Smutty Sunday: The Will

Just doing one book today I’ve been uber busy and haven’t gotten around to reading a lot. But when Kristen Ashley’s The Will came out, well… I bought it immediately and carved some time out, yeah?

I usually wait to do a review because I need time to process what I’ve read. So many times, my reviews come days, sometimes weeks, after I’ve finished a book.

I couldn’t do that for this book.

I had also highly anticipated this book, ummm, because getting some KA without New York City editing (yes, I AM saying that as if I were in a Pace commercial) is the FREAKING bomb, yo. I tried to read it slow. Before I opened the book, I was worried it wouldn’t be as good. Then once I cracked it open, I was worried it would be over too fast. None of my worries mattered. Once I started, I couldn’t go slow. I tried, y’all. I really, really did.

I couldn’t do that for this book.

I’m also burnt out on NA books and just young acting people in books lately. So I got super excited when I learned these main characters would be older. Not much is new about that. Many of KA’s protagonists are older than the “norm.” I sighed with relief when I read these characters behaving not just like adults, but adults who aren’t irrational, shrewish or complete dicks.

This is VINTAGE Kristen Ashley. All the reasons I LOVED Sweet Dreams and several others were present in this book. I can’t lie to you though, her storyline is tighter than before she mingled with NYC. Her plotting is better. Overall, hanging with the NYC crowd has given VINTAGE KA polish, but what it didn’t do was gut the story and emotions and all the drama and clipped speaking and chin tilting that I have come to know and LOVE about her books.

And don’t get me started on the kids. Dude, very few authors can make so many secondary characters not just come to life, but do in LIVING FUCKING COLOR. It’s a gift. And she has it in abundance. I can’t tell you how many times, I have come to “know” the secondary characters almost as well as the primary ones. And in this book, it just started with the kids. The rest of the cast was just as brilliantly fleshed out.

Did KA stop there? No, boys and girls, she did not. Not only was the story about Jake and Josie a compelling one, there are underlying messages in her books. Here, there are threads of unselfishly loving someone, the redemptive power of love, AND don’t sit around and wait for good shit to happen to you, sometimes a lot of time is wasted when you do. Babies aren’t made, people die, love goes unrequited. All of that. In this book.

So hell yeah. RUN don’t walk to your computer and download this puppy like yesterday.