Kim's Reviews > The Forbidden
The Forbidden (Bluegrass Empires, #2)
by
by
4.5 stars
Kat is a Blackburn through and through. She’s a horse trainer and works tirelessly at her family's horse breeding farm. She’s also sassy, stubborn, and strong-willed. The Mardraggons are their family's enemies, and tensions have only gotten higher due to recent actions of the patriarch that threaten their shared niece. And now Kat has to work with Gabe Mardraggon to share the responsibility of taking care of their niece's legacy winery in Italy. Gabe has been seen as regimented, pretentious, cold, selfish, and arrogant, but is now off kilter due to the changes in his family dynamics recently affecting all aspects of his life.
These two together are fire and ice. They also have a secret history that no one else knows about where there were good times and bad ones. And when it ended, they just folded it into their family feud and hatred and let it keep going. But now that they’re spending more time together because of their niece, Kat is starting to see glimpses of the old Gabe she used to care about. And he’s realizing he still has some unresolved feelings for her too. The ice starts to melt away, leaving the smoldering fire that keeps getting hotter. Passion is one thing but they have already shared heartbreak once.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to like Gabe at first because he did seem pretentious and only driven by money, but I started to like him as I saw his layers peel away and how he felt about his niece and Kat and understood more about his past. He won me over and ended up being a protective, complex hero who sometimes has his own self-worth issues and realizes his family is a dark cloud around him. And Kat is just sassy and outspoken, but she does see more to him than he shows other people. It was nice to see how they had matured and could talk about their past but they also had to face some new challenges and try not to keep repeating the same mistakes. And Kat was a good bridge between Gabe and the Blackburns to help facilitate their niece's relationship with Gabe. And Sylvie is such a sweetheart, and I loved her relationships with her aunt and her uncle.
The hatred between their families runs deep and they gave up before even really fighting it in the past. Will they be brave enough and care enough to challenge their families and try for a second chance?
This is a forbidden, enemies-to-lovers, secret lovers, second chance romance set in the Kentucky backdrop with saddlebred horses and bourbon, but also brings in Italy and wine. It also has a bit of suspense and drama.
There are cameos by the side characters of her brothers Trey, Wade, Ethan and his girlfriend Marcie that we met in the first book, but it could be read as a standalone because the author made sure to explain some of the most important plot points of the first book.
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Kat is a Blackburn through and through. She’s a horse trainer and works tirelessly at her family's horse breeding farm. She’s also sassy, stubborn, and strong-willed. The Mardraggons are their family's enemies, and tensions have only gotten higher due to recent actions of the patriarch that threaten their shared niece. And now Kat has to work with Gabe Mardraggon to share the responsibility of taking care of their niece's legacy winery in Italy. Gabe has been seen as regimented, pretentious, cold, selfish, and arrogant, but is now off kilter due to the changes in his family dynamics recently affecting all aspects of his life.
These two together are fire and ice. They also have a secret history that no one else knows about where there were good times and bad ones. And when it ended, they just folded it into their family feud and hatred and let it keep going. But now that they’re spending more time together because of their niece, Kat is starting to see glimpses of the old Gabe she used to care about. And he’s realizing he still has some unresolved feelings for her too. The ice starts to melt away, leaving the smoldering fire that keeps getting hotter. Passion is one thing but they have already shared heartbreak once.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to like Gabe at first because he did seem pretentious and only driven by money, but I started to like him as I saw his layers peel away and how he felt about his niece and Kat and understood more about his past. He won me over and ended up being a protective, complex hero who sometimes has his own self-worth issues and realizes his family is a dark cloud around him. And Kat is just sassy and outspoken, but she does see more to him than he shows other people. It was nice to see how they had matured and could talk about their past but they also had to face some new challenges and try not to keep repeating the same mistakes. And Kat was a good bridge between Gabe and the Blackburns to help facilitate their niece's relationship with Gabe. And Sylvie is such a sweetheart, and I loved her relationships with her aunt and her uncle.
The hatred between their families runs deep and they gave up before even really fighting it in the past. Will they be brave enough and care enough to challenge their families and try for a second chance?
This is a forbidden, enemies-to-lovers, secret lovers, second chance romance set in the Kentucky backdrop with saddlebred horses and bourbon, but also brings in Italy and wine. It also has a bit of suspense and drama.
There are cameos by the side characters of her brothers Trey, Wade, Ethan and his girlfriend Marcie that we met in the first book, but it could be read as a standalone because the author made sure to explain some of the most important plot points of the first book.
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