We already know Aly's brother and Jared's best friend, Christopher Moore from Come to Me Quietly and Come to Me Softly. He is closed-off, a playboy, and he drinks too much. But when he loves, he loves hard and is protective. His family knows that side of him, but he has only shared that with one girl from his past, but she left him broken and resentful. 

Samantha Schultz is equally as damaged as Christopher over their shared past. She was left shattered, untrusting, and grasping for something to hold onto. She has achieved some of her goals but is living in a life that she is not sure really fits her anymore.

When Samantha is reconnected with her old friends, Aly and Jared, she knows she is playing with fire. She is smart enough to know that rekindling a friendship with his sister will eventually lead her to come face to face with Christopher again. But she just cannot seem to resist Aly and Jared's charms and the forbidden thought of seeing him again.

They are two people broken by a series of events and one relationship. Both see it differently. Both feel wronged and have never really gotten over it. Both have tried to move on in their own ways. She latched onto love and safety that was promised to her and he shut down and  tried to find solace in as many women and bottles as he could while remaining unconnected. But the deep scars from their relationship still run deep and neither really had closure or moved on fully from their past. 

And now that they're back in the same vicinity again, it's bringing all of that pain back to light. Neither of them have the full picture of what happened in their past and both are left with hurt, anger, and resentment. But at the same time it makes them realize how unfulfilling their current lives are and remembering what the spark, passion, and power of real love is. But can they face their past and try to heal and move forward ?

Christopher is an adoring big brother and uncle and he has the capacity to love. He's just turned it off in regards to the opposite sex relationships. He's not going to risk getting hurt again so he just keeps it casual and takes what he needs. And if that doesn't work he finds other ways to cope.

Samantha has built a life with someone else. Ben was waiting in the wings to try to heal her broken heart and she has tried her best to move on with him, but there are problems with their relationship that just inherently can't be fixed and one of them is he is just not Christopher. But she has all sorts of mixed up feelings about her current situation and Christopher's reappearance in her life just magnifies them. But she is also enjoying spending time with her old friends Aly and Jared, but with them also comes Christopher. And Christopher has always been her kryptonite and he is hard to resist.

It is obvious these two have unfinished business and strong feelings. Unfortunately at times they are strong negative feelings due to their past pain, loss, and perceived betrayal. Their story of their teen years  is gradually revealed and is interwoven into their story of reconnection in the present. So there is some mystery about what really broke them apart and left them so angry and hurt. 

They both were stuck and needed to change in their present. They both needed a spark and something to live life fully for. And even when their newly formed bond was tenuous at best, they became a catalyst for change in their current lives that they had not found on their own. They also had to deal with outside influences that affected them both in the past and present, as well as their own demons and pain, trust issues, fears, and mistakes.

Sometimes they could be volatile and intense. But they could also be passionate, sweet, and have an easygoing rapport. They were two people that were deeply connected, but had a lot of baggage to wade through. They both made mistakes and could have communication issues. I will admit that I wanted to shake them both a few times throughout the story. It was convoluted and messy situation and they did not always make the right choices.

I loved getting more with the other characters from this series especially his sister Aly, Jared and little Ella. Also their brother Augustyn, Aly's crazy friend Megan and Jared's sister Courtney. Samantha's brother, Stewart totally grabbed my heart. What a wonderful, special young man. He made me smile so much while also added to the depth of feeling for the story. Some of Jared's past from the previous books bleeds into Christopher's story(but it can be read as a stand-alone since it is explained). Underlying the romance in this book is also the illustration of the importance of a strong foundation and support of family of friends. There were also some antagonists that I wanted to throttle that completely inspired dislike. 

I love this series. A.L Jackson never fails to pull me in, grab my heart, wring out many emotions, and keep me invested. It was told in both Samantha and Christopher's points of view in present and in flashbacks. I have been waiting for Christopher's story and I feel she did him justice. He was a complicated man and she managed to beak down his layers and expose his innermost heart and mind. He was a good guy with some bad boy tendencies, but I really liked him (even when I sometimes wanted to put tape over his mouth to stop him from putting his foot in it).

This was another emotional, heartbreaking, complex story of young love, loss, second chances, healing and hope. It was not an easy path and was sometimes raw and intense, but it was also an intriguing, moving, and engaging one. I would love to see a book for the youngest Moore sibling Augustyn. 

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.

When Christopher Moore and Samantha Schultz run into each other after seven years apart, the pain of their history hits both of them square in the face, and each question everything they have been doing since their high school breakup. 

As the events of the past come out in flashback scenes, it becomes clear that each saw the events surrounding their breakup in completely different terms. And each held on to the pain that was inflicted by the other, even as it blows up in their present. 

I wasn’t crazy about that fact that Samantha is in a relationship with another man nearly the entire duration of the book. Yes, that relationship is obviously not where her heart is, and revelations happen that make her current boyfriend look horrible for his choices and actions, BUT it is hard to look past the fact that she was still in that relationship. 

