Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Wrecked
AUTHOR: Jodi Payne & B. A. Tortuga
PUBLISHER: Tygerseye Publishing, LLC
LENGTH: 256 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 23, 2019
BLURB:
The call comes when Beckett Adler least expects it. He’s made a new life for himself in Vermont and has a law practice of his own. After four years he’s even stopped wearing his wedding ring. So when he finds out his husband, bull rider Skyler Paulson, has been seriously injured at an event, he isn’t sure what he wants to do. He knows what’s right though, so he heads down to Baltimore to bring his man home.
Sky knows his injuries are a career-ender, and he can’t believe Beck has come for him after all this time. He’s not a hundred percent sure what went wrong with their marriage and he has no idea how to be anything but a bull rider. But he wants this second chance, so he grabs at it with both hands.
There’s a lot Sky has to learn, from how to walk again to how to settle down with the man he loves. Beck needs to learn to open up and how to be more trusting. For their marriage to work again, both men will have to find a way to meet in the middle. Because neither of them wants to be wrecked anymore.
REVIEW:
Another good cowboy book from the writing team of B. A. Tortuga and Jodi Payne.
Beckett Aldler is a successful attorney, with his own law firm, and Skyler Paulson, a two-time bull riding champion, is his husband. All should be great except that he hasn’t laid eyes on his gorgeous husband for four years, not since that eventful night when Sky left and he told him not to bother to come back. Now he gets a call from Sky’s rodeo friend, and presumed friend-with-benefits, Parker telling him “Sky’s been hurt, buddy. Bad. He’s in a medically induced coma, but the docs don’t think—I mean, if you want to say good-bye, you should come. Now.” Has their stubbornness to call the other first come too late?
I liked both men. Their “squabble” four years earlier was pretty petty but they were given the unique opportunity and second chance to make things right. But they had been so stubborn for so long that it makes both men gun shy of who is leaving or who is getting kicked out? They were both damaged mentally by that faithful night that they are finding it difficult to trust it’s real again. I’m still not entirely sure if it was Beck being tired of Sky leaving all the time, his fear that he would be fatally injured, or that he believed that their was something going on between young Parker and his husband that caused the split. What I loved was that both men had taken their wedding vows so seriously and, even four years later, had still remained faithful to their love-of-their-life! And I did find it poetic justice of who Parker actually had eyes for.
One of the things that went a little to easily and fast for me was Skyler’s recovery. He was so near death that Parker had Beck rushing to say good bye before it was too late. And his injuries were so extensive that I have a hard time believing that he could bounce back that quickly. I’m not quite sure of how long transpired from Beck arriving at the hospital to them landing at Las Vegas but I’m pretty darn sure Sky wouldn’t have been as beautiful as portrayed without extensive facial reconstruction surgery. A bull’s foot to the face would have been devastating and being stomped has hard as he was would have been a long, difficult recovery. The sponsor’s expectation of Sky to ride, especially after his jump into the chute with Parker and getting injured again, was ludicrous. They knew he was retiring and how extensive his injuries were that he was still recovering from. Even expecting him to show up and do all the promotions was ridiculous and unrealistic.
All in all I liked this story. I like both men and their journey to learn to trust each other again. I’m a sucker for cowboy romances and second chances romances are a favorite of mine so this one checked off quite a few boxes for me.
RATING: 
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