he’d been executed, I knew what that would mean for you. I was trying to give you an out. A life raft.”
He had read the news about her father being killed, exposed for his criminal proclivities. His initial thought…was to go to Marana and offer her support. But then Angel came up with the idea for a dating contest and it was the perfect solution.
Don’t go to her there, bring her up here. Away from everyone.
I just had to hope it worked. If not, there would have been a Plan B and Plan C and Plan D if I needed it.
Kate was the reason Jackson remained focused throughout prison. She was the reason for him taking classes. The reason he stopped fighting and worked on his temper. The reason he worked three jobs and took night classes. The reason he followed through on his dream.
She was a constant reminder that if he ever wanted to date a woman like her, he had to be worthy, educated with ambition.
Kate was just Jackson’s version of an ideal woman.
The best five days of his life and she thought he was plotting a secret revenge. This was supposed to be about helping her put her life back together. From him, the one person who knew what a dickhead her father was but didn’t hold her accountable for it. And he didn’t. When she said she didn’t know he’d been dirty he believed her. He never expected her to believe him when I said I didn’t do it, because she was a cop.
He confesses that he’s an ex-felon, secrets are revealed, heightened emotions ensuing disaster, prematurely ending their two-week ‘date’.
Jackson saw Kate for the first time on his first day of high school. She was a junior doing orientation for all the freshman and he recalls thinking she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. “I didn’t have a lot in my life then. Drunk father, punk-a*s brother. My mother was killing herself trying to keep it altogether. You became this…thing to me. You were an idea. You were hope. You were something for me to point to and say, I’m not going to be like my family. I’m going to be different and someday Kate Lazio is going to go out on a date with me. Then we met that day when you hurt your ankle. I told you I was going to Arizona State and you told me you went there as if I didn’t know.”
“I told you to find me on campus. That I would buy you a drink as a thank you,” I said, remembering our conversation.
“Which made me even more focused. More driven. I started walking around your neighborhood after that. Hoping I could catch you out running or something. Your father picked up on it, decided I was getting too cocky, I suppose.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m sorry.”
“No. You didn’t do it. He did. I didn’t bring you here to take his blame. I didn’t tattoo your name on my arm because I hated you. I did it to help see me through. To remind me who I was and what I wanted so I wouldn’t get lost in prison. When I heard the news about your father, I thought about going back to Marana, making sure you were okay. Maybe it seems crazy, but I felt connected to you. You were this guiding light to me and I wanted to make sure you were safe. Then Angel came up with the idea for the contest and giving away the tickets…I thought maybe giving you an escape was a better option.BIt was a chance, Kate. Something I threw out into the universe to see what would come back. You. You came back.”
It was hard to process what he was saying. Hard to imagine I was even worthy of being the woman he held in such high esteem. A guiding light? When for the last few months I had felt so stuck in the dark. It didn’t make sense to me.
“I don’t know what to say. I just assumed, back at the cabin, that you hated me. I was the reason my father targeted you.”
“My brother, too.”
“Do you hate your brother?”
“My brother is dead. Drive by shooting. My father, too, of a heart attack”.
“I can’t—”
“Can’t or won’t?”
I sighed. “I’m not in a place where I can give you anything, Jackson. At least not what you want”.
“Jackson Warner, I’m not done with you yet!”
She came charging down the runway, and my first thought was to turn and run. Kate was a formidable woman. But of course, I was so damn happy to see her, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, I made my way toward her even as she was cursing up a storm at me.
“Who do you think you are to tell me what to do with my life? I happen to like Alaska. Yes, I think I might love you. And yes, that scares the crap out of me. Because I don’t know what’s real from fake anymore. So it’s going to take me time to get there, and you are just going to have to deal with that!”
I moved in and picked her up, lifting her over my shoulder.
“What the hell are you doing?” she screeched, kicking her legs so hard I had to wrap both arms around her to hold her still.
“Taking you to bed.”
