Thank you to Giana Darling and the team at Valentine PR for the advance reader copy of Caution to the Wind, the seventh book in The Fallen Men series.
After waiting for this book for quite a while, I am so happy to say that Giana is back and better than ever. This book is top-tier and has so many elements of Giana at her best. My review is glowing because honestly, this book was just phenomenal and I never want to go almost three years without a Fallen Men book again!
From Wall Street Journal bestselling author Giana Darling comes an age gap, forbidden love story about a rebel soul and her best friend’s dad who wants absolutely nothing to do with her…
I fell in love with my best friend’s dad when I was seventeen.
He seemed like some kind of heathen god, big enough to kill a man with his bare hands, tattooed with bright, bold images, and weathered by time and a short stint in prison.
Blind to the consequences, I made a mistake that ran him out of town and ruined his life.
Now, he’s back after all these years––hating me more than the day he left.
What he doesn’t know is that I’ve been working to atone for my sins.
I’ve infiltrated the Vancouver Triad that killed his wife.
Always my protector, he decides it’s not safe for me to be in this alone, so he resolves to get me out of the Triad and out of his hair for good.
*A stand-alone novel in The Fallen Men Series.*
Check out my more detailed thoughts below…
- Characters: I very quickly adored both the main characters, Axe-Man and Mei have my heart. Mei might be one of Giana’s strongest heroines yet, she has such strength but at the same time vulnerability, she really stands out in a world of phenomenal female characters. I loved Mei’s friendship with Cleo and then the way over the course of the story she is brought into the fold of the found family that is the Fallen MC. Axe-Man was her perfect match, as he has such a dark history and a fraught backstory. Right away I felt invested in his happiness and him finding that with Mei. This book of course gives us so many amazing moments with the wider cast of characters, with great moments with Cressida, Nova, Bea, Kodiak, Cleo and Zeus. Plus there is a whole subplot of Danner and HR’s wedding which long-time fans will love.
- Setting: You do not realize how long you have yearned to return to a place until you have to be away from it for so long, and that is exactly how I felt about Entrance, BC. The clubhouse, the bookstore, and the tattoo parlour mean as much to fans as the colourful cast of characters.
- Pacing: This book is told in three parts, with the key back story elements of a much younger Mei, seventeen-year-old Mei, and then we catch up with her at twenty-five years old. I really loved this as I feel like I really got to know a character very well without having to rely on seeing them in the previous books. This book can really stand alone from the others for that reason. It is over 600 pages and it did take me a few more nights to read than I expected but I never wanted the return to this world to stop, so I made the active choice to slow down which is something I rarely do.
- Romance: Some of the best Fallen Men love stories are the ones with not just rich character backstories but deeply rooted and emotional pasts that are tangled up in each other. Mei and Axe-Man’s love story is probably in my second slot (nothing is going to beat my love for Nova and Lila), but what a triumph their story was. Warning it is a sixteen-year age gap, and he did know her when she was younger which I know is not everyone’s cup of tea. The journey from seventeen-year-old Mei’s crush on her best friend’s dad to her at twenty-five trying so desperately to reconnect and help carry his emotional burdens, was devastating to read. I found myself close to tears so many times throughout the book as I felt just how raw this couple’s relationship was. With that rawness came some pretty intense sexual tension, and some of the romantic scenes were simply some of the best Giana has ever written. What a triumphant return to the indie publishing world, I cannot wait to see what the future of the Fallen Men has in store for us!
Caution to the Wind receives five out of five stars.
You can pick up the story here.
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Thank you again to Giana and the team at Valentine PR for the review opportunity. Thank you for reading and supporting my blog!
