Customer Reviews

Hold on to Me (Hearts of the South)

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4 star:		(2)
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Lamar "Tick" Calvert has made it his personal mission to clean up his hometown sheriff's department. He hopes burying himself in work will keep his mind off his ex lover. He fails miserably when Caitlin is assigned to help him solve a group of murders. Now he just needs to know why she pushed him away.

Caitlin Falconetti is an FBI profiler. After surviving a brutal attack she pushes away the only man to hold her heart. Her work is the only thing keeping her sane when she is forced to work with Tick again.

Will this string of murders bring these two lovers together again? Can they find the killer before its too late?

Hold On to Me has it all; action, suspense, romance, sex, heartache and hope. Tick is such a stand up guy with a few faults, just how I like my men. He is a southern boy down to his toes. Caitlin is a strong independent woman who really knows how to take care of herself. When her world falls apart she turns into herself and sometimes she is too strong willed. I think that and not communicating brings the problems Tick and Caitlin have with each other. If they would just talk!

Linda Winfree has a way of writing everyday life with her southern twist that you fall in love with all her characters. I love that she brings them back again and again in this series. I also love the fact that Ms. Winfree is one of the few authors who can make her characters deal with consequences and make me still love her stories. Hold On to Me is no different. This book is full of angst, but it goes down well with the spoon full of sugar Ms. Winfree gives us with the dreamy Tick and the bold Caitlin.

I am Joyfully Recommending Hold On to Me for making me cry and LIKING it. Hold On to Me had me crying both happy and sad tears and when a book does that, I know it's a keeper.

Jambrea
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

"Sometimes our greatest joys come out of our greatest pain."

Caitlin Falconetti is a profiler with the FBI's Child Abduction and Serial Killer Unit. Lamar (Tick) Calvert is so not thrilled to see his ex lover at the crime scene. When Caitlin and Tick are forced to team up and hunt down the serial killer, old feelings surface again.

When Tick came back from an undercover mission, Cait had dumped his ass without an explanation. He was too busy, hurt, and messed up to realize that his Cait had changed. A lot. Actually, Cait was a strong, bright, and caring woman and now she seemed colder and she smiled rarely. She was someone else. This Caitlin watched the world with the shadowed, expressionless eyes of a soul destroyed. He didn't recognize her anymore. What had happened to her?

Tick is too stubborn to let her go and I was really glad! For once the sides are reversed. The heroine is the tortured soul and the hero is right there to catch her, to comfort her. Tick was such a wonderful hero. He is a gentle, warm, and very caring guy - loved him! Tick said to Cait:

"Come back to me, Cait, and hold on to me, just for tonight."

Tick feels that something is not right; he wants to talk about it:

"Talking about it doesn't change anything. Talking about it doesn't make it go away."
He cupped her face, thumbs sliding along her cheekbones in a gentle caress. With subtle pressure, he tilted her head up, forcing her to look at him. "And keeping it locked inside is killing you."

Wow, what a pleasant surprise! I didn't have high expectations and it is always such a nice surprise to discover a good and "new" author. Even though I knew from the beginning who the villain was, I totally enjoyed Hold on to Me. It has it all: a steamy and complex romance, a nice dose of suspense, lots of emotions, likeable main protagonists and a bunch of interesting secondary characters as well. I appreciated the police procedurals; the plot was good and the author did a nice job in developing all those different characters.

Minor censure:
I have to admit that Cait annoyed me a little bit. Why did she have to hold on to her secret? Yes, I get it that she was afraid and she wanted to "protect" Tick. Then again, I wanted her to come clean with Tick sooner rather than later. I mean she knew that Tick would never blame her. Such a guy would never do that. But hey, I think that's fiction and it kind of helped to develop the story though.

Overall, Hold on to Me is a very engrossing and well written story, and if you are a fan of steamy romantic suspense stories then I'd recommend you to give this author a try!

i started with #6 and had to go back to the start and ended up reading the entire series over the weekend. very much enjoyed the series, loved how hints of past and future characters are mentioned so the connection to the town/people is there and looking forward to the next installment.