Review : Chasing River by K.A Tucker
Title : Chasing River (Burying Water #3)
Author : K.A Tucker
Publication Date : July 7th 2015
Publisher : Atria
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Armed with two years' worth of savings and the need to experience life outside the bubble of her Oregon small town, twenty-five-year old Amber Welles is prepared for anything. Except dying in Dublin. Had it not been for the bravery of a stranger, she might have. But he takes off before she has the chance to offer her gratitude.
Twenty-four-year-old River Delaney is rattled. No one was supposed to get hurt. But then that American tourist showed up. He couldn't let her die, but he also couldn't risk being identified at the scene—so, he ran. Back to his everyday life of running his family’s pub. Only, everyday life is getting more and more complicated, thanks to his brother, Aengus, and his criminal associations. When the American girl tracks River down, he quickly realizes how much he likes her, how wrong she is for him. And how dangerous it is to have her around. Chasing her off would be the smart move.
Maybe it's because he saved her life, or maybe it's because he's completely different from everything she's left behind, but Amber finds herself chasing after River Delaney. Amber isn’t the kind of girl to chase after anyone.
And River isn't the kind of guy she'd want to catch.
Personal Thoughts
My love for K.A Tucker's books, especially the Burying Water series, knows no bounds. I will read anything (and I mean ANYTHING) that this author writes and I'm not sure what I'll be doing with myself once this series ends with Surviving Ice in September. Having loved both Burying Water and Becoming Rain with every fiber of my being, I was beyond excited to start Chasing River. While I personally didn't feel that it was as captivating a story for me as its predecessors, Chasing River was still one of the best books that NA has to offer.
Amber Welles is touring in Ireland when she is saved by a mysterious stranger from a bomb blast. A daughter of an Oregon sherrif and twin sister of a troublemaker, Amber has always been forced to be a good girl. Amber wasn't a hard character to like. She was smart, passionate and kind. She wasn't one to hold grudges and was a sweetheart. I especially liked how cultured she was. She ditched the ignorant American stereotype on her trip to Ireland and actually bothered to learn about the history and cultural backdrop of the country she was visiting. Of course, what ended up happening was that I felt very ignorant because I knew absolutely nothing about the political history of Ireland. In fact, I know next to nothing about the country's state at all. So, in a way, I felt like Amber's character was a shining star for me because I got to learn about this foreign country through her. Speaking of the cultural context of Chasing River, it's clear that K.A Tucker put a lot of effort into researching the history of Ireland. As someone who enjoys traveling to other places through the medium of books, this was fascinating to me. What was brilliant about it all was the way she presented it. It was integral to the story, which in itself deserved to be praised because Chasing River is a contemporary romance title, and was revealed in engaging ways such as childhood bedtime stories. It never felt like an info dumb which I obviously reveled in.
The mysterious stranger who saves Amber's life is River Delaney, an Irish bar owner. I knew from the beginning that I would fall for River like I fell for all of K.A Tucker's men. With his charming ways and his piercing gaze, River was hard not to crush on. But he was also entrenched in some ugly criminal activities, not directly but through a selfish brother, that had me fearing for Amber's life. River was loyal to the core, so his unwillingness to report his older brother's activities to the authorities could be frustrating for the reader. At the same time, if you have a sibling, you know hard it is to throw them under the bus. No matter what they do, the blood ties usually creates a protective bond. K.A Tucker showed exactly that through River. While his older brother was certainly not someone I cared for at all, I loved River's other brother, Rowen, whose flirty ways had me giggling like a schoolgirl meeting her celebrity crush. The romance between River and Amber happened very quickly, over a period of 2 weeks to be more precise, but don't worry; K.A Tucker made it work beautifully. The emotional and physical intensity of their relationship made the fast pace at which they fell for each other very realistic. Besides the romance, I enjoyed the newly growing friendship between Amber and Ivy. Ivy, herself, was a colorful character who I can't wait to know more about in Surviving Ice. For me, the suspense part of Chasing River wasn't as strong as the previous books. I was scared for the characters, but it wasn't the kind of fear that kept me on the edge of my seat. Plus, Chasing River was a slower novel compared to the rest of the series, but it never felt boring.
Every time someone mentions how cliched New Adult is as a genre, I want to shove this series in their faces. Like every other book in this series, Chasing River continued to be a unique and knowledgeable story, that armed with great characters and a lovely romance, made for a riveting book. Seriously people, if you haven't started this series yet, then stop whatever you're doing so you can pick it up.
Rating
Cover : 4/5
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 4/5
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the e-ARC of Chasing River.
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