“Oh no! This is not going to be about f…… anymore! I want a proper relationship. Where we will go on dates, you will buy me flowers and you will kiss me!”
“I’m not really a flowers kind of guy.”
“Get there,” she growled.”
That was all I needed to hear. I took her red cheeks in my palms and tilted her face so that I could see her and know she was real. She’d come back to Alaska for me. She’d come to Hope’s Point for me.
Bending down to kiss her, I whispered, “Please don’t bite me.”
“Not yet anyway,” she muttered just as my lips met hers.
Her taste, her tongue, her breath I wanted all of it. Like I could pull part of her soul out of her body and into mine with the power of a kiss. She put her hand on my chest and pulled away from me.
Together, we were breathing heavy.
“I mean it, Jackson. We’re going to do this slowly.”
A sweet reconciliation.
Minor grammatical errors.
Kate eventually reconciles her memories of the man her father had been and the lives he destroyed. The injustices he inflicted on innocent lives without a smidgeon of remorse.
It was disheartening to see the revulsion of those ‘closest’ to Kate when her father’s misdeeds are brought to light.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2019
I have been enjoying these shorter reads from S. Doyle about this group of men who work hard in Alaska but need a bit of comfort from the scarce opposite sex. Their 'experiment' taking place on social media is turning their worlds a bit upside down and now it is Jackson's turn.
This man is gruff and is one of few words. I was anxious for his story since his choice of dates was a woman he loved from afar when he was just a teenager. Kate arrives in Hope's Point and from there it's a race to see who will confess first. Jackson for setting her up to meet him or Kate with her horrid Dad's secrets about his being a dirty cop.
I think had both confessed earlier on, it could have been a very interesting kind of story. The angst factor would still be in place and they'd have to work through their issues, despite their combustible attraction. Instead it took most of the book to get there and in the meantime, nothing really happened. Just a ton of sex and more grunting from Jackson. Not to mention, the use of the word furry to describe his body hair. Once was more than enough but it was repeated ad nauseam.
Saying that the five days spent with Kate in a secluded cabin was the best of his life sounded kind of ridiculous since they spent most of it in bed. Not that that is a bad thing but the emotional connection just wasn't there. In the end, I just needed more of Kate and Jackson in terms of discussion and laying out their feelings.
The other guys were all there and we got the perfect set-up for Noah and Olivia's story next. He and Cal will clearly have stories to tell and I'm hopeful they are a bit better than this one.
2.5 stars.
This man is gruff and is one of few words. I was anxious for his story since his choice of dates was a woman he loved from afar when he was just a teenager. Kate arrives in Hope's Point and from there it's a race to see who will confess first. Jackson for setting her up to meet him or Kate with her horrid Dad's secrets about his being a dirty cop.
I think had both confessed earlier on, it could have been a very interesting kind of story. The angst factor would still be in place and they'd have to work through their issues, despite their combustible attraction. Instead it took most of the book to get there and in the meantime, nothing really happened. Just a ton of sex and more grunting from Jackson. Not to mention, the use of the word furry to describe his body hair. Once was more than enough but it was repeated ad nauseam.
Saying that the five days spent with Kate in a secluded cabin was the best of his life sounded kind of ridiculous since they spent most of it in bed. Not that that is a bad thing but the emotional connection just wasn't there. In the end, I just needed more of Kate and Jackson in terms of discussion and laying out their feelings.
The other guys were all there and we got the perfect set-up for Noah and Olivia's story next. He and Cal will clearly have stories to tell and I'm hopeful they are a bit better than this one.
2.5 stars.
December 10, 2021
I liked Jackson and his grunts, his rugged manliness and nerdy tendencies. I liked Kate and this story. What I did not like and kept it from being a solid 4 for me was again- more lies and deception. If I was Kate I would have felt stupid and deceived despite Jacksons love. She had to have cared for him too, to move to Alaska and try to start over, but the ending was a bit blah for me.
