Roman Holiday 1: Chained by Ruthie Knox

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at The Romance Evangelist.

Ruthie Knox has only been a published author for a year or so, but in that short time, she’s vaulted to the upper reaches of my list of favorite romance writers. So when the opportunity came to review her new serial book Roman Holiday, I was happy to say yes.

Ashley Bowman had been raised by her grandmother in an aging but beloved vacation rental home community in the Florida Keys and had always assumed that the houses and land would one day pass to her in return. But when Ashley returns from Bolivia to find her grandmother dead and buried, she also discovers that Sunnyvale Vacation Rentals now belongs to the type of man she dislikes the most: the predatory Miami land developer. Maybe chaining herself to a palm tree just ahead of an approaching hurricane wasn’t the smartest choice, but it’s stopped the demolition, at least temporarily, and gotten the attention of that slick handsome Cadillac guy who refused to answer all her calls before now.

Roman Diaz looks the part of the evil businessman that Ashley has already assigned to him, but inside he still feels like he’s faking it until he makes it. He’s worked hard to climb up the food chain in the Miami development scene, and building his dream project in the heart of Ashley’s beloved Sunnyvale is the keystone to reaching the next level of his life goals. Now if he can only convince Ashley to unchain herself from that tree before something bad happens to her and derails his plans forever.

Ashley is just this side of appearing to be too scatterbrained and impetuous for me to like at first. Trying to protect her presumed inheritance from the bulldozer isn’t the first badly planned action she’s ever taken in her life – it’s just the most recent and most ill-advised. If the story was just about her, I’d probably bail right here, despite my love of Ruthie Knox.

But Roman… ah, Roman. He’s another story entirely. There are unplumbed depths to Roman that he clearly would like to remain unexplored. If Ashley appears to wear her emotions on her face, Roman is the reverse image. He’s cultivated a veneer of success that may not bear extended scrutiny, and having to deal with anyone who looks too closely is what appears to unnerve him the most.

In Roman Holiday, Ruthie Knox is setting us up for an opposites attract romance, and based on her track record, I’m more than ready to follow her on this road trip. It should be fun to watch the immovable object of Ashley meet the irresistible force of Roman, and see how they manage to fumble their way to a mutual happy ending.

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