But as Ben was gone for much of the storyline, it was easy to forget she had a boyfriend and fall in love with the chemistry between Samantha and Christopher. And what could have been between them if things had played out differently when they were sixteen. 

I loved the roles Aly and Jared played in this entire story. They were the friends Samantha needed at some pretty hard times, and were also there to support Christopher in exactly the same way. They adopted Samantha into the family even before the past had begun to be dealt with.

And Samantha’s brother, Stewart, may have been my favorite side character I’ve read in a very long time. His scenes made Samantha stop and think, reconsider, and reflect. And ultimately offered her the pushes she needed to see what was in front of her. (And he both made me laugh and cry, every single time he was on the page.)

This was such a wild, crazy, sweet ride. Young love. Once in a lifetime love. Two people with opposite reputations. Years of hurt and pain between them. While it may not be my favorite of the author’s works, it told this couple’s story perfectly. And my hang-ups have nothing to do with the writing or the individuals, but simply my feelings about books with cheating. So in some ways, my high rating can be seen as an extra compliment, because it takes a lot for me to overlook or look past a storyline with cheating, even if it leads to a happy ending for the main characters. 

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Do you have one of those authors who are an automatic buy? That is A.L. Jackson for me. She is an ultimate favorite of mine; if Amy’s name is on it, you bet your bottom dollar I am reading it. There is no question, in my mind; she is an absolute story telling genius. The worlds she creates wrap you up and hook you along for one hell of an angsty, emotional journey, which is why it utterly kills me to say that Come to Me Recklessly did not work for me. 

Just an FYI, Sam has a boyfriend throughout the book. Granted said boyfriend is a scumbag of epic proportions; nevertheless, he is still her live-in boyfriend. I honestly could not wrap my mind around why she did not leave him to begin with. Cheating does not usually bother me depending on the situation, but this time around it did. I could not justify her staying with that douche bag, especially while she was trying to figure out things with Chris.

Sadly, this duo's dynamic did not jive for me. They were just so angst ridden, which Amy’s well known for, but this time around, the characters did not captivate me. I did not find anything special about their connection or chemistry for me to connect with. Which is surprising, I have never left an A.L. Jackson book without tons of feels and love for at least one of the characters. I love me some angst. In fact, I thrive off it. With these two, there was nothing exceptional for me to feel, other than frustration over their loooooong bout of fight and flight. The harder I tried to connect to their characters the more frustrated I became. 

When I look back and compare Chris and Samantha to Christian and Liz, they unfortunately fall flat. Christian and Liz were FULL of angst, but Christian and his little girl drew me so far into the story I was beyond wrapped up in them. It didn’t matter how much hate I had for Liz, they gave me all kinds of sweet moments that allowed me to experience a myriad of emotions while walking through that land mine of angst. All I felt for Chris and Sam was exasperation. Samantha was a huge runner. We would get a tiny bit of peace and happiness and her indecisiveness would have her running for those damn hills again. 

While I did not enjoy them much as a couple, I did really like them as individuals. I loved seeing their interactions with family and friends, Samantha especially. She was amazing with her brother. The moments between her and Stewart made my heart ache; those were the tender and sweet examples I was looking for between her and Chris. With Stewart, Sam and Chris showed us completely different individuals. If I had to pick my favorite character (outside of Jared) it would most definitely have been Stewart. He was an AMAZING secondary character!! 

Chris and Sam’s issues grew throughout the book due to their lack of MAJOR communication. The fact that they did not talk about anything of importance (meaning them, the current boyfriend, and their past) KILLED ME. If they had just communicated a little bit I think my love or lack thereof for this book would have been much different. Due to this and the lack of chemistry, I felt as though there wasn’t anything to grasp on to other than a whole hell of a lot of angst, cheating, and tension. And all of those eventually became overwhelming. This couple failed to provide me with enough good, happy peaceful moments to balance it all out. Even at 81% there was still no real fulfillment to grasp onto. Come to Me Recklessly had me missing that perfect blend of tension and swoon worthy moments Amy’s characters have never failed to provide. Without that blend, Chris and Sam’s relationship stressed me out and left me feeling overly antsy and wrapped with up with my own anxiety. 

It wasn’t until the last 15% when I felt the emotion I had been waiting to feel regarding these two the entire book. I even got a little teary eyed. I am glad I decided to hang in there and finish the story; Chris and Sam, in the end, finally had me invested in their ever after. 

Outside of Chris and Samantha, one of the things I did really enjoy was getting to spend some time with Jared and Aly again. I loved getting a glimpse of them in a much better place. It made their HEA that much sweeter!

Thank you, PENGUIN GROUP Berkley, NAL / Signet Romance, DAW, for the complimentary copy of Come to Me Recklessly.

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