ON THE ROCKS

ON THE ROCKS                                          KIM LAW

Sassy tomboy Ginger Atkinson would rather be captaining a deep-sea fishing boat than baking pies, yet she still wishes she had a man to bake for. Sure, the pretty redhead is happy running her late father’s Turtle Island ferry business, but everyone in the world is finding love except her. Stuck on the wrong side of thirty, she’s trying to accept singlehood by building a dream home—for one.

In high school, Carter Ridley loved to sneak off with his good friend Ginger to watch the sun rise over the ocean. But after graduation, his path took a different route. One that, unlike Ginger’s, did get him the spouse and house of his dreams. At least, until a scandal shattered everything.

Running from his heartbreak, Carter returns to Turtle Island, where he discovers that Ginger is all grown up. His teenage friend has become the woman he’s always wanted. But will Carter’s pain scare him away from a chance at happiness? Or can he be the loving partner Ginger’s been looking for?

MY REVIEW:

     What happens when forever friends lose track of one another?  After living on the same island, living next door to one another, going to school with one another, being playmates and classmates, nursed each other through bad dates and lost count of just how many sunrises you’ve seen together, how could that be?

     Well, when it came time for Ginger Atkinson and Carter Ridley to go off to college that is exactly what did happen.  Ginger had dreams of being a teacher and Carter a famous writer.  But things change midway through Ginger’s father has a heart attack and dies forcing her to leave college to be with her mother.  Which she totally wanted to do.  She also decides she would run her father’s Turtle Island Ferry business which she comes to find out she is good at.  Not to mention she had missed the ocean and the outdoors.  Now 10 years later she has expanded to other boating experiences ever growing to the business.

     Carter on the other hand went to be an engineer like his father and do his writing on the side.  During college he meets a gal that reminds him a lot of Ginger (Red) and he fell in love and married the law student.  They compromised on Rhodes Island as a place to live since he wanted to live near the ocean and her near the city.  He was building his dream home for his bride and she had an apartment in New York for her work.  Carter traveled a lot never noticing that they were drifting apart because his father traveled all the time and that just seemed normal.  But for his wife it was not if he wasn’t traveling he was working on the house.  Now they are divorced and he has a huge writing career of horror books under a pen name, his dream home, and a bitter outlook on life.  A few months back when his folks dropped in they found out the truth now they call all the time.  Now his sister Julie is pregnant with no baby daddy in site.  She has been there since graduation from college.  So, his mother had been nagging him to go to their house to check in on her for a while and do some writing there since he has hit a dry spell. 

     Carter is already pissed about life but now he is super pissed to be his sister’s keeper and she won’t want it.  Life was sucking big time.  He was off to the home he grew up in.  Never expecting to see the one person he was sad to say he hadn’t thought of in years, Ginger his best friend.  There she was looking as sexy as hell pointing a can of mace at his face when he answers his parent’s door.  “Red?”  “Carter?”

     It just couldn’t be her old crush was back in town after all these years of no contact was it?  Once again she was smelling like fish…I can’t believe this is Red!  Has she changed!  Damn she still smells like fish…which for some weird reason puts a smile on his face and gives him a sense of comfort.  Instead of showing it he gripes about the mace in his face. 

     Is coming back home good for any of them?  Carter’s foul mood and hurt ego is not in the best place, Ginger has lost at love all the way around.  Having her best friend and crush home isn’t helping knowing he never saw her at all like a girl.  His sister has a daughter on the way with no baby daddy in sight.

     Where are they all headed is it any place good for them?  Can Ginger and Carter at least be friends again?  Will either ever find true love or do they really want it?  What causes all the things to fall into place at the end?

     I totally enjoyed this story.  Being I married my high school sweetheart it gave me that “Aw” feeling pretty much throughout the book.  Their bond was set way before they even figured it out.  I give this book 5 ++++ stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at:  www.1rad-readerreviews.com.