December 12, 2019

There are several books out there (and have been for a long time) that feature 20-something-year-old characters who think they know everything there is to know about life and romance. Of course they don’t, which is where the conflict in those books occurs.

However, there seems to be a growing trend of having a senior-citizen character (or a few of them) as guidance for the young lovers, and I could not applaud this facet more! I love when there is a feisty grandma type who slyly offers her wisdom to the characters, helping them down their path. Edna fits solely in this category, and I just loved her.

The other side of having senior citizens is that it gives dimension to the younger characters as well. I loved that both Aiden and Lizzie enjoyed the trivia at the senior center. That is something I would have done, and it made both of them even more relatable.

I also enjoyed Lizzie’s bad dates; there was one that was a particular doozy (loved the waiter’s part in it). I thought Aiden showed his true colors most when he was picking up the pieces of Lizzie’s most current lousy date. This was a lovely friends-to-lovers romance, and I would definitely recommend it.

This is the only MC series that I have ever found myself enjoying. I think the author does a fantastic job of portraying the MC life (not that I have anything to compare it to, but I imagine it to be accurate based on a few friends’ experiences).

One of the things I appreciate most about this series, however, is that the characters never enter into stereotype or cartoonish territory. If anything, the male members of the Red Dragons are the antithesis of what one would normally think of when asked to describe someone in an MC. (But I guess that’s the point of these types of books, right? That these guys are not all toughness but have real feelings…)

I do like the recurring theme (carried here by Archer) of the need to protect. There is something so satisfying in reading about a man who has that instinct – even when he feels he should be fighting it due to other conflicts.

In terms of this installment, I also liked that Emily was not really a part of the Red Dragons. She didn’t have the ties that previous heroines in the series did but was still linked. I thought that added an interesting facet to the story.

I also appreciated the continuation of the war with Pops. That has been a driving force through the series, and it was interesting to see Emily’s role in the whole situation. And the end? You won’t see it coming. (No spoilers here, as usual).

I think romance and suspense are balanced nicely in this series and would recommend starting at the beginning to fully grasp the scope of the world created by the author.

Author Bio:
Heather Van Fleet is a stay-at-home-mom turned book boyfriend connoisseur. She’s married to her high school sweetheart, a mom to three girls, and in her spare time you can find her with her head buried in her Kindle, guzzling down copious amounts of coffee.

Heather graduated from Black Hawk College in 2003 and currently writes Adult contemporary romance. She is published through Sourcebooks Casablanca with her Reckless Hearts series and Bookouture with her Red Dragon series.