Jackson usually takes what he wants but he could have made a few different decisions, IMHO.
Excited about Noah and Olivia next- should be spicy! I love the grumps.
Jackson usually takes what he wants but he could have made a few different decisions, IMHO.
Excited about Noah and Olivia next- should be spicy! I love the grumps.
Want to Read
February 28, 2021🎁 FREE on Amazon today (2/28/2021)! 🎁
February 6, 2019
4.5 🌟🌟🌟🌟
I'm loving this series. I was eagerly awaiting Jackson's story. I really loved it. I loved how he never stopped loving Kate no matter what happened. However I do find it a huge coincident that he knew she would reply to the Facebook as and then not recognise him, but hey, stranger things have happened and it makes for a great story.
Seeing a Kate didn't recognise Jackson, nor really give him a second thought from her childhood it's almost an Insta love in her part, then when the truth comes out you can totally understand her reactions and confusion as Jackson has had 15 years of waiting for her and then the whole competition to deal with his feelings and she has them all dumped in her.
All in all it was an excellent read and I love how it sets up the next book, if which I can't wait to read either.
I'm loving this series. I was eagerly awaiting Jackson's story. I really loved it. I loved how he never stopped loving Kate no matter what happened. However I do find it a huge coincident that he knew she would reply to the Facebook as and then not recognise him, but hey, stranger things have happened and it makes for a great story.
Seeing a Kate didn't recognise Jackson, nor really give him a second thought from her childhood it's almost an Insta love in her part, then when the truth comes out you can totally understand her reactions and confusion as Jackson has had 15 years of waiting for her and then the whole competition to deal with his feelings and she has them all dumped in her.
All in all it was an excellent read and I love how it sets up the next book, if which I can't wait to read either.
February 2, 2019
Jackson comes from the wrong side of the tracks. Kate is the girl of his dreams, so much so that her name is tattooed on his skin. When Eli, Ark and Jackson decide to advertise for dates Jackson purposely targets a particular woman. Secrets and lies are not the way to build relationships though and when the truth comes out it results in someone almost losing their lives. Can Jackson move on from what has happened in his life to make him the hard man he is? Can Kate come to terms with the man her father really had been and the lives he disrupted? Is this just a way for Jackson to reek revenge or does he really have feelings for her? Despite some editing problems (minor) I enjoyed reading Kate and Jacksons story.
July 3, 2019
3.5 stars. I was really enjoying this book and racing through it in a day, loving Kate and Jackson’s unique banter and unusual connection. They got intimate sooner and more often than I would have liked; I enjoyed and was touched much more by the scenes when they just talked to each other.
When the couple finally overcame their obstacles and reunited, I was looking forward to some happy scenes with them. I was jolted and disappointed by the abrupt ending. This book would’ve been so much better with at least another chapter and an epilogue. The couple still had so much more to work through.
I always enjoy books with the unique setting that is Alaska, and these first two books in the series have been worth the read.
When the couple finally overcame their obstacles and reunited, I was looking forward to some happy scenes with them. I was jolted and disappointed by the abrupt ending. This book would’ve been so much better with at least another chapter and an epilogue. The couple still had so much more to work through.
I always enjoy books with the unique setting that is Alaska, and these first two books in the series have been worth the read.
November 20, 2021
Not Alaska
While the stereotype of the Alaskan man is used this book does not accurately represent Alaska or the Alaskan oil industry.
For instance, my husband has worked as a mudlogger. No mudlogger would describe their job as it is described in the book.
Writing is ok but needs a good proof reading.
Story, plot, and characters have good, interesting base that make it readable & intriguing enough to get through several books in the series.
Steamy scenes are excellent. The most enjoyable part of the book!
While the stereotype of the Alaskan man is used this book does not accurately represent Alaska or the Alaskan oil industry.
For instance, my husband has worked as a mudlogger. No mudlogger would describe their job as it is described in the book.
Writing is ok but needs a good proof reading.
