Taking the Leap

Kristen Ashley

Feb 2022 · River Rain Book 3 · Blue Box Press

About this ebook

From New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley comes the new book in her River Rain Series, Taking the Leap.

Alexandra Sharp has been crushing on her co-worker, John “Rix” Hendrix for years. He’s her perfect man, she knows it.

She’s just not his perfect woman, and she knows that too.

Then Rix gives Alex a hint that maybe there’s a spark between them that, if she takes the leap, she might be able to fan into a flame. This leads to a crash and burn, and that’s all shy Alex needs to catch the hint never to take the risk again.

However, with undeniable timing, Rix’s ex, who broke his heart, and Alex’s family, who spent her lifetime breaking hers, rear their heads, gearing up to offer more drama. With the help of some matchmaking friends, Rix and Alex decide to face the onslaught together…

As a fake couple.

Ratings and reviews

This is my favorite in this series so far! I love stories with awkward and clumsy characters paired with almost their exact opposite, the uber-confident, able to do anything person. In this book, with have Rix, a former hotshot firefighter who lost both legs below the knees on the job a few years before. He was engaged at the time and his fiancé couldn't handle what happened and so left him. Ever since, he has kept things casual and played the field never getting serious with anyone. Alex comes from a prestigious family, but has always wanted to find her own way. She loves the outdoors and combines her love of that, and helping others into a successful career. However, she has had an intense attraction to Rix, which makes her awkward and clumsy around him, which has always strained their working relationship. Things come to a head for them in several ways. They are both moving forward with their work in a new foundation which requires them to spend a lot of time together, and with the chemistry they have together, that makes things difficult. Confounding things, both Alex and Rix have things from their past suddenly making appearances in their lives and causing havoc for them. This ends up leading to a "fake engagement" where ignoring their chemistry becomes impossible. My favorite tropes are "fake relationships" and "friends with benefits". You have a mix of both of these here, which makes for an interesting and somewhat angsty read. I really enjoyed Alex and Rix and reading about how they work through this. In this installment to the series, the romance is at the forefront of this story, but you also have lot going on with Alex's family and things from Rix past making an appearance and that adds a lot of depth to this. This is absolutely a Kristen Ashley and contains everything you would expect to see in a book of hers, from the writing style to how she is able to pull you into a story and make you feel like these are real people living real situations. LOVED this story and can't wait now for the next one in the series!

Okay, neither of these characters were at all what I expected! Even when it started out, they were one way (so it seemed) and then as we got to know them, it was completely different. Rix seemed like a total jerk but is really the sweetest, most protective caveman ever. Alex seems shy and innocent, but our girl has some backbone and moves. Of course, it takes us through the story to see that, and it was a great journey, discovering about them as they discover about each other. Through that all, and with all the interactions they have with those they care about, and who care about them, they also come to some pretty startling self-realizations as well. Who they were, how they are, what they become, you will simply love them in all manner, as they are really nice at their core. Of course, we get some quality time with known characters, and some deeper insight into some slightly known characters, and meet a couple of really cool new characters. All in all, this was a fantastic read that had me completely invested in our characters getting their HEA <3

Alexandra is shy but she’s into Rix. She has had a bad childhood. She’s gotten past that and made her own way. John “Rix” Hendrix is a double amputee who has gone on with his life after a bad breakup. Both of them have had circumstances to overcome. “Nothing is permanent, Alex. Not peace. Not happiness. Not joy. People don’t understand that. They want those feelings all the time. While pretending to be engaged for her sisters disastrous wedding they develop real long lasting feelings for each other. We’d been home just a couple of weeks after New York, and not much had happened except the beauty of settling into a life with Rix that didn’t have an end looming. He was my guy. I was his woman

About the author

Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Kaleidoscope (part of the Colorado Mountain series). She is also the author of the Dream Man series, Fantasyland series, The Magdalene series, Unfinished Heroes series and the Chaos series.. Her novels include Three Wishes and Play it Safe.