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Thursday, June 29, 2023

ARC review: Longtime Crush (Montgomery Ink Legacy #3)

 Longtime Crush (Montgomery Ink Legacy #3)

Carrie Ann Ryan

Blurb:

When my best friend and I fell for the same guy in middle school, I stepped back.

I'd always expected to dance at their wedding.

Not sit in the back pew of her funeral.

I left town for my own reasons, but now that I'm back, it’s clear Sebastian Montgomery isn't the same man I left.

He's hard. Broken.

And a single father to an adorable little girl.

When it turns out he’s my new neighbor, I can’t stay away.

But I know I’m playing with fire and the heat between us burns enough to scorch.

I thought I was over my crush.

But now it might crush me.

Themes:  Contemporary, Tear-Jerker

Rating: 4.5 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

Man, I always knew this story was going to be a rough one, filled with tears and pain, but Carrie always finds an unexpected way to rip my heart out before she gives me the HEA I need. For those that have been following this series, Sebastian’s tragic love began back at the first Montgomery Legacy story where he and the love of his young life discovered they were expecting and had to grow up quickly.  Now life is nothing like what he expected for him and he is having to decide if he is truly ready to embrace a chance at love again or if he will leave himself buried in the past. Carrie Ann Ryan’s true greatness shines in this story of loss, love, healing, and heartbreak as we see the darker side of love and loss along with forgiveness and faith; I for one am thrilled I was given the unique opportunity to experience it before others and share my love of Sebastian and Raven and share their story with the world.  I am dying for more of this epic family and know that whatever Carrie puts her lovers through, in the end she will give them the true lasting love that they need to make their lives fulfilled. 

Sebastian Montgomery has been through so much in his life already and he’s not even thirty years old yet.  But despite go through the greatest tragedy imaginable simultaneous to the greatest joy, he knows that he has grown and changed a lot in the last 5 years.  He is busy raising his beautiful daughter, growing his family business, and just getting through the business of living life, but he never forgets the girl that he loved with all his heart and lost.  When it turns out his new neighbor is the best friend that moved away many years ago, causing a rift in what seemed an unbreakable friendship, he’s not ready to handle the emotions she causes and certainly not the attraction that flairs anytime he even thinks about her.  Raven Monroe ran away from Denver when it became unbearable to watch her two best friends falling in love, especially when her feelings for Sebastian were growing as well, even though she never stopped loving either of them. After Marley’s death, Raven never imagined that she would return to Denver, but she’s back now and living and working right next to the man that never let her heart go, but she won’t go there.  The more Raven and Sebastian are together though they come to realize that their feelings are too strong to resist and the connection between them is too right to deny.  Is there truly a chance for them to work through the baggage or their pasts, the ghost between them, in order to have a future, or will an outside danger prove them too late for an HEA?

OMG, I loved every second of getting to know Sebastian, the man instead of the scared to death teenager, and Raven was a wonderful foil and partner for him. Sebastian has loved and lost, learned how to be a single father, and matured into the family business, all while growing up from a teenager into the man he was meant to be.  There is not denying he’s hit a lot of bumps along the way and leaned on the support of his huge family, but ultimately his character and determination are what him such a success.  He’s strong and smart but able to bend in the storms that have hit his life, he doesn’t buckle under his grief and he always puts his daughter first as a good father should.  It was painful watching him come alive again when he began to fall in love with Raven, dealing with letting go of his first love and accepting that he could love again, but ultimately that ability to open his heart is what makes him a great hero.  I even enjoyed the heartwarming moments between him and his daughter and the moments when he was forced to stand strong and fight for his family against outsiders, though I tend to steer away from those dramas in the real world. Raven was the quintessential heartbroken heroine, the girl that stepped aside to allow her best friends to have a smooth love without her complicating matters, but boy was her story painful.  I cannot imagine what she felt when Marley passed, knowing that she’d lost them both, but when she comes back to Denver and finds Sebastian again it’s obvious, she’s terrified of her feelings for him.  I could see that her sass and strength in all other parts of her life just didn’t carry into this small corner, her confidence in her ability to be what Sebastian needed causing some problems.  I loved her relationship with Greer and the way she embraced old friendships with the rest of the Montgomery’s, almost like she’d never left, but obviously that stems from her being such a great person.  I also loved how she connected with Nora, obviously loving the girl immediately and deeply, not only for being Marley and Sebastian’s girl, but for her own unique personality, showing that she’ll be a great stepmother to her in the future.  Raven has dealt with a lot of heartbreak in her own life, but the healing love of the Montgomery’s is just what she needs to remind her of her own strength and ability to succeed.

This story is not one for those that can’t handle emotional pain and drama in their love stories, it was filled with not only the love of two people finding one another after years, but the baggage they had to work through to do that. Sebastian and Raven have a troubled and multilayered past, filled with ghosts, but in the end the love they found was rich and deep and will carry them through anything that comes at them in the future.  Sebastian is the perfect hero, one that has gone through a lot of pain in his past and found a way to grow and learn from his losses, without ever losing the core of his heart.  He lives for his family and work, offering his love to those that he finds worthy and when he brings you into his circle, he won’t let you go. Raven is tired of running and returns to her home, to the only people that have ever offered her the love she needs, but she never imagined she’d find the man she needs in the boy that she once had a deep crush on.  She is conflicted about her feelings, but the heart wants what the heart wants sometimes, and chemistry is undeniable, but ghosts are sometimes too much to overcome unless you are determined to work for what you want in life.  The passion and connection between Raven and Sebastian were there in every meeting of their eyes and each moment they touched, but when they finally quit fighting their chemistry the heat was a wildfire for sure.  I also loved the way Carrie made Nora such a hilarious character, one that I found I quite enjoyed even though I’m not much of a kid person, and I can’t see a third generation of Montgomery’s with these crazy kids easily.  I am dying for the next story (Best Friend Temptation) where we will get to see if Noah, Ford, and Greer can find a way through all their hang-ups and form another loving Montgomery triad. Carrie Ann Ryan never fails to make me cry, burn, and fall in love and Longtime Crush went above and beyond expectations.

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.

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