5 STARS ✮ KRISTEN ASHLEY ✮ SWEET DREAMS

SWEET DREAMS

Colorado Mountain #2

Kristen Ashley

✮✮✮ ALL THE STARS ✮✮✮

Fat.
Old.
Sorry-ass.
Choice words her new boss Tate Jackson has for Lauren. After months on the road looking for a place she'd want to stay she arrives in Carnal, Colorado. A former exec, she starts working as a waitress at Bubba's, a biker bar. When she overhears Tate insulting her she is hurt. She is done letting people like her ex-husband walk over her, she's done adapting to other people's whims and moods. She throws attitude in Tate's beautiful face and holds on to her mammoth grudge.

Tate, bounty hunter/bar keeper and owner/ex-cop/ex-pro-football player, was sure that Lauren Grahame wouldn't fit into his bar. Too high-class, too pretty, too much of everything. But still, her hair, her legs, her attitude and pretty face, it all draws him to her. She has the attention of the local bikers and is popular with the bar's crowd. He knows when he comes back from chasing a skip he wants her on the back of his bike. When a serial killer makes a re-appearance in Carnal Tate's need to protect Laurie becomes his focus.

“It isn't that it's too soon, you're on the back of my bike, it ain't too soon. You can buy sheets. You cannot install blinds."
"um..." I mumbled. "Can you explain the difference?"
"Sheets are chick territory," he said without delay. "You gotta use tools, that's dick territory."
"Oh," I whispered.
"Don't tread on dick territory," he advised.”

Nobody in the book world, NOBODY writes alpha males better than Kristen Ashley. Tate is my guy, he is and has always been my favorite KA-hero. That being said, I am not through with her back list, yet so who knows!

Tate is a bossy, over-protective and possessive guy and many times you just want to kick him because he has a temper that turns him into an asshole. But the good outweighs that by far. He has a sweet that is irresistible, is resolute and strong-willed.

“His forehead dropped to touch mine. “I’m gonna piss you off ‘cause I can be a dick. That’s who I am. And you’re gonna piss me off ‘cause, babe, you got attitude. That’s who you are. And that’s who we’re comin’ out to be together. And I’m all right with that because, with what I had before, even when you’re a bitch, I like it. But when you’re not, it’s a sweetness the like I’ve never tasted.”

He sets his sight on something, he goes after it, no holds barred. I loved that you never had to guess his feelings, they were always out there even though the story was mostly written from Laurie's POV.

“Two kinds of women get under your skin. The ones who do damage, they don't feel good there but once you're fuckin' stupid enough to let them in you got no choice but to take the time it takes to work them out. Then there are the ones who don't do damage, who feel good there, feed the muscle, the bone, the soul, not rip it or break it or burn it. The ones you don't wanna work out.” - Tate

Yeah, that Tate Jackson is so amazing because he is flawed. Also, his relationship with his son is so sweet, the way a man treats his son? When it's that sweet it you can bid farewell to your ovaries.

Laurie is a wonderful character. She has that vibe that whatever bothers you, whatever you need you can count on her. She has that open personality that draws people in and makes them do things for her to please her. But she is also stubborn and that is where she locks horns with Tate, because that guy has invented stubborn. Laurie can also hold a grudge like no other and spends a lot of time in her head when she does. I loved how she paid attention to the people she loved.

Sweet Dreams has everything, humor, suspense, romance in tons and lovable main and side characters. And Jesus, Tate's dirty mouth...*fans herself*

“You buy me sheets. You paint my room. What's next? You gonna wash my balls?" -Tate

This is - so far - my favorite Kristen Ashley book and I've read a lot by this author. Every single one of her stories has a special place in my heart but this one is on a pedestal. I have it on good authority that At Peace from Ms Ashley's The Burg series might contest that spot! We'll see.

Sweet Dreams is the second installment of the Colorado Mountain series and can be read as a standalone.