2.5/5 stars - all for Earl’s character, Maggie 0 stars.
Earl “Trigger” has just returned to Valor after his time as a sniper was up with the military. He joined when Maggie was sent away to boarding school because she was dating him at 16, he has never forgotten her and still loves her. Maggie is the youngest daughter of Valor’s mayor. She knows the cops are crooked in town, she’s not sure if her father is. Her sister and her were close as youngsters but after her mom left them, her sister started getting harsher and more critical of her. She betrayed Maggie by telling their father about Earl. She’s finished her business degree and is now back and lives in a house her dad pays for and spends money her dad gives her. She has a job at a florist shop her friend owns but her friend has to let her go because business is so slow. Maggie has never forgiven her father and her sister but she never does anything about it. She complains but continues to take his money and do what they tell her to do. When her friend tells her Earl is back she goes to spy on him at the tattoo shop he works at and later gets a job as the receptionist there. She blindsides Earl the next day, she’s all smiles and flirty while the poor guy is reeling from seeing the love of his life in his shop. They finally talk and kiss, all their feelings come rushing back. He’s all in but Maggie seems unsure of leaving the security of her father’s money. She finally does stand up for herself and for Earl and the MC. Her father tells her she has to pick between Earl/MC or her family. She picks Earl and the MC. Leaving their dinner and argument she calls Earl crying, he comes to get her and takes her to the house he is rehabbing and then the MC clubhouse. They talk some more and have sex. No condom is used and no talk of either of them being with anyone else while they were separated. The book ends here. For a hea epilogue you have to sign up for the author’s newsletter. Epilogue on their wedding day and her telling him she’s pregnant.
I liked Earl but did not like Maggie. Her whole concern was how will she live without her father’s money. She has worked since college, she could have been saving to get out from under his thumb. But she chooses to whine and complain like a spoiled child, which she says people think she is, ah that’s because you are! Earl was much more committed to her than she to him, she acted childish with his feelings. And why write repeatedly about the rift with her sister if there was no reason or resolution given. Trigger deserved a much better heroine, one who loved him.