Pine River by Tijan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Pine River was supposed to be a new start for me.
And it was, especially attending school with my three overprotective cousins, who were the triplets at the top of the social hierarchy.
Except they weren’t alone there, and the first day when I came to school, I saw him.
Scout Raiden.
Tall. Lean. Tattooed. Mesmerizing.
He was a golden god with dark and piercing eyes-looking like he wanted to eat me up.
The feeling was mutual, and that was a problem.
It was lust-want-must have-loathing-hate all at once. I was affected.
And I couldn’t have that. No way.
Not after what I’d just left in Cedra Valley.
I didn’t care how much money his uncle had.
I didn’t care that it seemed every girl wanted him.
I didn’t care about his reputation as an up-and-coming fighter.
Or the promise of how those hands would make me feel.
What I did care about was staying as far away from Scout as possible.
Because the promise of his presence, the heat that was going to turn the light back on in my world wasn’t a promise at all.
It was a threat.
I wasn’t going to survive Scout Raiden.
A contentious beginning!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙🖤💜❤️💖
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌎
Character development: 🤨😟😳🥰🥰
The heroine: Ramsey Williams – she and her mom just moved from a bad situation in Cedra Valley to Pine River, with a population of about 3000, nearly the same amount of people as she had in her grade at her last high school. But her mom thought moving closer to family was the best thing after what happened in Cedra Valley. Ramsey has popular triplet cousins in Pine River to help her out.
The Hero: Scout Raiden – he was a golden god, covered in tattoos, tall, muscular and handsome. He fights in sanctioned MMA fights and is training to be in the UFC once he is old enough. He has been training with his uncle and has been building his name in professional fighting circles. Scout has only been in town for a year and is at the very top of the hierarchy at Pine River High School, along with the triplets Clint, Alex and Trenton. All the girls want him, and they guys want to be him.
The Story: Ramsey just wanted to blend in and not stand out. Her dad died last year, and his family was fighting her and her mom for the money they had, so they had to do without this year, their lives weren’t quite up to the standards they were used to before he passed away. However, from day one, when her cousins outed her as family and made a bid deal about her, she knew that blending into the background at Pine River wasn’t going to happen.
Ramsey and Scout noticed each other from the start, and both of them immediately disliked each other because of it. They both have issues from their past that they are trying to deal with as they live their day to day lives. This is definitely an enemies-to-lovers story, though the two main characters were very attracted to each other from the get-go. Their chemistry was explosive!
“I said it, but I’m saying it again. Your cousin and I can’t stand each other, but it’s the same with needing to touch each other. I don’t get it. I don’t like it, but it’s there. There are no emotions between us. She and I know exactly where the other is with this thing.”
The book was told in dual points of view, which I like, because I love to get to see what the Hero is thinking. Also, nobody can do high school drama like Tijan. I love that though her characters are in high school, they always seem so much more experienced than most high school students. I also enjoy young love; it has a potency that you just don’t get in contemporary romance with more mature main characters.
Tijan’s characters are always so tough and such warriors, they are fierce and can handle themselves in any situation. She also is so great at writing fully developed supporting characters who you just have to love. The triplet cousins were absolutely fabulous and there were just so many great characters in this book, I wouldn’t be able to detail all of them. But I would love to see books with some of these other characters. This book made me want to go back to Tijan’s list of books and finally read some of the few I haven’t yet read.
I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
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