Last Chance Rebel by Maisey Yates (Copper Ridge #6)
Released: August 30, 2016
Contemporary Romance
Harlequin

Reviewed by Mandi

“Rebecca has a special friend.”

The wave of heat intensified, and Rebecca felt like she might suffocate beneath her embarrassment. “He’s not a…Don’t call him that.”

“A special friend?” Alison raised an eyebrow.

“Like a special friend…like a penis friend?

I love a grouchy, somber, Maisey Yates hero, and she gives a good one in Gage. When Gage was eighteen he was carefree, and responsibility free, and caused a very bad accident, injuring our heroine, Rebecca. Besides a lot of physical therapy, and her mother abandoning her and her brother, Rebecca is left with some scarring on her face and body. Gage fled town too, but now to everyone’s dismay, he is back in Copper Ridge. Gage left as a spoiled kid, and is back as a man who feels the weight of all of his mistakes. Gage’s father owns many businesses in Copper Ridge, and is very ill, so Gage is in line to take over the reigns (grudgingly) . Since he has been gone for sixteen years, his relationship with his brother and sisters is pretty non-existent. They have managed just fine without him and aren’t thrilled he is back. Worse, Gage’s father owns the property that Rebecca rents for her beloved store. Gage has realized that his father is having money trouble, and he is going to have to sell off some of these properties to pay down the debt. He can’t imagine causing Rebecca any more harm, so he offers to just give her the building, causing her pride to rise up.

“Rebecca,” he said, his voice low, intense. “We need to talk.”

“No, we don’t,” she said, her throat getting tight. “Not if you’re who I think you are. We don’t need to do anything. You need to get the ever-loving hell out of my store before I grab the shotgun I keep under the counter.”

Rebecca thought for years that she received insurance money after the accident, but what she didn’t know is that Gage wrote her a big anonymous check. With this new information, Rebecca is insistent to work for Gage, to earn that money. Gage of course doesn’t want Rebecca owing him anything, but he comes to find out she can be very stubborn.

Maisey Yates does a nice job with balancing the pain and anger that Rebecca faces in life. She has moved on from that accident, but with the scars and the occasional limping, she holds onto resentment regarding Gage.

“Everybody has monsters in their closet when they’re little. You were mine. You are the reason I was in physical therapy. The reason I endured months of recovery. The reason that I had to have more than one surgery to try to restore the skin on parts of my body.”

He titled his head back, as though her words were physical blows. “I know.”

When he walks into her store with his muscles and low voice her anger bubbles up from the past. He ran away and lived his life, and she was left alone to heal. It wasn’t fair and he fully admits it. He owns up to his prior reckless behavior, but at the same time never pities her. He wants to protect her and doesn’t want to cause her anymore pain but he is also awed by her tenacity. They start out very rocky  (obviously) but slowly Gage realizes how beautiful she is and how feisty she is and wants to be with her.

I liked that Rebecca fought against her attraction to Gage, because of what happened in the past. But I also liked how their romance plays out.

Gage has to win back his siblings too, and that is not an easy task. They are bitter about him leaving and their reunion felt very realistic to me.

A good combination of angst and sexy romance.

Grade: B

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