ARC Review: Walk Through Fire (Chaos #4)

Walk Through Fire (Chaos #4)

by Kristen Ashley 

Blurb:

Millie Cross knows what it's like to burn for someone. She was young and wild and he was fierce and even wilder-a Chaos biker who made her heart pound. They fell in love at first sight and life was good, until she learned she couldn't be the woman he needed and made it so he had no choice but to walk away. Twenty years later, Millie's chance run-in with her old flame sparks a desire she just can't ignore. And this time, she won't let him ride off . . .

Bad boy Logan "High" Judd has seen his share of troubles with the law. Yet it was a beautiful woman who broke him. After ending a loveless marriage, High is shocked when his true love walks back into his life. Millie is still gorgeous, but she's just a ghost of her former self. High's intrigued at the change, but her betrayal cut him deep-and he doesn't want to get burned again. As High sinks into meting out vengeance for Millie's betrayal, he'll break all over again when he realizes just how Millie walked through fire for her man . . .

Themes: Contemporary, Bikers

Rating: 4.75 stars
Heat Rating: 
Review:

Coming full circle in any relationship is never easy, but once again the writing genius of Kristen Ashley accomplishes the impossible, bringing back together two very different people that have loved and lost each other once, but never really gotten over one another.  This story was hard to read in a lot of ways, mainly because the heart-wrenching love these two shared has become so hard and brittle, almost turning to hate, but luckily it never made it the whole way.  For long time Kristen Ashley fans, Logan “High” Judd has been a character to love/hate from the beginning of the introduction of the Chaos MC into our lives.  It has been obvious to readers that High has a long story, but he was seldom shown in a positive light, leaving us wondering why he was such a bastard and in this story we finally learn why and see that he isn’t as bad as we always thought.  I have been personally looking forward to this story for a while now and was thrilled to have the chance to review it, but I can honestly say I never imagined just how much I would fall in love with High and Millie and certainly never imagined how much I’d be crying as I read their truth.  Getting to see both their past and their present as they come to terms with the new direction in their lives, I can definitely see that these two were always meant to be together, even though they spent two decades apart.  I am dying to find out whose story will be next, though I have my suspicions and if I’m right, boy are we in for some serious heartbreak, realigning and changes in this club and their families. 

It would be hard to explain all that happens in this story without spoilers so I’m just going to say that this is a story of two people that were once each other’s entire world coming back together after decades apart.  Twenty years ago Millie and Logan were inseparable, but a tragedy convinced Millie it would be best to push him out of her life, best for him, and she sacrificed the love of her life so that he would have what he most wanted in the world.  All these years later Millie has never stopped loving Logan and when she comes face to face with that truth she is determined to face him and explain exactly what made her push him away, but all the hurt and anger has turned Logan into a true bastard where Millie is concerned.  High has lived the last twenty years, never really getting over Millie or the way she ripped out his heart, but when the truth of their past finally comes to light there is nothing that will keep him from reclaiming the other half of his soul.  Outside forces, from a psychotic enemy of Chaos to the bratty behavior of one of his daughters, continuously try to pull them apart, but after all their years apart, Logan will do whatever it takes to keep Millie safe and make her his woman once and for all. 

Like I said Logan began this story as a serious bastard!  When Millie comes to him he treats her like she is a piece of ass just there for his pleasure, even though he still loves her under all the pain and hatred he’s nursed so long.  It is obvious he is hurting, but the way he treats her is really unforgivable, but luckily for him, Millie is way more forgiving than I.  Once the truth comes out, Logan becomes a sweetly determined man, one who is unwilling to let their past continue to keep them apart and will do just about anything it takes to bring her back into his life and make her his woman.  I loved seeing him interacting with his daughters and his brothers, though of course he is a different man with them and a whole other person with Millie.  All the facets of the sexy, badass, and sweet biker make him the perfect guy.  His best quality IMO was the way he was able to see the light and once he got the whole story, understood just what Millie has gone through, alone, all these years while he was continuing to live his life and find the happiness that Millie always wanted for him.  The Logan that we have seen in the past gets a huge overhaul, turning him from an angry, vindictive, jackass of a biker into the sweet, loving, and family driven man that lives under all he badass biker-ness, but leaving the hotness factor that is apparent in all the Chaos brothers. 

Millie was a woman that could jerk on my heart and make me want to scream at her in the next breath to pick herself up and kick Logan in the nuts already.  She has obviously loved him for over half of her life, never getting over him, even once she was successful in pushing him away.  Faced with the serious sexiness of the fully grown biker she loved when he was a young man, Millie is determined to make him understand her motives and given him the closure he needs on their past, but as soon as he touches her, the passion flares back to life in her and leaves her floundering with desire and need.  I can certainly understand how things get out of hand for Millie, but I loved that she was finally able to stand up to Logan and give him the truth, but was very confused about her surprise to his reactions.  She should have known that as soon as the truth was revealed he would be all over her, making her see that they should never have been apart and bringing her back into his life once and for all.  Millie was a perfect combination of innocent and sexy, with a bit of her own badass personality thrown in to make her a match for Logan in every way.  She continues to sacrifice for Logan and even puts her life on the line for one that he loves, but the best part of Millie is her unwillingness to accept anything less than everything from the man who holds her heart and soul. 

All in all I have to say this story was one of the most emotional I have read in a long, long time, even having read the previous novels Ms. Ashley has released; honestly the woman is capable of reducing me to a blubbering mess one second and turning me on enough to want to attack my man in the next.  Skill like that is the reason I keep coming back to read more, knowing she will be tearing out my heart every time.  Logan is the perfect non-hero to me, a real jackass that wants what he wants no matter the cost to himself, and being with Millie is what he has wanted deep down for almost twenty-five years.  Once he learns the secret she has kept from him for so long, there is nothing that will ever keep him from claiming her and making her see the mistake she made in leaving him.  Millie never imagines just how much she needed to confront Logan and make him see her not as a bad-guy but as a woman that walked through fire to give him his deepest desire in life.  She has never gotten over their love and has gone through her lonely life without ever really living until he crashes back into her world changing it irrevocably.  The passion between High and Millie was undeniable, even when tinged with anger and hatred, but once the love returns the pages simply burn with their desire and hunger for one another.  Love lost is often the most heart-wrenching, but seeing Logan and Millie find their way back into each other’s arms, through all the hatred and secrets was an experience I will never forget and the veritable genius of Kristen Ashley in bringing these two back together is what makes an author one for the record books.  I was skeptical about this series from the beginning, mainly because of the first person POV, but I find myself falling more and more in love and can honestly say, whatever you write next, Kristen, will be landing on my shelves and improving my life. 

*eARC provided by publisher (via netgalley) for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.