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I am Lover of romance, who indulges in the romantic adventures of literature

My name is Renee, and I am the host of this site. I am a 34 year old woman, on the prowl for her mate, searching out the best of books, exploring the wilds of the imagination and delving into the heart of a beautiful love story.

 

Book Review-Worth It by Linda Kage

by | May 17, 2022 | Book Reviews | 6 comments

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

About The Book

I fell in love once.

It was amazing. She was amazing. Life was amazing.

I lived for each time I could see her, and nothing else mattered, not that our families were enemies, our time together was forbidden, or we had to meet in secret.

Our love could conquer all.

Until it didn’t.

So I was ripped away from the love of my life and shoved into hell, forced to continue without her.

It shattered me, broke the best parts of me, left me permanently damaged.

Or so I thought.

Years later, I swear history’s trying to repeat itself because she’s back in my life, and I’m just as drawn to her as I was before. But I’m older and wiser now, and I know she should stay away from a worthless ex-con like me.

So, I will not let her in. I absolutely refuse to hurt her. I will keep her away.

Then again, sometimes risking your greatest fear to get to a smile makes everything worth it, and besides, I’m not sure I can resist her, anyway.

This is the story of how Felicity Bainbridge changed my life forever, starting one summer day long ago after I was forced to change a dirty diaper…

–Knox Parker

Love doesn’t understand time. It doesn’t care if people change. It just grows where it grows.

My Review

First Impressions

Worth It is the sixth installment in the Forbidden Men series and I absolutely had so much fun with this story. It’s been so long since I have read this series and it was like visiting an old friend, being back with some of my favorite characters, and seeing them in their HEA. Worth It was a powerful story and such an emotionally evoking romance. Linda Kage is one of my favorite new adult romances for a good reason, and getting back to Worth It made me realize why I love it so much. This is a second chance romance, and we see two storylines of the past and the present. I wasn’t a big fan of this, as it went back and forth, but it actually wasn’t written in a way that bothered me too much. I think the author just has a writing style that will work for me no matter what she writes. This book is guaranteed to have you in your feelings and crying buckets at times.

She wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met… She didn’t treat me like a nobody. In fact, I don’t think anyone had ever treated me the way Felicity treated me, or looked at me the way she looked at me. Like I was something special. Like I was someone.

Summary

Knox and Felicity have an epic romance where they met out in the forest, and Felicity and Knox come from opposite families, who are enemies and hate each other. But Felicity is drawn to Knox, and when he is on the run from her family, she protects him and she doesn’t even know why at first. As Knox and Felicity begin a budding friendship, keeping it a secret from both of their families. Their fresh friendship turns into something deeper. But then when Knox and Felicity are caught and Knox is accused of Rape he spends years in prison, but the one thing that keeps him going is his girl with long curly hair and their moments in the forest. Knox is then released from prison and it’s been six years since that fateful day he runs into the Forbidden Men crew when he aids a pregnant woman who is in labor and being brought into their found family. Not knowing that his girl is part of their family, and as much as his soul cries out for hers, he knows what he experienced in prison haunts him and he won’t bring that darkness to her, as she deserves light and love and he doesn’t believe he is capable of giving what she deserves, as he is not the boy she once fell in love with. Felicity has never forgotten Knox, and now that he is back in her life, will fight for the man sinking in the darkness and bring him back to the light.

No matter what happens today, don’t ever change. You are fun and sweet and amazing just the way you are. You make the world a better place because you always find the bright side. You ARE the bright side. And if I’m ever going to make it through this, I need to know you’re out there, still glowing and making the world bright.

