“A top must read for 2022” —Samantha Young, New York Times bestselling author

 

Falling Embers, an all-new must read moving romance from Catherine Cowles, is available now!

A friends-to-lovers, brother’s-best-friend, single dad romance with family drama, mystery/suspense, and a whole lot of feels

 

Amazon  |  Amazon Worldwide  |  Apple Books  |  Nook  |  Kobo

 

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Blurb

I’ve loved Calder Cruz from the moment he taught me how to fly. Racing down a mountain and giving me the release I so desperately needed. My understanding. My safe space.

Hadley has fought for a life of her own ever since her sister’s kidnapping. When she was drowning in expectations and family pressures, Calder was always the one who understood her.

Until one night changed it all. From best friends to strangers in a single breath.

She’s like a fire that lives inside me. Even when I thought it was all burned out, there were still embers that lived in my bones.

Calder knows what it’s like to almost lose the people he loves most. He’ll never make that kind of mistake again. Working at the fire station and taking care of his daughters are the only things he needs.

All it takes is a single moment to make him realize how wrong he is. A split second of coming close to losing the woman he has always loved.

But as long-buried embers light anew, there are those who lurk in the shadows. And they’ll do whatever it takes to extinguish that flame for good…

 

 

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Review

4 stars!

The second standalone in the Tattered & Torn series, this is a friends-to-lovers, brother’s-best-friend, single dad romance with family drama, mystery/suspense, and a whole lot of feels. It’s a gorgeous romance between two people that are absolutely meant to be, and I loved it.

In the first book of this series, Tattered Stars, we met Hadley and Calder. Calder is the best friend of Hadley’s older brother and hero of book #1, Hayes, and has always been a part of the family. It was clear from the first time we saw Calder and Hadley together that there was something between them – it wasn’t friendship, but was actually something a bit awkward that alerted us that there is history there, and I was so excited to dive in and experience it all.

Hadley’s whole world was upended when her sister was kidnapped as a child. Shiloh was returned safely to the family, but it sent her mother into over-protective mode, and Hadley grew up being constantly smothered. She longed to experience life, and it came to be that the only time she felt free of the harsh restrictions on her was when Calder took her out to the mountains – hiking, bike riding, whatever she could do to get out of the house and breathe freely.

Now all grown up, Hadley is a paramedic and is out on her own, but she is still stifled by the expectations of her mother, and her outright disapproval over Hadley’s life choices. Which is why she keeps the most important part of her life a secret from her family – Hadley is an extreme sports internet star. It’s her love, her outlet, and the only time she feels truly free, and she revels in anything and everything that gets her adrenaline pumping. The other secret she keeps is her longstanding love for the man who gave it all to her in the first place.

I’d loved Calder Cruz from the moment he’d taught me how to fly. Racing down a mountain and giving me the release I so desperately needed He’d been my understanding and safe space.

Calder and Hadley were the closest of friends. Even though he was best friends with Hayes, he always shared a special connection with Hadley that continued into adulthood. She was there for him through marriage, the birth of his twin daughters, the tragic moment where he almost lost them both, and the dissolution of his unhappy marriage. She’s a huge part of his life, and the lives of his girls. With Calder being a firefighter and Hadley a paramedic, they even work together, but everything changed four years ago when Hadley finally acted on her feelings, Calder brutally rejected her, she was hurt and walked away – not completely, because she’s still absolutely there for his girls, but to protect her heart, she shut herself off from Calder, and it’s been weird between them ever since.

“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Hurting you. You’re the last person I’d ever want to hurt.” He was quiet for a moment, his eyes falling closed. “You were my air.”

But Calder gets a massive wake-up call in one breathtaking moment when he is faced with the prospect of losing Hadley from his life forever. He realises that he can’t run from his feelings any longer, and we get to see him become a man determined to win back the love of his life and make her a part of his life forever.

We had so many things to weed through and untangle. But I wasn’t walking away from Hadley like I had before. Doing that had left me only half-alive. Walking through life but not really living it. That had to change. And Hadley was part of that.

OMG, swoooooon! I love the intensity in a love story when two people who are such clearly soulmates find themselves finally coming together. It’s emotional and passionate, and I love the honesty between these two as they finally pour their hearts out to each other and come together. It’s sexy, sweet and super swoony, and it’s made all the more intense because Hadley is in danger, and Calder moves her right on in, and it’s all on from the very beginning.

“I’ve wanted you for longer than I should’ve. But it’s more than that. You’ve always been more. You own my fucking soul, and I don’t ever want it back.”

And while Hadley, Calder and his girls are finding their place together as a family, there’s a whole lot of drama and suspense swirling around them. Firstly is the drama with Hadley’s mother, which is just heartbreaking. Then she’s being stalked by somebody who follows her extreme sports videos online, and just to top it off, Calder has some family drama of his own when his ex returns to town to reclaim her family. It’s intense, and the threats and danger build throughout the story, bringing shocks and twists. Honestly, it got a little extreme for me, which makes that whole part of the story a bit surreal, and I could have done without some (or all) of it.

But even without all of the excitement, this is a gorgeous love story with wonderful characters, fantastic dynamics, and well-written family drama. I loved catching up with the rest of Hadley’s family (except for her psychopathic mother). I loved seeing Hayes and Everly again, and after spending a bit of time with her other siblings, I am so excited for their stories!

Loved this one – 4 stars.

 

Tattered & Torn

 

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About Catherine

Writer of words. Drinker of Diet Cokes. Lover of all things cute and furry, especially her dog. Catherine has had her nose in a book since the time she could read and finally decided to write down some of her own stories. When she’s not writing she can be found exploring her home state of Oregon, listening to true crime podcasts, or searching for her next book boyfriend.

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