Longtime Crush (Montgomery Ink Legacy #3)
Carrie Ann Ryan
Blurb:
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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