Friday, July 29, 2016

SHANNON'S FIVE+ STAR REVIEW: A FIELD GUIDE TO CATCHING CRICKETS

A FIELD GUIDE TO CATCHING CRICKETS
BY
A. WILDING WELLS

AMAZON PURCHASE



The soul is not where it lives, but where it loves. 

A countryside ranch, naughty notes and a neighbor boy. Kissing in silos and skinny dipping under a full moon. Ten years gone. An ocean, a tragedy...secrets and buried things. Letting go and hanging on. Remembering to forget. 

My reality became his nightmare, but then my nightmare became reality. 

Hawke Slater was not only my brothers’ best friend, he was a tender, sweet country boy. I never wanted to leave, but there was no choice for me. Two things kept my soul alive, and I’m hanging onto hope that one might be an option for my future. 

I wish none of it had been my fault, but it was. 

Sloan Story McQueen has returned. Why would I hold out an ounce of hope that she’d want me once she finds out what I do for a living. Some call it obscene, but I’m just chasing storms and rainbows. 

She’s holding onto something big. If only it were me. 

This novel contains adult content and is not intended for sensitive readers.

AMAZON BUY LINK: http://amzn.to/2a9nv3a



SHANNON'S 5 + STAR REVIEW:


A Field Guide to Catching Crickets
By A. Wilding Wells

5+ THIS IS WHY I READ STARS

This is the first book by A. Wilding Wells that I’ve read, that being said, I will be buying all others that she’s released and will release. I came across a giveaway for a signed paperback and was like “Oh, this sounds like my kind of book”. It had a southern tone (ponds, crickets, barns, cows), it’s the friends to lovers trope we all love so much, and some angst; but it’s so much more, y’all. It’s funny, it’s heart breaking, it’s tangible and life like. The writing is beyond superb. The characters are so in depth and so well developed. The whole time I was reading - I was there with them, I could see everything so clearly and feel every feeling and emotion that the characters were feeling.

Sloan McQueen had to be a tough girl growing up with four brothers and guy best friend. She and Hawke Slater were inseparable from the time they were young kids to the day she ripped his heart out at eighteen. She was moving to Amsterdam with her grandmother to go to school, that’s the story she gave Hawke that tearful night. For ten years he believed it but now his Cricket, Sloan to the rest of us, is going back home. She wasn’t sure what she was going back to, though. She was hoping that maybe she was going home to his heart but ten years was a hell of a long time.

Hawke Slater loved that girl with every fiber of his being, he couldn’t wait to see her again after ten years. He knew there were obstacles in his way such as his illustrious career but surely that would be the most damaging obstacle, right? He knows she’s changed, he can see it in her eyes and her face. Though, still beautiful, he knows she damaged and hurt. With ten years comes a lot of baggage and things to work through but you can’t work through them if you don’t know what the problems are and Sloan was keeping her ten years close to her heart. Hawke was ready to face the problems head on and right then. Sloan, she knew they needed to work through them but she wanted to do it at her own pace.

Hawke, y’all, is hands down one of the best BBF’s I’ve read. He’s all alpha, he’s strong, caring, kind, has a great heart, full of patience (10 years taught him that), and full of love. He knows what he wants and he goes after it but Sloan keeps pushing him away because she’s not ready to divulge all her secrets. Hawke’s an open book but Sloan is a locked diary. Those secrets she’s locked away will either push him further away than she’s already pushed him herself or it will pull him closer to her so he can help her pick up the pieces and put her life back together. Which will it be???


FAVORITE QUOTES:

“You’re all over me. Inside and out. When I run, I feel your breath filling my lungs. When I bathe, it’s your hands washing me, soft and wandering. When I cry, my tears are about you, us, and how I want you, need you, love you. Still.”

“This feeling I have for you, I can’t shut it off. Damn thing won’t leave me alone. Keeps me awake, follows me everywhere. It’s relentless in it’s pursuit.” “Of what?” she asks. “Of my hear. Fuck, Sloan – my heart.”

“Don’t be afraid to love me again.”

“I want to strip you down to your thoughts, want to hear your naked words. I want you heart exposed and defenseless.”