Blog Tour and Giveaway: Save Me From Me: Erika Ashby
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Dani refuses to lose another parent due to her absence from their life. After pulling herself back together following the death of her father, she moves back to her childhood town to live with her mom. She’s slowly pulled back into the lifestyle she worked so hard to get away from ten years ago. She accepts that this is the life she has always been destined to live. Getting a job at the store down the road and hooking back up with her first love Gage, seems to be the logical way to go…that is until she meets Holden Reynolds.
Now that Holden is finally back home from the Navy he plans on following in his father’s footsteps. Still trying to move on from the one woman who had his heart, he busies himself in work and returning to the country boy lifestyle he’s always loved. The best way to get over someone is to get under someone, right? That’s his mindset as he travels town to town with his job perfectly content with being a rambling man…that is until he meets Danielle Brooks.
When Dani isn't leaving and Holden isn't staying will they be able to keep themselves from getting too attached? Or will they be just what each other needs to cut all the strings that have them bound?
“You can’t save me from me, Holden.” -Dani
This is a stand alone spin-off of The Timing is Everything Series where Holden was introduced.
This is a stand alone spin-off of The Timing is Everything Series where Holden was introduced.
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"It's funny how just one person can change your outlook on life, and everything in between."
Ten years ago Dani went off in search of something more than small town life. She left behind a broken hearted Gage. Holden also left his home ten years ago nursing his own broken heart when his cousin moved in on his best friend and secret crush. Now Dani is getting used to being back home, reconnecting wiht Gage, and getting to know the new guy in town, Holden.
Dani is spunky and tough and stands up to whoever she needs to. She feels like her life has been wasted and is not sure what she really wants to do with it. She just knows she needs to stay home now and take care of family needs. But she could be depressing at times with her "poor pitiful I hate my life routine."
Gage has always been stuck in the same town due to family obligations. He never got over losing Dani, but he has also changed over the years and has some secrets.
Holden is not living life he wants either. He is doing what his Dad wants him to for his company. So he has had a somewhat nomadic lifestyle after returning from the Marines. He had not really done relationships after having his heart broken.
So begins a love triangle tied in with friendship, lust, and love.
I liked Holden when we met him in Moving Forward and knew I wanted him to get his own happy ending since she went through so much with Jesika. Holden and Dani had a very interesting first meeting. Subsequent interactions showed their witty rapport and easy connection. They seemed to understand each other and had similar issues. It was nice that even though it was insta-lust, it wasn't insta-love. Their relationship had a realistic timetable. I did like them together. They were sweet, had chemistry, and a witty rapport.
I liked the characters and the message, but I had some problems with the pacing. The first part was kind of slow as things developed and was calm, depressing, and became sweet. But at times I found myself distracted and just waiting for something more to happen. But then around sixty percent the pacing changed and all of a sudden there were multiple issues with multiple people. There was so much going on and it seemed like with some of the issues that the resolutions happened pretty easily. So the last part was full of angst and drama with some parts feeling rushed.
Ultimately this book was about the characters finding themselves, taking chances, and going after what they wanted. They had to learn to be responsible for their own happiness and that they could not always save everyone else. They were all kind of stuck doing that and it had repercussions for them all. But their paths were difficult and they had to face issues separately and together in order for them to figure out what was most important. Although Holden is a spin-off character from her Timing is Everything series, this can be read as a stand alone since the author explains his history that we know from the other series.
Thanks to Erika Ashby for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Save Me From Me is a story of two people who are lost on the roads of their lives. Through the book, they both have a lot of personal issues to sort through before they can really be able to commit to another person. The challenges they face in the book are a direct result of their pasts catching up to them and their initial reactions to events that happen prior to the beginning of the book.
Dani is an independent girl who has been making her own choices and living her life as she chooses for the last ten years. The youngest of four siblings, she takes it on herself to solve everyone's problems and feels like if she is not involved everything will fall apart. Returning to her hometown after 10 years, she faces people and situations she thought she had left behind. She is determined not to let anyone in her life down, and feels like her leaving town led to her father's death. Now that she's back, she has to contend with the siblings she doesn't get along with and the ex-boyfriend who has been waiting for her to come back.
Holden was introduced briefly in Moving Forward. Having waited too long to tell his best friend he was in love with her, Holden is recovering from a broken heart. Working for his father, he is never in one place long before moving on to the next job site. But he knows this job and life is not what he wants long term, he just hasn't figured out what he wants now that he can't have Jesika.
Holden and Dani have chemistry from the very beginning, even though they don't actually speak during their first meeting. And what a meeting it was. I couldn't help laughing out loud while I read that scene, and as far as meetings go, it was epic. But between them are so many obstacles, that at times I wanted to pull out my hair in frustration because I just wanted them to be happy and be together.
Overall this was a fairly quick, light read. I really wanted to love this book, but finished just liking it. Everything I had read and heard prior to reading made me excited to get to it on my to-read list. I don't know if it was just that it took a very long time to connect with Dani, but something was missing. It took until almost 60% before I really felt invested in the characters and continuing the story. Until that point my heart just wasn't in the reading. Even after that point I had several points where I wanted to roll my eyes at the speed that several of the conflicts resolved themselves, and actions that felt more plot driven than character driven.
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Being born an "Army Brat",
Erika Ashby has been residing in Oklahoma the last 10 years finally putting an
end to the nomad tendencies she had grown accustomed to. She's a happily
married woman who has 5 kids between her and her husband. She has an insane
passion for music and embraces her Inner Groupie any chance she has. It wasn't
until the age of 29 that she realized she also had a hidden passion for
reading; before then she claimed to have hated it. Six months after unlocking
that deep desire she never knew she held, she turned the key to another chapter
of her life which has become the desire to write. And the rest is still history
in the making.
Kindle Fire HD (US ONLY!)
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