Story, plot, and characters have good, interesting base that make it readable & intriguing enough to get through several books in the series.
Steamy scenes are excellent. The most enjoyable part of the book!
July 16, 2023
The cop and the ex-con
JACKSON was so intriguing in the first book of this series. It was off-brand of him to participate in the Alaska Dating Games with the other guys because he was such a loner.
But right from the start we learn Jackson’s motivation fro the past and how he came to bring Kate into his life some 15 years after talking to her once.
The chemistry is super hot. Jackson is a caveman and then some. Kate is broken and we have to keep reading to see who ends up fixing who.
JACKSON was so intriguing in the first book of this series. It was off-brand of him to participate in the Alaska Dating Games with the other guys because he was such a loner.
But right from the start we learn Jackson’s motivation fro the past and how he came to bring Kate into his life some 15 years after talking to her once.
The chemistry is super hot. Jackson is a caveman and then some. Kate is broken and we have to keep reading to see who ends up fixing who.
February 1, 2019
Another winner
This is book two in this series and it just gets better. While this is a stand alone book as well the sub stories are just as good. This is about Jackson and kate, we met Jackson in book one and I loved his story. The gruff one of the group meets his match in Kate and their storyline is full of ups and downs. I can't wait for more in this series because we also get glimpses of past characters as this is a small town in Alaska. You won't be disappointed.
This is book two in this series and it just gets better. While this is a stand alone book as well the sub stories are just as good. This is about Jackson and kate, we met Jackson in book one and I loved his story. The gruff one of the group meets his match in Kate and their storyline is full of ups and downs. I can't wait for more in this series because we also get glimpses of past characters as this is a small town in Alaska. You won't be disappointed.
February 10, 2019
Good story.
Forbidden love in the sense they are from different social circles.
Second chance, though they weren't romantically involved. He is a bit younger than her, he noticed her but she only interacted with him once.
No intimate scenes with anyone other than the Hero and heroine.
No cheating.
No ex-drama.
Breadcrumbs dropped for future books in series and updates of previous characters and couples.
HEA.
Forbidden love in the sense they are from different social circles.
Second chance, though they weren't romantically involved. He is a bit younger than her, he noticed her but she only interacted with him once.
No intimate scenes with anyone other than the Hero and heroine.
No cheating.
No ex-drama.
Breadcrumbs dropped for future books in series and updates of previous characters and couples.
HEA.
August 9, 2019
I enjoyed this story more than the first book in the series. But towards the end I was annoyed with the heroine. Every side character was telling Jackson he was in the wrong but to me it felt like he had nothing to apologize for.
October 14, 2019
Great story!
This one was great just like #1! Loved his grunts and that she figured out what they meant! This is turning into a great series! Lots of sex and cussing though which really for this storyline.
This one was great just like #1! Loved his grunts and that she figured out what they meant! This is turning into a great series! Lots of sex and cussing though which really for this storyline.
February 23, 2021
Kate
A woman whose world is turned upside down finds the guy who has wanted to be with her since high school but circumstances didn't allow and now they are tossed together and things get hot.
A woman whose world is turned upside down finds the guy who has wanted to be with her since high school but circumstances didn't allow and now they are tossed together and things get hot.
January 12, 2024
Great Plot
Fantastic read. Loved the storyline. Kate and Jackson have so much chemistry. Loved how there was a past brought to the present. Looking forward to reading more by this author.
Fantastic read. Loved the storyline. Kate and Jackson have so much chemistry. Loved how there was a past brought to the present. Looking forward to reading more by this author.
February 26, 2019
A really great book. Loved Jackson and Kate
June 27, 2019
Love a series that follows friends
I love a series that follows a group of friends. I enjoy the Alaska references. This is a quick, heartwarming read.
I love a series that follows a group of friends. I enjoy the Alaska references. This is a quick, heartwarming read.
Read
February 21, 2019Fun series! Great characters!
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