Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove #1) by Catherine Cowles

I’m really loving the Catherine Cowles romantic suspense, and Across the Vanishing Sky gives us the first in a series that follows five brothers whose father was a serial killer. I mean, the potential here is mighty!

I did enjoy this, just not as much as All the Missing Pieces, we do get a Ridley and Colt cameo though, but as a series this has a lot of potential.

Brae is awesome, and her love for her friend makes her a total legend, and she quite rightly had some reservations about falling for another man, but she went on about it a lot! The manufactured conflict between herself and Dex also felt very forced. It’s like it wanted to be enemies to lovers but there was almost no reason for their to be conflict. Brae cuts Dex off with her car in town, and Dex mistakenly moves into her cabin. This really isn’t reason enough for these two to be so rude to each other.

Once the silliness is sorted out though I enjoyed them together, I especially enjoyed the bond Brae had with all of Dex’s family. It was sweet and set up the start of the healing journey for all the Archer boys. I’m most looking forward to Orion’s story which I suspect with be last.

I also really did enjoy the bond that Dex had with Owen, it probably was a little bit fast for real life, but this is a romance and Dex and Brae’s relationship was also super instant so why not the ‘father and son’ bond as well! 😀

Hard not to like Dex, tortured brooding nerdy hero with tattoos!! I mean, sign me the fuck up. I totally understand the reasons the whole family has for being traumatised, and I love that they are using their resources for good. Dex is certainly in a bad place mentally when he gets back to Starlight Grove, and he (and the whole family) need a lot of therapy, but it was nice that Brae was so understanding of his needs once they were communicated.

I will stress though, EVERYONE in this book would benefit from therapy!

I’m a little bit wary of Into the Fading Twilight (book two) which is Nova and Kol’s book. Nova has been through SOME SHIT, and Kol right at this moment, does not seem best placed to see to her needs, and adding a kid to the mix, no matter how awesome she is (shoutout to Skylar) makes me apprehensive. I’ll obviously be reading it though! 🙂

Synopsis:

He spent a lifetime trying to escape his dark past…but to save her, he’ll wade back into the shadows.

Braedyn Winslow never expected to return to Starlight Grove—the town that took everything from her. Not after her best friend, the one who’d sacrificed so much for her, vanished without a trace. But with a young son to raise and a past that won’t stay buried, Brae is back…and determined to uncover the truth.

She just didn’t count on the brooding, reclusive mountain man living next door.

Dex Archer is the stuff of local legend—silent, rugged, and surrounded by whispers of his and his brothers’ violent father. But Brae sees through the scowl and his parentage to the man beneath: fiercely loyal, unexpectedly kind…and just dangerous enough to protect her when someone starts warning her off her search.

The closer she gets to the truth, the harder it is to stay away from Dex. And as things get more perilous, Brae realizes the only person she can rely on is the one man who swore never to trust again.

Only someone isn’t happy that Brae has been digging, and they’ll do anything to stop her. But Dex? He’ll do anything to save her, even slip back into the dark…