JUSTIFIED
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Western
Series: Loveless, Texas #1
Author: N.E. Henderson
Release Date: June 25, 2019
The New York Times bestselling author of the Marked Men series delivers a romance about a rugged Texas sheriff who must protect the woman who was once his sworn enemy…
Case Lawton comes from a family of criminals. So as the sheriff of Loveless, Texas, he’s determined to do everything by the book–until he’s called to Aspen Barlow’s office after a so-called break-in. The last thing he wants to do is help the woman who cost him custody of his son. But Aspen isn’t the heartless lawyer Case remembers, and he starts to question his long-held grudge…
Aspen is scared for her life, and Case is her last hope for protection. But to get him on her side, she’ll have to reveal the painful truth from all those years ago. Now, as they work together to track down a dangerous criminal, Case and Aspen learn to trust each other. And as the threats escalate, it becomes clear there’s a thin line between love and hate… because there’s nothing Case wouldn’t do to keep her safe.
She was the last woman I should have my hands on, but she was the only one who could make me lose all sense of reality.
I love a good enemies to lovers romance, and boy did this book bring it. I will admit, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve read a Jay Crownover book and I’m not even sure why. I forgot just how much I missed her writing until I dove into this one. Having said that, while there’s some carryover from her other series, I had no problems diving right in.
This starts out with a real bang with Aspen representing Case’s ex wife in their divorce settlement. She’s a phenomenal lawyer, but she can barely stifle the guilt over her skill at her job being responsible for the woman getting full custody rights from the man that’s devoted to his son. It’s been years since that moment, but Case has never forgiven her and the animosity has only grown. You can’t help but feel for Aspen. She was the awkward new girl that fell for the town’s golden boy in high school. Only to be the object of his anger years later.
A lot of things have changed over the years. Case now has full custody of his 17 year old son and Aspen is dealing with a divorce of her own supposed perfect. But when her office gets trashed and her life seems to be in danger, none other that sheriff Case can get to the bottom of it. But protecting her also forces them to finally deal with all the years of pain and anger between them and to finally give into the passion that’s been brewing right along it.
The beginning is a bit of a slow build and there’s a lot of backstory that fills the pages, but I really enjoyed that part. I loved seeing Case’s anger slowly defrost and the cloud of judgement begin to dissipate until he sees Aspen for the woman she really is.
There’s a lot of story that’s set up here for some secondary characters that I’m already chomping at the bit to get books for (especially one particular MC). There’s plenty of action and suspense to play along with the evolving romance, and I devoured it. The only quibble I had was with the ending. There’s a certain twist that happens that seemed just way too OTT and grand for be to fully buy into it, especially taking all the other dynamics into account. It felt more like shock value rather than a true twist to me, and it took away from my engrossment of the story a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it immensely and can’t wait for book two, I just could have done with a different twist. But this is an entirely subjective thing and I’ll probably be in the very minority with my thoughts. Either way, I can’t wait for the next book!
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