What I Loved

Worth It was such a powerful read and my heart just ached for these two. In the first half of the story we receive alternating chapters of when they first find each other and their journey of falling in love and then the present of seeing Knox finding the Forbidden Men clan and being brought into their circle. There were so many moments when I was completely swept away. Their story just captivated me from the beginning. I wanted so much for Knox and Felicity to find their way together. This does deal with some issues of class differences as Felicity’s family is rich and Knox is poor. What connects them is Knox’s sister was knocked up by one of Felicity brothers and their family refuse to claim responsibility. But seeing the way that Knox and Felicity bond over their niece was so precious. I really enjoyed their past dialogue, seeing them share in each other in nature and the forest. It had such an earthy vibe to it which I really resonated with. I knew my heart would break in seeing what would tear them apart and man my poor KNOX!! Then we see him go through these moments of rage and intense emotion due to what he experienced in prison. (check the trigers below) we also see how tormented he is knowing that due to what happened to him that his girl didn’t live her dreams and man my soul ached for him. His love for his Felicity was so enduring and beautiful. But then we have Felicity who is a fighter. I love how she doesn’t let Knox push her away and when she learns everything about his time in prison, the way she stands for him was such an epic moment. Then we also get many introductions back with the Forbidden men Clan!! And you know Ten is still my FAVORITE haha he was such a hoot. Definitely, so much humor which really balanced out the more serious tones of the story,

“We’ve never really been apart. From the moment you bumped into me in those woods, we’ve belonged to each other… and we’ll always love each other. You know why?” I leaned in to whisper… “Because we don’t know how to stop.”

What I Struggled With

The pacing with the flashback scenes is what I had an issue with or it’s possible it was just me, haha But I wasn’t quite as involved in those chapters as the present laid out storyline.

Overall View

Worth It was a story that was delivered perfectly in just about every way…It has tender emotion, human struggle, the strength of character beautifully displayed, and a warm and endearing romance to curl your toes!!

My heart hasnt changed.”I grew up and tried to move on,but right here….”She pummeled her chest with her fist.”This is still the same,and since the moment you ran into me in the woods…it has beaten for you”.

Except

(I wanted to share this as its the perfect display of humor from our crew)

“Hey, everyone. This is Knox Parker. He’s our new bartender.”

All four men spun around, and every gaze landed on me.

The fourth guy finally wandered closer, eyeing me up and down. “Since when do we have a new bartender?”

“Since today,” Pick answered casually.

Mr. Curious hitched his chin Pick’s way. “Is this the ex-con?”

Pick shook his head and sighed. “Ten,” he muttered. “You got a big fucking mouth, you know that?”

“What?” Ten shrugged. “Was I supposed to keep that secret?”

“Just…” Pick lifted his hands. “Let’s not go spreading his record around outside the six of us, okay? In fact, for the first week or so, you all don’t even know his name. Got it?”

None of the other bartenders seemed to get it. They stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. I gave him my own confused glance, wondering why he wanted even my name kept under wraps. But he didn’t explain himself.

Finally, the one Ten had called Lowe pointed at me as he asked Pick. “Is he—”

“Yes,” Pick clipped out, sending Lowe a hard stare before Lowe whirled back to me and studied me from head to toe.

A moment later, he huffed out a strange sounding, “Oh.”

I had no idea what they were talking about, so I transferred a leery scowl between the two of them, hoping they’d clue me in. But all Lowe did when I glanced at him was offer me a nervous smile and a greeting nod, which only made me warier. What the hell?

From his bar stool, Hart tipped his chin up and decided to talk to me directly. “So what’d you do time for?”

I turned my attention to him, and something in my gaze must’ve intimidated him because he took an untrusting pull back in his seat. Since it was obvious I already skeeved him out, I couldn’t help myself; I answered, “Rape and murder.”

A pregnant pause followed before Ten exploded, “What the fuck, Pick? You just hired a murdering rapist to work with us? DUDE!”

Pick sent me a dry glance as if to tell me to keep my mouth shut. But I only gazed back, unrepentant. It wasn’t as if I’d lied. I HAD done time for both accusations.

Rubbing a spot on his forehead, Pick frowned at his bartenders. “How long have you idiots known me? Do you honestly think I’d hire a rapist?”

The disgust in his voice seemed to relieve them, but the one still standing closest to me, visually inspecting me, asked, “What about the murdering part?”

