My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Title: Ace’s Wild
Author: Sarah McCarty
Series: Hell’s Eight, #7
Pages: 416
Publisher: HQN Books
Date: January 27, 2015
Summary:
When you gamble with desire, be prepared to risk everything……
Unlike the rest of the Hell’s Eight brotherhood, Ace Parker’s home isn’t on the range. This restless cowboy craves the hustle of Simple, Texas, a lawless town where he can sate his darker appetites without guilt. At least he did, until Petunia Wayfield arrived. The prickly new teacher is insisting that Ace help her rid the town of drunkenness and card playing. For that kind of miracle, Ace demands a reward the spinster schoolmarm will surely never give.
But Petunia isn’t backing down. Not when the intense passion Ace offers shatters her to the core. As soon as she can afford a ticket home back east, she’ll leave Simple behind for good. Until then, she’ll match his sensual challenge with her own, daring him to give up his fiercely guarded self-control. And then real danger claims Petunia, forcing Ace to reveal the man he really is—even if it drives her away forever….
Review:
This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Sarah McCarty has done it again. Ace’s Wild, the seventh book in the Hell’s Eight series, is totally satisfying. As in the previous books, there is a strong alpha male and a woman in need of help. This sounds sexist, but the women are strong in their own right. They need help due to circumstances outside of their control.
Which brings me to a focus of Ace’s Wild that I don’t remember from the previous books – social justice – in particular, the lack of support available to women and children who find themselves in a dangerous situation.
Petunia hopes to open a boarding school for children to give them a safe place to live. She is only temporarily in Simple, Texas until she can earn enough money to move to California where she plans to a open a more prestigious school that will serve more children.
Ace does not think he is good enough for “Pet,” but he protects her anyway. He wants her and she wants him, but they are both too stubborn to admit it.
So we have two hardheaded people who both think they know what they want. Add in a kidnapping (a staple in this series), some mild bondage, and interference by good friends and we finally get to a Happily Ever After.
I loved this book and I hate that the series is almost over. I have read Sarah McCarty’s other books – yes, all of them – and they are really good. However, I just have a special place in my heart for the Hell’s Eight. The men are just as damaged by circumstances as the women, but they are good men anyway. You just have to love an alpha male . . . at least the fictional ones.
Elaine Reads . . . constantly! 