Hold On

The 'BurgHold OnKristen Ashley

Oct 3

Written by Ally Talley

The ‘Burg #6

By Kristen Ashley

~ Can be read as a standalone ~

TheStory

Garrett “Merry” Merrick has been pining after his ex-wife for years. When that journey finally comes to an end, Merry find Cher, one of his favorite friends of their friend group, is there to help him get past it.

After years of pining after Merry, Cher finally has her chance at happy, and it will take everything both of them have to hold on through the storms that come their way.

TheReview

Dude… these two.

They slay.

I found Cher to be the deepest character in this entire series. I didn’t even know she would have her own book when I started making my way through this series.

Cher has come to terms with the fact that she will never get what she wants out of life (apart from her son), but she is just going to be A-OK with that. She knows people think poorly of her, but she just doesn’t care because she in no way thinks poorly of herself. She’s perfectly happy being who she is, kicking ass at being a mom, and being single forever. She has closed herself off to the world, to love, and to thinking Merry will ever return her feelings.

But that’s just the beginning. She loves herself completely, but won’t let anyone else truly love her. She knows what people think of her (or thinks she does), but is completely unwilling to change herself for anyone. She wants what is best for her son, but she’s too closed off to put herself out there.

THAT is what makes her so much more interesting than the other characters, for me. She isn’t the basic wounded woman needing a man. She didn’t need Merry to convince her that she was worthwhile. She already knew it. Just didn’t know how to let someone in to also believe that with her.

Her growth journey was learning how to let someone access the parts of herself that she decided no one could touch.

Clearly, I’m obsessed with her.

Watching her and Merry navigate their fears, concerns, issues, and lives together by helping each other and holding on to what they have was freaking beautiful.

In a similar vein to Cher, Merry is a bad ass. He is so good to Cher. He didn’t make a single promise that he wasn’t 100% sure he could keep. He kept Cher fully informed and never waivered once he made a decision. He was protective of her life and feelings in ways she didn’t even realize at first.

Their back-and-forth was EVERYTHING! The bickering. Him pushing, her retreating. Then her pushing, and him retreating. Him screwing up. Her mouthing off. Ugh! It was just so good. It felt so natural and real, it completely sucked me into the story.

This whole book was so good because there was happy, there was drama of many different kinds, there was romance and it kept a good pace with all of that.

The epilogue in this one wraps up each couple from the burg’s stories, ending with Ethan. heart emoji

I absolutely loved this one. Cher and Merry are right up there with Cal and Vi.

Each book had a unique rating for me but for the series as a whole, I’d give it three stars (maybe three and a half). It was good but it could have been shorter (like 5 books instead of 6 and maybe 400 pages each instead of nearly 600).