REVIEW: Sebring by Kristen Ashley
Dear Ms. Ashley:
Oh, I was uncertain about this book. We met Nick Sebring in your book, Knight (incidentally, the book that launched my reviewing tenure here at Dear Author). Nick is the brother of the hero of Knight, and in that book he puts his hands on a woman (and not in a good way), and threatens the heroine in a number of ways. In short, he’s a complete and utter douchebag. So, when you announced that his book would be the last of your Unfinished Heroes series, I was dubious, to say the least. But, man, you delivered on every level for me.
When Sebring opens, years have passed since Nick’s mistreatment of Anya, Knight’s woman. He’s been to hell and back. He became a confidential informant for the FBI, and in the course of his involvement with them, became involved with a female agent named Hettie. When he and Hettie are captured by Vincent Shade, a drug kingpin in Denver, Hettie is murdered in front of Nick. Nick got away, and has holed up with his brother, Knight and his family to get his bearings. Needless to say, Nick and Knight have made their peace. He is determined that he’ll get vengeance on Vincent Shade. He’ll bring his entire cartel down and make sure he pays for murdering Hettie. He goes to one of Knight’s associates, Deacon, and asks him to teach him everything he knows.
Four years later, Nick is ready. He’s identified the younger of Vincent Shade’s daughters, Olivia, as his way in. He’ll seduce her, gain information from her, and exact his vengeance. He meets Olivia at a sex club in Denver where he arranges for both of them to watch a scene privately. During the course of the scene, Olivia approaches him, basically nails him to the wall, and leaves without ever speaking a word to him. When he tells her he wants to see her again, she writes her name and number on his palm and walks away.
Olivia Shade knows exactly who Nick Sebring is. She knows he’s related to Knight Sebring and the duo is famous in Denver for keeping their business tight and together. She can’t believe he’d be interested in her, but she decides she’ll take something for herself, for once in her life, and begins having sex with Nick. They rarely speak more than a few words. They have rough sex, fighting for dominance the entire time, and then she leaves. You see, Olivia has been taught early in her life that she cannot begin a relationship with a man who is not sanctioned by her father, and her older sister Georgia, who is the heir apparent and as big a scumbag as her father. She tells no one of her relationship with Nick for fear that he’ll be hurt or even killed. She has the scars to show that she can never love a man who isn’t blessed by her family. So she holds Nick at a distance, never wanting to become involved.
Due to Nick’s constant surveillance of the Shade family’s operations center, he knows Olivia knows some about her father’s empire, but he’s hoping she’ll gain him access to the information he needs to bring down Vincent Shade. But as he and Olivia become more deeply involved, he finds that she is coming to mean as much to him as his vengeance. In fact, he might be in love with her. Will he be able to reconcile his growing feeling for Livvie with his need to bring down her family?
Man, I enjoyed this book! Mostly, I enjoyed getting to know Nick, who I went into the book thinking was a complete jerk, and by the end, was rooting hard for he and Livvie to find their Happily Ever After. I thought the book felt fresh, which is sometimes one of my complaints about your books, they feel repetitive. But not this book. Olivia was smart, and damaged, and wonderfully sweet, once she gave in to her feelings for Nick. And Nick’s reasoning behind keeping his secrets from Olivia were completely credible to me, though I dreaded the moment she found out what he’d been keeping from her. Their relationship evolved sweetly, which was a lovely juxtaposition against the violence that was happening outside of their romance. I will also say, that you are the Queen of Good Epilogues, tying up all of the Unfinished Heroes’ stories in a way that felt satisfying to me. Overall, Sebring is among my favorite entries into this series. I give Sebring a B+.
Kind regards,
Kati
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Kati – usually you and I are like conjoined twins when it comes to books, but this one…girl. I graded D. Like most of Ashley’s series books you see a lot of the other couples and where they all are now. That I could deal with. In this story tough it just felt intrusive. It almost felt like a chapter summary we used to get in text books. it didn’t seem to me as if the glimpses we got moved the story along at all.
I thought Nick was a douche bag from “Knight.” I thought he was one here too. He wants too much too soon with Olivia. He does not seemed redeemed in the ways that other anti-heroes were in this series. I just didn’t believe the transition. And Olivia, don’t get me started…Olivia seemed like a combination of Sonia from “With Everything I Am” and Sadie from “Rock Chick Regret.”
Where did this last group of drug dealers come from? In all the Chaos, Rock Chick, Anti-Hero, Dream Man series they were never mentioned…or at least they were so minimal that they were nonexistent. Now all of a sudden the family is front and center? And of course everybody knows them. Uh, no.
Last thoughts, the whole book felt muddled and thrown together to me. Like Ashley had said she was going to do one more guy in this series and by golly she did it because Nick Sebring was the last one left.
