Review: Games of the Heart by Kristen Ashley

Title:  Games of the Heart
Author:  Kristen Ashley
Series:  The Burg, #4
Publisher:  N/A
Release Date:  March 16, 2012
Pages:  kindle edition, 594
Rating:  

 
From the balcony of his house, Mike Haines can see the quiet, commonplace beauty of the Holliday farm. But what he remembers is the little sister of his high school girlfriend, Dusty who grew up there. As a teen, Dusty had gone off the rails but when she was a kid, she was sweet, she was funny and she had a special bond with Mike. But after high school, she took off and Mike never saw her again.

Then tragedy strikes Dusty's family, she comes back into town and Mike thinks she hasn't changed back to the sweet, funny girl he knew but instead continued to be selfish and thoughtless, leaving her family alone to deal with their mourning. So he seeks her out and confronts her in an effort to understand what went wrong and to force her to sort herself out.

He finds out quickly he's wrong about Dusty Holliday. Very wrong. And right after Mike discovers that, the bond they had years before snaps back into place in ways he would never suspect.

But Mike Haines had a bad marriage then he played games of the heart for a good woman. And lost. In order to protect himself and his kids, he's cautious, he's careful to read the signs and he's not interested in finding a woman he has to fix.

Then he learns what happened to Dusty and he thinks she needs to be fixed. He swings, he misses and in this new game of hearts, for Dusty, Mike just got strike three.

After reading At Peace, Joe Callihan's book I had been introduced to Mike Haines and I fell hard for him. I was so in love with him and was super excited to read GAMES OF THE HEART! Mike and Dusty have known each other since they were kids and Mike had dated Dusty's sister, Debbie, who is a total bitch. But Mike and Dusty had always had a thing for each other. Mike is Dusty's first love. They meet again at Dusty's brother, Darrin's funeral and decide to get into a relationship with each other and see how it goes.

“Are you asking me to marry you, honey?” “No, I’m tellin’ you by the end of this year you’ll be wearing my rings, bearing my name and, probably, pregnant with my baby.”

What I liked about GAMES OF THE HEART is all the drama going on and also the characters. Mike & Dusty were awesome! Kudo's to Dusty for being on of the best heroine's in KA books. She's totally got that likable heroine personality going for her! Mike was bad ass, as far as Kristen Ashley's men go, but he has nothing on Joe Callihan! There's a lot of drama going on all around with Mike's ex-wife Audrey, Dusty's ex-boyfriend, Beau and the fact that Darrin is dead and they are dealing with that and Dusty's bitch of a sister is trying to sell Darrin's farm which belongs to his son, Fin now.

“As I’m concerned, Fin, you did not fuck up. Those boys didn’t touch my daughter. So the way I see it, as her man, you did your job.”

We also have a side romance of Fin and Reesee. I thought at times the this teenage romance was fun to read about. At other times I thought we had so much drama going on in Mike and Dusty's life. I enjoyed all the characters though. They were fun and loving. I will say that I didn't dig the Epilogue at the end of the book. I'm happy to know that seven years later Reesee and Fin get married, but this Mike and Dusty's book. I felt like they should've gotten attention at the Epilogue and that it shouldn't have been seven years later. But that's just me. I wasn't a fan of how it ended. Was a good read but no way better than Joe Callihan's book! Still looking forward to the next book!