Let me start by saying that this really isn't a standalone.
I guess, if you want to get technical, you can read this one without having met Hudson and Alayna in any previous books. Or Chandler, or Celia, or any of the other characters. You could. I suppose. You would be able to follow along, and you will know what is happening, and you will know why it matters to Hudson and Alayna in the present, and it is explaned why it matters in the past.
But, here's the thing...you wouldn't want to get just half of this story. It's just too good.
There are so many scenes in this that not only draw you into the current story, but also pull you into your memories of the stories that came before it. Of a man facing who he used to be, and is no longer, but facing it because now it seems like the person he was in the past is threatening the life he has built in the present.
Hudson wasn't always a good man. There are parts of him that are still dark, things about him that have changed, but yet he still will always be the man who was capable of the things in his past...even if he would never do them in the present. And, what a ride this takes you on as a reader, as you get to know the Hudson who has moved on while seeing glimpses of who he was.
At the core of this story you find a man who is faced with his past, who is trying to keep the things he has done in the past from altering his present. I have mentioned before that Laurelin Paige writes some of the best male POV, and this is incredibly evident here, as you see Hudson struggle with his past while still using some of those same traits to justify his actions in the present. He isn't totally honest, he's willing to bend the rules, to tell some half truths, and to use the people he needs to in order to protect the things he loves. And, it makes you question if he has really changed all that much, or if he has just developed a little bit more of a conscience to help guide him in the decisions he makes.
This book is absolutely everything you want it to be.
I recommend this title.