ARC Review: Jagged by Kristen Ashley

Jagged (Colorado Mountain #5)

by Kristen Ashley

Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

Purchase Links: Amazon  Barnes & Noble

 

Blurb by Goodreads

 

An old flame rekindled . . .

Zara Cinders always knew Ham Reece was the one, but he wasn't interested in settling down. When she found someone who was, Ham walked out of her life. Three years later, Zara's lost her business, her marriage, and she's barely getting by in a tiny apartment on the wrong side of the tracks. As soon as Ham hears about Zara's plight, he's on her doorstep offering her a lifeline. Now, it will take every ounce of will power she possesses to resist all that he offers.

Ham was always a traveling man, never one to settle down in one town, with one woman, for more time than absolutely necessary. But Ham's faced his own demons, and he's learned a lot. About himself, and about the life he knows he's meant to live. So when he hears that Zara's having a rough time, he wants to be the one to help. In fact, he wants to do more than that for Zara. A lot more. But first, he must prove to Zara that he's a changed man.

 

 

 

 

 

Spoil Free Review 

 

I am torn as I am a huge Kristen Ashley fan but Jagged was a disappointment. Right from the start I could not connect with the characters.  Jagged is full of telling and no showing that leads to no chemistry between the characters and the sex scenes flat.  Had to put Jagged down many times and was very hard to pick back up. Scenes felt like they were thrown in, some scenes were just nonsense rambling and lots of scenes felt pushed. 

 

Jagged is shorter than Kristen Ashley older novels and love that it is like this, but it missed it mark having the novel fleshed out nicely. Where did all the sexy alpha males go that are so well fleshed out through  her novels? I love her unique writing style and absolutely love her alpha male heroes and the twist and turns that come with them. She is also known for her corky sidekicks with woman friends and for me they usually work and think they work for me because I am already in love with the alpha male hero by then and so engrossed in the story. In Jagged I would of rather of  have less of them and more of a fleshed out alpha male hero.

 

She is known for sometimes having silly nicknames but Cookie and Ham to date are the worse. Graham Reece is a very sexy name for a hero and I would of rather have his nickname be Reece than Ham.

 

In Jagged and her Chaos series I notice each Chapter starts off with 5 months later, 3 weeks later, 2 days later etc. I am not liking the time line with each chapter. 

 

Kristen Ashley is the Queen of best epilogues and yes some are more my favorite than others but readers do not get this in Jagged. How it continues with Graham and Zara HEA is sweet but felt a little coded and would of loved to have a real epilogue that I have come to love when finishing a Kristen Ashley novel. 

 

I love the idea of the plot but the execution was not happening.  Jagged was very close to becoming a DNF for me but I held on hoping something would wow me and a few times Reece became sexy and would say something smart mouth like her older heroes would do and then that would be it. So for the 2 stars-ok rating Jagged had so much potential to be a good intense read with a sometimes sexy alpha male hero just itching to come out.

 

I still have many books to read in Colorado Mountain and Burg series and look forward to reading them. Even though Jagged was an Ok read for me I still get excited when Kristen Ashley has a new book release. I look forward to reading Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountain #6).

 

ARC provided by Publisher, Forever (Grand Central Publishing) at NetGalley for an honest review.

Other books in series with my ratings:
The Gamble (#1)
Sweet Dreams (#2) - 5
Lady Luck (#3)
Breathe (#4)