Review: Giving Chase by Riley Hart
SYNOPSIS: 
KELLAN
I wasn’t supposed to fall for my older brother’s best friend. Unfortunately, that ship sailed when I was a teenager, even though Chase Hawthorne always treated me like nothing more than a younger sibling. Things were worse after my parents died. Chase was sweet and supportive, which only strengthened my feelings for him. But then he’d act like I couldn’t take care of myself, and that part didn’t go over well with me. Yeah, I had a habit of screwing up. I’d always been the weird boy in our small town, but just like my big brother, he took overprotective to a new level. Until one night when I was eighteen and Chase and I hooked up. It was a ding to the ego that he left town right afterward. Ridiculously, I’m still not over him.
CHASE
I betrayed my best friend, Griffin, the night I messed around with Kellan. So I ran–first to the Marines, then into law enforcement. Ten years later, I’m back home, this time as a patrol officer rather than a troublemaker’s son. Oh, and unable to keep my hands off Kellan Caine. There’s always been something about him…the way he stands strong in who he is, even when he’s standing alone. I’m trapped between someone I want more than anything and Griff, the guy who’s like family to me. Yet the more time I spend with Kellan, the harder it becomes to deny there’s something real between us.
With my dad stirring up trouble, and me going behind my best friend’s back, everything’s a mess. The more tangled the web gets, the more I realize I need Kellan. And that there might be something in the Hawthorne family history that’ll make me lose both Kellan and Griffin for good.
REVIEW:
This series by Riley Hart has been on my TBR forever and I am glad I finally decided now was the time to start it. And while I didn’t love the romance in the story, I did love the tension, drama, and foundation it provided for the rest of the series.
So lets start with Chase and Kellan, can we define this as a second chance romance, probably. Chase leaves town for 10 years and comes back and things pick up right where they left off. This is what I didn’t care for because it seems as if neither character grew or changed over that decade of separation. There was no struggle and Kellan rapidly admits (at least to himself) that he still loves Chase after maybe seeing him once or twice since his return. Mind you, they haven’t talked in 10 years *insert eye-roll*. Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan of that but the actual relationship, it was healthy and well balanced for the most part. They communicated, respected each other, and truly fall in love.
But what really kept me turning the page was the drama and tension. Who killed Kellan and Griff’s parents? Who is robbing stores around town? Who violated [blanks] privacy (don’t want to spoil a major plot twist)? Theses questions and watching these mysteries unravel had me anxious to turn the page. I was shocked when everything was revealed, I honestly didn’t expect things to play out as they did and that was a delightful surprise. And things wrapped up with closure and a fluffy ending that has me looking forward to the next installment.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