@Beret: Oh no! Well, maybe we’ll be twinsies again soon. I wonder if the reason it worked for me was that I was completely focused on how she’d redeem him, and I totally bought the redemption?
Either way, sorry, my friend, this one totally worked for me. I’ll re-read it for sure.
I hope her next works better for you.
Love each and every one of Kristen Ashley’s books. Reread them all. Love that she brings in characters we’ve met in her other books. I read a lot, and I’d say I get past the first page on very few books, they’re so poorly written. I can’t begin to relate to the negative comments of the other commenter.
@Karen: Well, I’ll say this. KA is a bit more love/hate for me. Some I love, but some I’m definitely not a fan of. I’ve written more than one disappointed review here at DA.
But this one worked well for me, as have her last few. The reason I always go back to her is that I’m looking for that feeling that I get when I love her books. I think it’s awesome that you ALWAYS get that feeling. :)
I loved Sebring too Kati. It worked for me in every way. The last two Chaos books I read were great up front but the second half of each book was disappointing for me with the conflict played out by 50%. But with this book I was at 80% still wondering, how is this couple going to get their HEA?
KA did a great job of redeeming Nick and I really enjoyed Olivia too. The sex was hot, hot, hot. Have I already mentioned I really liked this book? :)
It was a great end to the Unfinished Hero series. In fact, I’m thinking I’m due for another reread of Knight…
@Michele Mills:
You know, while Knight will never be my favorite KA book, I re-read it recently, now having her entire backlist under my belt. I was so much less scandalized than I was when I first read it. I still have issues with the “Daddy” thing, but overall, it wasn’t an awful read. I don’t know if I’ve just become much more forgiving of true anti-heroes, or desensitized to heroes who do things that I find morally reprehensible (or what that says about me). But Knight barely even registers on my “scandal” meter anymore.
I have all of the Unfinished Heroes series (except Sebring) on my TBR. I’ve only actually read Knight so far and it was probably my least favourite KA book. I’m more a fan of her Colorado Mountains series and her Dream Man/Chaos books (oh, and Rock Chick, the first 5 of which I read last year and loved).
So your review has me thinking I maybe should one click on Sebring for “one day” reading but would you say I should read the other books in the series first and read Sebring last?
Well, Sebring is available on Scribd, so I’m off for a no-risk read. I find myself compulsively reading and rereading a lot of KA’s books (except for the Rock Chicks) so I’m excited to see how she rehabs Nick in this one.
I’m wary of this for the reasons you articulate, Kati. But I know I’ll end up giving it a shot, because I often appreciate the gargantuan power issues Ashley takes on.
I’ve been listening to the Rock Chick novels on audio lately, and I find that’s really the best way (for me) to experience them. The silliness works so much better in the context of a dramatic reading!
@Kaetrin: While there are references to previous couples, I don’t believe you have to read the Unfinished Heroes series in order. Personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of Creed. Of the series, I like Raid, Sebring, and Deacon best (in that order). Then Knight, then Creed. But that’s just me.
@Janet: I’m making my way through the Rock Chicks audiobooks too. I love the narrator. She’s fabulous. And I agree. Those books work well for me in audio form. Some of her other books don’t.
@Kati: You know what’s funny- I like Knight the best (I reread it routinely) then I like Creed and Sebring about the same, I know I liked Deacon but I can barely remember it (uh, oh) and I didn’t like Raid. I think I didn’t like the hero in that one…Kati is right, you could read Sebring without the others, or try this- Read Knight, then Deacon, then Sebring- those three have the strong Nick story line.
How interesting, I never thought of listening to the Rock Chick series on audio (I read them all and loved them)- I bet that would be fun. Great idea! Thanks.
I really liked Sebring a lot. I would rank the series as #1) Knight, #2) Raid, #3) Sebring, #4) Creed, #5) Deacon.
@ Beret: Livvie did remind me of Sadie from Rock Chick Redemption, but this book gave a completely different spin and whereas Sadie’s story was more tender and sad, Sadie’s was more dynamic and dirty (in a good way) while still having emotional impact galore. (As for her similarity to Sonia from the Three series– I really did not like that entire series, so it has not made it to my re-read pile!)
KA seemed to be in a bit of a slump there for a few books, but her last 3-4 have really hit the mark for me.
@Michele Mills: They’re fab on audio Michele – Tex, in particular, is hilarious.
How is the relationship with Hettie handled? Does his love for Olivia come across second-best in any way? I’ve enjoyed some of Kristen Ashley’s books a lot, but I also tend to be a bit gun-shy about books where the hero is presented as having been totally in love with someone else, and, as sounded the case here, using the heroine in some way because of that.