Samantha Young ~ Beyond the Thistles ~ Release Blitz / Teaser / ARC Review

Beyond the Thistles by Samantha Young is now live!

A grumpy vs sunshine, age-gap, romantic suspense set in the Scottish Highlands.

It’s been a long time since Walker Ironside left behind Scotland and the memories that haunt him. Yet after years of traveling the world as a bodyguard, Walker misses his homeland enough to return. To a village in the Scottish Highlands that plays host to an exclusive members-only club, Ardnoch Estate. If not happy, Walker is content working with the elite security at the club and maintaining his bachelor lifestyle. What he doesn’t need is distraction in the form of the enticing but too-young newcomer, single mother Sloane Harrow.

Sloane never imagined she’d get pregnant at sixteen. Or that a decade later she’d escape from California with her daughter, Callie, to start over in the Scottish Highlands. Hidden and safe from Callie’s dangerous father, Sloane is satisfied with their new lives. Her daughter is happy. Sloane has a stable job, a quaint cottage, a passion for baking that might just be turning into a business, and a huge crush on brooding security guard Walker Ironside. Unfortunately, the grumpy Scot seems immune to Sloane’s charm, but she can’t help but try to seduce him with cupcakes and baked treats whenever the opportunity arises.

However, when someone arrives in Ardnoch intent on destroying Sloane’s life, Walker is the first to step forward to protect her and Callie. Even if it means giving into temptation and awakening his own demons. Because in doing so, Walker faces failing not only to shield Sloane from her past, but to safeguard her against his own.

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My ARC Review:

A spin off from the Adair Family series – I wasn’t ready to leave the Scottish Highlands and all the Adair’s behind yet – still set in Ardnoch with all the character’s we’ve come to love from the Adair series still around in this one, which was lovely to see, as we watch bodyguard Walker, a brooding grumpy giant of a Scot fight his feelings for Sloane and her 10 yr old daughter Callie.

Sloane was only 17 yrs old when she had Callie, caught up in a dangerous world with a bad man, it took her years to get out from under his dominion and taking their daughter to start over in Ardnoch where she was going to become a member of the housekeeping staff. Callie was her life, her only other passion was baking, which she did whenever she could, trying to earn a bit more money to help her little family along. She’d met Walker a few times and had felt an attraction to him like no other man, but he was grumpy and standoffish, barely giving her the time of day or talking to her. But Sloane had her sights set on him, determined to tempt him with her baking wares which he seemed unable to resist.

Walker came to Ardnoch as Brodan’s bodyguard, never believing he would settle here. Sloane was new to the castle, she had caught his eye, but she had a young daughter and was too young for him, she would want a relationship, which Walker had never done, so he kept himself away from her, until danger came to the castle and he was the first one to step forward to protect Sloane and her daughter Callie. Being near to her did bad things to his heart and his senses, driving him to distraction.

I loved these two! Walker is such an enigma, a brooding hulking figure, not much to talking, cold and fierce, until Sloane and Callie came into his life, knocking down all his defenses, but he was frightened to get into a real relationship, having to share his deep dark secrets. Sloane was a wonderful mum to Callie, trying to give her everything she needed, having also suffered a lot already herself. But this poor woman just couldn’t get a break in this one, that poor lass had so much to put up with and go through, I really felt for her! Lots of twists and turns in the plot that you just don’t see coming, just when you thought you could relax, bam! A brilliant read, was great to see all the Adairs again in this and catch up with them as well. Looking forward to the next one in this series.

Meet Samantha:

Samantha Young is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She’s been nominated for several Goodreads Choice Awards. Samantha writes adult contemporary and paranormal romance, YA urban fantasy and YA contemporary fiction and is currently published in 31 countries.