Come As You Are Review

By Jess Hardy

Bluebird Basin Book 1

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️

Blurb

46-year-old Ashley Cooke will do just about anything to save her struggling ski hill. When she hires the men from a local sober living home for the season to cut costs, even she thinks she’s gone too far. With her credit cards maxed, her cheating ex-husband intent on buying the mountain out from under her, and record-breaking snow in the forecast, she can’t afford to be distracted by the six-foot-tall bearded and tattooed sober living home owner moving onto her mountain.

53-year-old recovering addict and ex-grunge rocker Matthew Madigan has devoted every minute of the last decade to the men residing at his sober living home. When he meets tightly wound and adorably flustered Ashley, desires he’s put on the back burner for years start to simmer. Immune to his infamous albeit rusty charm, Ashley presents a challenge he can’t resist. When she offers to give him skiing lessons in exchange for his help training her St. Bernard rescue dog, he jumps at the chance to ride next to her on the chairlift despite his debilitating fear of heights.

During bunny hill shenanigans, chairlift confessions, and steamy cabin serenades, Madigan teaches Ashley that a person’s past doesn’t define them, and Ashley shows Madigan that the men he helps aren’t the only people who deserve a second chance. When sabotage threatens both the men and the mountain, Ashley and Madigan will have to decide if they’re only having a winter fling, or if the mountain isn’t the only thing worth fighting for.

Genre: Contemporary Romance

 

Read if you Like:

⛷️ Older MCs

⛷️ Workplace romance

⛷️ Love after divorce

⛷️Recovering from addiction

⛷️ Small town

My Thoughts:

I should have known this book was going to be amazing! Sarah Maclean raved about it and so it's been on my TBR for almost a year. I'm glad to sequel coming out pushed me to get to it!

Ashley and Madigan are such a great couple! I love that he made her feel like she was special and desirable and she supported him in his work with recovering addicts. I loved the way this book talked about addiction. It was insightful, realistic, and hopeful. Also teaching grown men who have never skied before to ski is comedy gold!

I loved the depiction of a family-run ski resort. I used to go skiing somewhere like this growing up and I still have wonderful memories of it! I appreciated that the book acknowledged how expensive skiing can be and that keeping the costs down was important to them. I was lucky enough my first year of grad school to go on a ski trip paid for by a family member and I remember being in the ski resort thinking I bet I am the only person here making less than twenty thousand dollars a year.

We need more romance books that feature older main characters. People don't stop falling in love once they aren't in their thirties and I loved reading about these characters. There is a richness and life experience here that isn't realistic for younger characters.

I highly recommend this one for anyone who likes small-town romance, older main characters or just a wonderful story! If you aren't sold there is a cute dog! I can't wait for the next one!

🌶️🌶️ - There are a couple of open door scenes in this book but it's slow burn and emotional intimacy is a larger focus.