Review: Two of Hearts

Title:  Two of Hearts
Author: Christina Lee
Published: 5-5-15, NAL Trade
Genre: Adult Contemporary 

       5 Hearts

Blurb

Dakota Nakos was always the resilient, strong-willed achiever. But when her father dies and she’s entrusted with the family’s casino, she feels vulnerable, scared, and more than a little emotional —not exactly the best time to see an old lover she’s never really gotten over.

Dakota once meant the world to Shane Garrity. Then suddenly he left town to train as a U.S. Marshal, and their love for each other crashed into a memory. Now he’s come home for her father’s funeral, and one look at the girl he left behind stirs up both memories and regrets, and reignites a fire he feared he’d lost forever.

Dakota may be the same driven girl she always was, but she’s also changed in ways neither could have anticipated. She’s not just a young woman searching for own identity in the Native American community in which she was raised, but one questioning her new life outside her father’s shadow. Above all she wonders if Shane can push past her weakened defenses to rekindle what they once had, or whether the intense blaze between them will ultimately reduce her heart to ashes.

Review

If you are a fan of Christina Lee’s Between Breaths series, you will love this adult novel, Two of Hearts.  You will see familiar faces in this novel—Rachel and Kai and the Nakos family--and meet some new ones.  We have meet Dakota and Shane briefly in Whisper to Me.  This is now their story to tell.  Dakota is all grown up in this book and Shane has come back to pay respects to her family upon the death of her father. 

Shane and Dakota share a history.  It ended abruptly and left neither of them in a good place. Dakota’s character is very strong, a bit stubborn and full of pride in her heritage.  She is determined to fulfill her father’s legacy, despite the whispers about her throughout the Native American community she lives in.  I loved that she is willing to forgo her feelings for Shane if it would mean being disrespectful to her culture.

Shane is a man full of regret.  He knows now that he should not have left things with Dakota the way he did.  His life is in a crossroads right now, so he decides to take some time to renew old acquaintances and help out some friends.  Shane seems to understand Dakota better than she does herself.  He is not willing to back out of this possible forever relationship.  Now only if he can convince Dakota it is worth the risk.

Dakota: “There was no way I could resist, no way I could walk away not experiencing how he tasted again after all this time.  I leaned into the kiss, my tongue meeting his in small arousing flicks before he thrust past my lips, sliding over my teeth to seize my mouth.”

Ahh, yes…..when these two decide to let down the barriers they have built up between them, it gets very steamy!!  Shane and Dakota are both alpha characters and it takes a bit of a dance for them to figure out that they can work well together. As with all of Ms. Lee’s male characters, Shane is sex on a stick! He knows what Dakota needs and is willing to show her again and again how good they can be together. 

Shane: “I’d feel lost without you.  My lips, my fingers, my skin.  Fuck. Even my damn soul would be lonely for you.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I am a huge fan of the author and she did not disappoint in her venture from NA to adult.  I am looking forward to anything new she offers up.  If you haven’t read the Between Breaths series, be sure to check that out.  This is a stand-alone novel.  You don’t need to have read the other series to be totally in love with the characters in this book. 

*I received and ARC of this book for an honest review.

About the Author

Mother, wife, reader, dreamer. Christina lives in the Midwest with her husband and son--her two favorite guys. 

She's addicted to lip gloss and salted caramel everything. She believes in true love and kissing, so writing romance novels has become a dream job. 

Author of the Between Breaths series from Penguin. ALL OF YOU, BEFORE YOU BREAK, WHISPER TO ME and PROMISE ME THIS available now. Book five in the series, THERE YOU STAND, coming in April, 2015.

Web: www.christinalee.net
Twitter: @Christina_Lee04