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Review

3 stars

This is the third and final book in the Shooting Stars series, a sweet and heartfelt friends-to-lovers romance that is emotional and swoony, with a gorgeous alpha hero.

This book can absolutely be read as a standalone, but in a fun twist, Aubrey is the daughter of Zach, and step-daughter of Shelby from book #2 in the series, Wide Open Spaces.

Aubrey and Denver were close friends as teenagers. She always hoped for more (and secretly, so did he), but on the night when everything was about to change, she had her heart broken, and ended up turning to another of her friends, Gabe, forming a relationship which went on to become a happy marriage. But then Gabe became sick and died shortly after, leaving Aubrey alone and devastated, and unexpectedly pregnant. Years later, she is the single mother to an adorable 4-year-old daughter, and Denver has been a part of both of their lives since the moment Lyra was born. He’s been there for everything, just waiting for his chance to claim the woman he has always thought of as his. Now that time has come.

It’s a good set-up, but moves pretty quickly so we don’t get the chance to get attached to Gabe or feel Aubrey’s grief, which I actually didn’t mind because I wasn’t in the mood to have my heart ripped out. We don’t get much backstory on Aubrey and Denver either, but the book is written in dual POV so it’s easy to see how much they mean to each other, and how Denver has loved her his whole life. He has been patient with her, allowing her time to grieve and move on, and when he gets that first hint that she is ready, he’s all up in her business declaring his intentions.

“Let me go.”
“No.” He growls with a shake of my hand, and I look into his eyes.
“You don’t want, or need me to let go. One of us needs to fight for this, Bree. And until you’re ready to start fighting, that person is me.”

Aubrey is reluctant to go there with Denver. She’s definitely feeling it, in fact, she’s loved him for years, even during her marriage, but she’s feeling torn – not wanting to disrespect her late husband (even though she already kinda did by loving Denver even while they were married, but let’s just skip over that), and terrified of losing herself in what she knows will be an all-consuming love. There’s some back and forth, which could have become really annoying, but Denver isn’t the kind of guy to let things get angsty, so instead we get her pushing him away, and him refusing to let go, and that’s always an entertaining dynamic.

“You’re an asshole.”
“An asshole you’re in love with. You need to come to terms with that, Bree, ‘cause like I said before, you and I are going to find a way to work this out.”

I did find Aubrey kind of annoying. Her reasons for pushing Denver away were weak, so thank God they were short-lived. And I did have to wonder, if Denver was so in love with Aubrey in the past, why didn’t he fight for her back when they were teenagers? But the story moves along pretty quickly, and once they finally found their groove (thanks to Denver’s persistence), Ienjoyed him and his swoony declarations.

“I’ve never felt what I feel for you with anyone else. And I know… I fucking know, down to my fucking gut, that this…this is worth fighting for. This is worth everything.”

Little Lyra is a cutie, and her relationship with Denver is adorable.  We also get to see quite a bit of Zach and Shelby, now older and well settled into life together, which was lovely.

There is some drama external to the relationship which seemed to come out of nowhere. Was it necessary? Probably not, but it adds a bit of intensity to the end of the book and shows the strength of Aubrey and Denver as a couple.

I didn’t connect to this one as much as I was hoping. I wanted to get swept up in the romance, and while I did enjoy it, I didn’t feel it like I wanted to. I listened to this as an audiobook, which honestly wasn’t great and probably didn’t help my lack of connection to the story. Catherine F. Edwards reads Denver and Aubrey ok, if a bit robotic, but she does really bizarre voices for the side characters, which I found really distracting.

Still a good read though, with a satisfying ending, and I’m glad I completed the series.

3 stars.

 

Shooting Stars