*ARC* Until It Fades - Review

Until It Fades

By: K.A. Tucker

Published: June 27, 2017 by Atria Books

368 pages

Source: ebook, Netgalley ARC from publisher

(Goodreads / Amazon)

Summary:

Twenty-four-year-old truck stop waitress and single mother Catherine Wright has simple goals: to give her five-year-old daughter a happy life and to never again be the talk of the town in Balsam, Pennsylvania: population two thousand outside of tourist season.

And then one foggy night, on a lonely road back from another failed attempt at a relationship, Catherine saves a man’s life. It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has saved: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling.

Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works.

For a time.

But when she finds the man she saved standing on her doorstep, desperate to thank her, all that changes. What begins as an immediate friendship quickly turns into something neither of them expected. Something that Catherine isn’t sure she can handle; something that Catherine is afraid to trust.

Because how long can an extraordinary man like Brett be interested in an ordinary woman like Catherine…before the spark fades? 

MY REVIEW:
K.A. Tucker has written another great love story that fans of hers are sure to eat up! If you're new to her books, then trust me when I say that they are filled with emotion, sometimes intense tension between the male and female leads until they finally give in to what they KNOW is there and then BAM, it gets goooooood.

Catherine is a young, 24 year old single mom, working in a truck-stop diner to make ends meet for herself and her daughter. At the age of 18 she leaves home due to a tumultuous relationship with her mother. Learning from her own mistakes she "womans-up" and makes a life for herself. A good, simple life. She hasn't dated in 5 years and basically is very gaurded with her heart and her inner circle of close friends. It's not just her to consider anymore...now she has Brenna to think about. One night on the way home from a blind date gone horribly wrong, she comes across a horrific single vehicle accident. Being the caring human being she is, she stops and attempts to help save the passenger in the vehicle before the car explodes.

Cath's story is told first from alternating between past and present events. Her past in high school is one that caused her and her family a lot of hatred from the very small town and grief. She's done with being in any form of limelight....and then she discovers who exactly the man she saved is. This man is so genuinely grateful to her that he MUST meet her in person. What develops from there is a beautiful relationship that the reader can see coming from miles away.

Oh, Cath....she irritated me at times. I yelled internally at her several times! From her (metaphorical) blindess, to her unwillingness to truly move on from her past, to her struggle with trusting and realizing she IS enough....even for someone like Brett Madden. But I suppose, despite my irritations with this part of her character, I could somewhat understand the journey through which she goes through over a period of 5 years, prior to meeting Brett, and afterward what he helps her to (too slowly) see, that causes her to be insecure and question herself. She needed a big boost in self-confidence and Brett was the man to bring that back out in her.

This book was just what I love in contemporary romance. A happily-ever-after ending with loads of steam mixed in. For the genre in which this one falls (New Adult) I would say this is a bit lighter on the graphic nature....though still mature in content, the descriptiveness of the graphic scenes is slightly less. Language too, though I'm still giving it a medium score, is MUCH less in F-bombs than other books in this same genre.

Top Favorite Quotes:
"If my life depended on your skill with flirting, then hand me a shovel because I may as well dig my own grave."

"Give me at least a shred of hope before I start dropping cats off on your doorstep."

"Life is too short to do what other people think you should do."

"...take advantage of what's in front of you us today, because it might not be there tomorrow, right?"

Language Rating: 2 (medium)
Mature Content Rating: 2 (medium)
Final Rating: 4 stars