Release Blitz + Review: "Playing Dirty in Alaska" by Samanthe Beck

I'm happy to join the release blitz celebrating "Playing Dirty in Alaska" by Samanthe Beck, book #2 of the Captivity, Alaska series. Characters from the previous book make appearances in this one, but it reads as a standalone. 

 

Alaskan bush pilot Bridget Shanahan is working on being more responsible so that she can help her brother Trace with the management of their family business, Captivity Air and Freight. He's heading off on his honeymoon and leaving her in charge of the airfield, and Bridget wants Trace to know that he can trust her to handle things while he's gone. The last thing she needs is her college ex-boyfriend, Archer Ellison III, showing up four years after their breakup, determined to win her back. Bridget wants nothing to do with Archer after the way he unceremoniously dumped her in college, though it's tough to fight the chemistry that is as strong as ever between them. When a silly dare leads to Bridget being injured, she can't afford to refuse Archer's offer of help in Trace's absence. Will it be the opening Archer needs to convince Bridget to give him another chance?

For the most part, I enjoyed Archer and Bridget's second chance romance. Their banter was fun and they certainly had plenty of chemistry. However, I was sometimes a bit uncomfortable with Archer's behavior towards Bridget because it felt manipulative. She was really vulnerable after losing her twin brother, Shay, in a plane crash a few months earlier. In the previous book of the series, Archer tried to take advantage of that to purchase Trace's interest in Captivity Air and Freight so that he could force Bridget to work with him. When that failed, he decided to move to Alaska and pursue her anyway. Despite Archer's behavior, I truly believed that he loved Bridget, and nothing he did was intended maliciously; it just didn't always feel honest. He wasn't very good at communicating with her, either. Bottom line, Archer wanted Bridget to trust him but wasn't willing to fully trust her, and that was a real problem right up until the end of the book.

Overall, I did enjoy and would recommend "Playing Dirty in Alaska," though "Wild in Captivity" remains my favorite of the series so far. I look forward to the next book.

 

*Review copy provided by the author/publisher via Grey's Promotions. All opinions expressed are my own.  

 

 

About "Playing Dirty in Alaska"

Bush pilot Bridget Shanahan runs from responsibility like a child runs from a dentist appointment, but when her brother leaves the family’s airfield in her hands, she knows it’s time to step up and behave like a Responsible Adult ™. So of course that’s when Archer Ellison III blows into her tiny town of Captivity, Alaska, every inch the hot-as-hell mistake that most definitely belongs in her past. Been there, done that, and didn’t even get to keep the commemorative sweatshirt

Archer has only ever had two goals. Now that he’s built his own empire outside his father’s company, he can move on to goal #2—winning back the one who got away by whatever means necessary. He knows it won’t be easy. Bridget Shanahan is older, wiser, more self-assured, and jaw-droppingly stunning…and doing everything she can to pretend the scorching chemistry between them doesn’t exist.

But fate is on his side. After an impulsive bet that would have sent Archer packing goes awry, Bridget is officially stuck with him. Which is really inconvenient, since falling for Archer again is the least responsible thing she could do.