Globug Needs a Book: A Risk Worth Taking {Reveiw & Giveaway}

A Risk Worth Taking by Heather Hildenbrand

Accendo Press - October 2013

New Adult Contemporary

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review

BOOK SUMMARY:

When 22-year-old Summer Stafford’s parents split halfway through her senior year at college, Summer’s world is rocked. Everything she thought she knew—heck, everything she thought she wanted for her own life—feels like a lie. The truth is love is a risk. And the true kind, the kind that lasts, might even be a fairy tale.

Reeling from the divorce, Summer derails her own future by breaking up with her parent-approved boyfriend and giving up her lifelong plans for a big-city career. She moves back home, business degree in hand. Dad needs her to fill the gaps her mother left behind; Summer needs to find who she is outside of the cookie-cutter life that failed so miserably for her parents.

Ford O’Neal’s future involves one person: himself. He doesn’t have a permanent address and he definitely doesn’t commit. To a place or a person. Raised by hippies, he plans just far enough ahead to secure his next stop, this one landing him at a work-study program at Heritage Plantation where he can grow his own herbal and medicinal creations.

Globug's Take:

If you think about it, most of us imagined finding love as this romantic and poetic journey to finding the person that will bring epic emotion and completion to our soul. I don't remember ever being warned about the work and actual commitment it would involve in making that love last the rest of my life. In this story, Summer thought her parents had the perfect marriage. Surely she could recognize love when she found it. Then without warning her mother leaves and files for divorce. And just like Summer, you won't find out the truth behind her mothers leaving until near the end of the book. Yes, my imagination went wild with possibilities of her motivation to leave Summer's dad after decades of marriage.

Summer loses all faith in lasting love. She's determined to help her father overcome the devastated depression he must be in and return home to help run the plantation. But in truth, she is the one that's devastated and depressed.He's doing just fine. She turn's her back on relationships and is determined that love is not worth the risk of being hurt. Summer wasn't expecting the delicious hunk of man by the name of Ford to walk into the picture. I loved how everyone around her could instantly see the chemistry and desire between these two. You will love the banter between Summer and her childhood best friend Casey. They grew up together like brother and sister.

Ford is just as emotionally unavailable as Summer. He too had parents that seemed to have the perfect relationship. Though his parents remain happily married, Ford doesn't want to repeat his father's history of having a wife and kids before really living out his dreams. So he is determined to live life to the fullest (sow his wild oats) without commitment, a no strings attached kind of man.

The sexual tension was intense at times (YAY!!). One is ready and willing for the no-strings-mind-blowing-sex and the other isn't sure there can be no strings. Passion wins over the battle of will to resist. Neither expects to lose their heart. Both characters realize they have to let go of their misconceptions about their parents relationships and follow their own hearts. My heart broke when they didn't come to their conclusions at the same time. Men can be pretty dim sometimes. The happy ending does come though. Of course it's after the characters learn that love is A Risk Worth Taking ♥

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Author Bio

Heather Hildenbrand was born and raised in a small town in northern Virginia where she was homeschooled through high school. She now lives in coastal VA, a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean, with her two adorable children. She works from home, part time, as a property manager and when she's not furiously pounding at the keyboard, or staring off into space whilst plotting a new story, she's lying on the beach, soaking in those delicious, pre-cancerous rays.

Heather loves Mexican food, hates socks with sandals, and if her house was on fire, the one thing she'd grab is her DVR player.

Heather is a co-founder of Accendo Press, a publishing group she operates with fellow authors: Angeline Kace and Jennifer Sommersby. Accendo (a-CH-endo), A Latin word, means “to kindle, illuminate, inflame, or set fire.” This is something Accendo strives to do inside a reader’s imagination with every title released. For a complete list of titles and author bios, visit www.accendopress.com.