Maria Rose's Reviews > Thrown Down

This is the second story in the Made in Jersey series, and is a second chance romance between River and her ex-high school boyfriend Vaughn. For an assortment of reasons, and believing River would have a better future without him in the picture, Vaughn joins the military, unknowingly leaving a pregnant River behind. Fast forward a few years, and he's just found out about his daughter, returning home to try to mend fences with the woman he never forgot.

There were several aspects about this story that I liked, and some I didn't care for as much. I liked River's character a lot. A single hardworking mom, she's learned to take care of her daughter and herself all on her own. She's happy with the life she's made, and when Vaughn shows up again, she's not willing to jump into his arms and let bygones be bygones. He's going to have to prove himself to her, and right up to the end of the story she constantly makes him work for her trust and forgiveness. I liked her badass attitude and her strength. Vaughn did what he thought was best before, but he knows he made mistakes. He's trying to fix them, and he wants to be a father to the daughter he didn't know he had. He's determined to show River that he's going to stick around, and looks for work back in his home town again. He feels bad for not being there for River during the pregnancy and birth, and early years of their daughter's growth. Truly I didn't feel like it was his fault for not being there (despite his own guilt complex) and he makes good strives at repairing their relationship. He also suffers with some issues from PTSD, that definitely have affected his decisions between leaving the military and now. He's sorting through that while trying to gain River's trust again.

So what didn't I like? Well, this is one of those stories where there is an external influence (in the form of River's father) who is causing them both grief. A little communication and honesty up front would have made things completely different for them. Even in the second half of the story, I felt frustrated that Vaughn didn't come completely clean with River about his true reasons for breaking up with her in the first place.

Most of all, I just got tired of the sex. Now, Tessa has always been my go-to author for dirty talking, her Line of Duty series being among my favourites. But somehow in this story, the sex just took up way too much storytime, and overshadowed the rest of the plot for me. Truthfully, I just don't believe that every time a couple gets together for sex, that there is this level of over the top dirty talking, no matter how much the couple in question go for that kind of interaction. Some of the language used even in describing the reactions of their body parts gave me raised eyebrows. This might be the first time where I was actually skimming sex scenes, just to get to more of the story. I wanted to see them connecting more on a friend level, and less on the bedroom level.

Overall, I'd rate this as a 3.5. I liked seeing River and Vaughn get their happy ending, and I was happy with how it ended (and intrigued about certain other characters brought into the story). It's certainly not going to stop me from reading more of this seriesin the future, and I just hope to see more balance between the character growth and relationship dynamics versus the lust-filled scenes.

Note: a copy of this story was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review.