From goodreads: How far does a girl have to run to escape a lifetime of pain and loss at the hands of Alaska’s notoriously unforgiving Bering Sea? Twenty-seven-year-old Aesa Fredriksen thought landlocked Columbus, Ohio would suffice, and it does until the fear of regret drives her to return to Dutch Harbor in a final attempt to make amends with her nearly-estranged father. Intent on salvaging the wreckage of their relationship, she reluctantly agrees to join him—the only family she has left—as he heads out to fish for king crab, forcing her to brave the very waters that pulled him away from her as a child. The waters that stole her mother’s life.
When the day finally arrives for the Norwegian Queen to sail off into an uncertain future, Aesa can’t help but fear the worst. Beyond the violent swells and impending storms, there is far more than death and danger awaiting her on her journey: love awaits her too.
Decker, a young but seasoned member of her father’s crew, is a force of nature as strong as Aesa, He’s her perfect match, and even she can’t deny it. But he too is a man of the sea, and with memories of tragedy and abandonment etched so deeply into her mind, can she overcome her demons and let him in or will she drown in her darkness, forever caught in its undertow?
Review:
I had the privilege of reading Undertow last spring and I wasn’t sure what to expect since this would be Amber Lynn Natusch’s first contemporary romance but she delivered big time. Being a fan of her urban fantasy series, CAGED, I knew I could expect an emotionally charged story with complex characters that I would come to love and I was right, god was I right! When you read books within the romance genre, stories and characters can appear to be the same after a short while but Undertow is refreshingly different and it was absolutely fabulous!
Aesa is a heroine you can relate to in some form or another, she’s feisty but at the same time she’s incredibly vulnerable even if she doesn’t show it and there’s a painful history that she has with her father, hence her return home. While she’s a flawed character, it’s not overdone but just enough to make her seem like a woman you would know in real life, that’s what Amber does, she creates real characters.
Everything about being back home makes Aesa almost regret accompanying her father out to sea, until Decker. Decker is the epitome of calm, cool and collected but that doesn’t mean he’s perfect. He’s equally as flawed as Aesa but their emotional connection happens even before the physical attraction which captivated me for many different reasons.
I think what made this book so enjoyable for me was the element of action, angst and romance. Too often books give you one or the other and sometimes just a pinch of all three but Undertow has it all in very equal amounts which had me reading all night long and I simply could not put this book down.
This is the story that’s written exceptionally well, one that will command your full attention and it’s a journey of forgiveness and love. You’ll be exhausted when you are done but you’ll also feel content too.
“He turned to me with a ghost of a smile. Whatever it hid clearly was painful, and I realized that within five minutes of me being in the cabin with him, I had managed to hit a nerve. It reminded me of yet another reason why I didn’t have any close friends: I was terrible at knowing what to say when it mattered most.”
If you haven’t experienced a book by Amber Lynn Natusch, let this be your first, you won’t regret it.
About the Author:
If you’re dying to know more about me, allow me to put you at ease. I’m a sharp-tongued, sarcastic cancer, who loves vegetable smoothies, winter storms, and the word ‘portfolio’. I should NEVER be caffeinated, and require at least eight hours of sleep to even resemble a human being. At thirty-four, I just now feel like I can keep a straight face while saying the word “rectum” (which is actually a huge lie because I just laughed out loud while reading this to my husband). I live with my iPod firmly affixed to my body, drive too fast, and laugh/cry at inappropriate times. I’m obsessed with urban fantasy… When I discovered that genre, I knew I had found my tribe. Now I write in that world because that’s what the voices in my head tell me to do. And they are very, very loud.
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