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Monday, 6 April 2015

Overruled (Legal Briefs #1) by Emma Chase - ARC Review

 

Blurb:


 
 

Emma Chase, New York Times bestselling author of the Tangled Series, returns with the first installment of the Legal Briefs Series.

As a DC defense attorney, Stanton Shaw keeps his head cool, his questions sharp, and his arguments irrefutable. They don’t call him the Jury Charmer for nothing – with his southern drawl, disarming smile and captivating green eyes – he’s a hard man to say no to. Men want to be him and women want to be thoroughly cross examined by him.

Stanton’s a man with a plan. And for a while, life was going according to that plan.

Until the day he receives an invitation to the wedding of his high school sweetheart and mother of his beloved ten-year old daughter. Jenny is getting married — to someone who isn’t him.

That's definitely not part of the plan.
***

Sofia Santos is a city raised, no-nonsense litigator who plans to become the most revered criminal defense attorney in the country. She doesn’t have time for relationships or distractions.

But when Stanton, her "friend with mind-blowing benefits" begs for help, she finds herself out of her element, out of her depth, and obviously out of her mind. Because she agrees to go with him – to The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Mississippi – to do all she can to help Stanton win back the woman he loves.

Her head tells her she's crazy...and her heart says something else entirely.
***

What happens when you mix a one stop-light town, two professional arguers, a homecoming queen, four big brothers, some Jimmy Dean sausage and a gun-toting Nana?

The Bourbon flows, passions rise and even the best laid plans get overruled by the desires of the heart.



Kristine's Review:

Reviewed: April 2015.



When you are young the world is at your feet, you make plans because all you have is time, and you never consider your plans going off track because you don't honestly believe it's possible for anything to change, but life is funny like that, things happen and best laid plans are left in the dust and all you can do is change with them. When Stanton and Jenny's plans for the future are suddenly thrown off course with the news of her falling pregnant, two childhood sweethearts are forced to reevaluate what they had always planned. A baby in their teens never even entered into their sub conscious, but they learn to adapt and to focus on the future. Between nursing school, raising a child and Stanton studying pre law half way across the country these two adjust to a new way of life. There's never a question of being in one another's lives, they aren't just the parents to a sweet little girl Presley but they are the other half to each other's whole, but life is complicated and as the years pass these two enter into a together but separate existence. Each is free to do as they please, with a don't ask - don't tell policy firmly in place but as invariably happens life coasts along and unbeknownst to Stanton things are changing, in ways he can't possibly comprehend or want to address.

When he receives a wedding invitation for Jenny, to a man obviously other than him, his world is set into a tail spin, suddenly the years spent sowing his oats and experiencing everything a single mans life entails no longer matter, he's always been successful fighting in a court of law but suddenly he's got a fight on his hands to prove to Jenny that what they have isn't over.

Overruled is a complicated look at the lives of four people, it begs the question that when you're busy chasing someone, who's left chasing you? Sofia is ballsy, strong, accomplished, she is busy carving out her place in a mans world and she has her goals firmly set, but her connection to Stanton is far deeper then she's ever been willing to admit. She is essentially the kind of woman I want to be when I grow up, there's a quiet fragility in her strength, and her confidence is inspired but ultimately the star of this story for me was Jenny. Soft and smart, strong and sure, Jenny shows a depth of feeling, a strength of character that belies her age, where Stanton and Sofia are busy hiding from the truth, it's Jenny who sees everything for what it is, she sees the past, lives in the present and plans for the future. She was never been the naive girl that I think Stanton sees her as, her grasp on who she is and what she wants is so clear that you can't help fall in love with her.

"I'm in love with you Jenny"

"No, you're not. It's an echo. Of who we were, of promises we made, the passion we had. But an echo's not real - you can't build a life on it. It's just a memory of a sound."

There's a beauty in her words, a strength in her honesty, Overruled forces you to question whether what you always believed is the truth in your present. It forces you to take stock of your life, to look at your world and question what it all means. Because in some way we've all been in love with a memory of what was, and of what will never be, questioning your path is part of becoming an adult.

 

 

 

Pre Order/Purchase Links:

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1MhGBmG
Amazon Paperback: http://amzn.to/1L3IGnz
 

About Emma Chase:

 
 
 
By day, Emma Chase is a devoted wife and mother of two who resides in a small, rural town in New Jersey. By night she is a keyboard crusader, toiling away the hours to bring her colorful characters and their endless antics to life. She has a long standing love/hate relationship with caffeine.

Emma is an avid reader. Before her children were born she was known to consume whole books in a single day. Writing has also always been a passion and with the 2013 release of her debut romantic comedy, Tangled, the ability to now call herself an author is nothing less than a dream come true.
 
Twitter: @emmachase

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1IW4jzv

Official Website: http://www.emmachase.net/
 
 
 


 

 

 

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