Pick shrugged. Then he glanced at Lowe and murmured, “I’m sure he had a good reason for that.”

“Oh, great. That’s just great.” Ten threw his hands into the air and spun away, before facing Pick again. “When he rapes and murders ME, please tell my wife he PROBABLY had a good reason for it.”

Hart, still sitting in front of the laptop snickered. “If he murdered you, Ten, he WOULD have a good reason.”

Title: Worth It

Author: Linda Kage

Genre: New Adult Romance

Format: eBook

Source: Purchased

Length: 395 Pages

Amazon| Barnes and Noble| Kobo| Goodreads| LibraryThing| StoryGraph| Literal Club

Book Evaluation

Storytelling Quality: 4

Story Itself: 4.25

Character Development: 4

Writing Style: 4

World Building 425

Feels + The Romantic Heart 4

Pacing 4.5

Plot 4

Cover Art 5

Ending 4.25

Book Ratings

Overall Rating of the Book

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Steam Level

Simmering—soft warm touches and light intimacy

Warm- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.

Steamin’ up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.

Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

Trigger Warnings

Mentions of Cheating, Abuse, Sexual Assault, Bullying

Series Order

Forbidden Men

Price of a Kiss-Pub 2013 #1 in the Series

To Professor, With Love-Pub 2014 #2 in the Series

Be My Hero-Pub 2014 #3 in the Series

With Every Heartbeat-Pub 2015 #4 in the Series

A Perfect Ten-Pub 2015 #5 in the Series

Worth It-Pub 2015 #6 in the Series

The Girl’s Got Secrets-Pub 2015 #7 in the Series

Priceless-Pub 2016 #8 in the Series

Consolation-Pub 2016 #9 in the Series

The Price of Mason-Pu 2018 #10 in the Series

About The Author

Linda writes romance fiction from YA to adult, contemporary to fantasy. Most Kage stories lean more toward the lighter, funner side with a couple meaningful moments thrown in that center around love and hope. Focuses more on entertainment value and emotional impact than realism. She likes the drama and crazy, over-the-top plots that make you cry then laugh, get mad then sigh happily.

Published since 2010. Went through a 2-year writing correspondence class in children’s literature from The Institute of Children’s Literature. Then graduated with Bachelors in Arts, English with an emphasis in creative fiction writing from Pittsburg State University.

Now she lives with hubby, two daughters, cat Holly, and nine cuckoo clocks in southeast Kansas, USA. Farm girl. Parents were dairy farmers. Was youngest of eight. Big family. Day job as a cataloging library assistant.

Harry Potter House Gryffindor, Patronus White Stallion, character match Hagrid. Supernatural Team Dean. Game of Thrones Team Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister. The Walking Dead Team Daryl. Outlander Team Jamie Fraser. Teen Wolf Team Stiles. Avenger Team Thor…or Hulk (can’t decide). Justice League Team Flash. Arrow Team Stephen Amell. Stranger Things obsessed. Heard Laurel, not Yanny.

Started out reading with the Baby-Sitters Club. Then moved to Sandra Brown, Linda Howard, Julie Garwood, and LaVyrle Spencer in high school. Now all over the place with her romance reading tastes.

Website|Goodreads|Twitter|Instagram

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6 Comments

  1. Tanya @ Girl Plus Books

    This one sounds super heartfelt and emotional. I’m off to go look up the series.

    Reply
    • Lover of Romance

      Yes Tanya!! I think you would really love this series. They have been some of my favorites for new adult.

      Reply
  2. anovelglimpse

    I haven’t read anything in this series. This one sounds very heavy. I feel for the MCs and what they probably went through.

    Reply
    • Lover of Romance

      Yes! If you like new adult then I recommend it. Each book is a bit different, but she uses great humor to balance it out. But each book has a different kind of “forbidden” scenario trope.

      Reply
  3. Nadene

    Ok, another book to add to my ever growing TBR.

    Reply

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