BACK TO YOU (The Hurley Boys #3) by Lauren Dane-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 26, 2015

Former model Kelly Hurley has finally put the ashes of the past behind her. After a passionate but turbulent marriage to rock star Vaughan Hurley that ended in heartbreak and divorce, Kelly rebuilt her life in Portland, where she settled so their two young daughters could be close to their father. Just not so close Kelly couldn’t truly make her own way without interference from the man who shattered her heart. Now Kelly’s finally ready to move on, and she’s planning to marry another man.

But not if Vaughan has anything to say about it.

Vaughan knows he was a fool all those years ago. A young, selfish—and prideful—fool. Even as he buried himself in the fast, decadent rock star lifestyle, he could never drown out the memory of Kelly’s beauty and love. Or the sweet, searing heat whenever they touched. For years, he’s had to deal with the pain of seeing her only because of their daughters, but it was never enough. Now Vaughan must prove that he’s the only man Kelly needs, before he loses her for good. And there’s only one way to do it….

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REVIEW: BACK TO YOU is the third and final installment in Lauren Dane’s adult, contemporary Hurley Boys romance series focusing on the Hurley brothers and their rock band Sweet Hollow Ranch. This is former model Kelly Hurley and rock star Vaughan Hurley’s second chance storyline. Divorced eight years earlier Vaughan and Kelly have been dancing around one another throughout the series. BACK TO YOU can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Kelly and Vaughan) BACK TO YOU follows the rekindling of the relationship between our leading couple. Eight years earlier Kelly handed Vaughan his walking papers after finding her husband in a compromising position with a band groupie. Fast forward eight long years wherein Kelly had to give up her life as a runway model, and raise two daughters all by herself. Although Vaughan has continued to be a part of his daughters’s lives throughout the years, he wants his family back together, and begging his ex-wife’s forgiveness is only the start. When the eldest daughter is hospitalized, Vaughan offers to help in her recovery, in the hopes of getting closer to the family he wants back in his life.

The prior relationship between our couple has already been established but BACK TO YOU reveals the events leading up to Vaughan and Kelly’s marriage breakdown and how years of lies have placed Kelly in the role of heartbreaker and villain. Vaughan hadn’t told the truth about what happened between him and his wife, and in this, Vaughan’s family detested everything about our heroine.

Kelly is reluctant to have Vaughan back in her life: they married young, and the seduction of the rock and roll lifestyle claimed the man with whom she had fallen in love. Our heroine also has issues with self-esteem and a stage-mother who has yet to relinquish control. Before Kelly gives her heart back to Vaughan, she insists that he understands the errors of his way. The $ex scenes are intimate, provocative and hot without the erotic nature and content. Vaughan and Kelly never had a problem when it came to $ex. But saying that, I didn’t quite feel the heat or attraction. There was something almost too sterile about the couple’s reconnection.

The colorful secondary and supporting characters include Vaughan’s older brothers and members of the band Ezra and Paddy, as well as their girlfriends Tuesday and Natalie. Sharon and Michael Hurley, Vaughan’s parents, struggle with their son’s marriage and eventual divorce, and Sharon continued to spout poison throughout most of the story.

Reading BACK TO YOU I struggled slightly with the timeline as some of the events appeared to run parallel to events in book two BROKEN OPEN and therefore there was some confusion as it pertained to action in both books. I tried to get confirmation from the author, but I did not get a response. So, for all intents and purposes, I will say that books 2 and 3 run parallel to one another until I hear otherwise.

BACK TO YOU is a storyline that focuses on the destruction of a marriage and the fall out between family and in-laws when the truth is kept hidden for far too long. Kelly and Vaughan had never stopped loving one another but past transgressions destroyed any hope for Kelly’s trust. Lauren Dane blends betrayal with heartbreak; forgiveness and letting go; there was very little conflict and no additional anxious moments that required resolution.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE
The Hurley Boys #1
by Lauren Dane
Release Date:August 26, 2014

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 26, 2014

She has complete control… and he’s determined to take it away

A librarian in the small town of Hood River, Natalie Clayton’s world is very nearly perfect. After a turbulent childhood and her once-wild ways, life is now under control. But trouble has a way of turning up unexpectedly—especially in the tall, charismatically sexy form of Paddy Hurley….

And Paddy is the kind of trouble that Natalie has a taste for.

Even after years of the rock and roll lifestyle, Paddy never forgot the two wickedly hot weeks he once shared with Natalie. Now he wants more… even if it means tempting Natalie and her iron-grip control. But there’s a fine line between well-behaved and misbehaved—and the only compromise is between the sheets!

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BROKEN OPEN
The Hurley Boys #2
by Lauren Dane
Release Date: November 25, 2014

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Click HERE for Sandy’s review of BROKEN OPEN

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 25, 2014

Beyond passion. And beyond their control…

Five years ago, Tuesday Eastwood’s life collapsed and left her devastated. After an empty, nomadic existence, she’s finally pieced her life back together in the small Oregon town of Hood River. Now Tuesday has everything sorted out. Just so long as men are kept for sex, and only sex…

Then she met him.

Musician and rancher Ezra Hurley isn’t the man of Tuesday’s dreams. He’s a verboten fantasy—a man tortured by past addictions, whose dark charisma and long, lean body promise delicious carnality. But this craving goes far beyond chemistry. It’s primal. It’s insatiable. And it won’t be satisfied until they’re both consumed, body and soul…