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A review by ivanareadsalot
Downfall by Parker St. John, Parker St. John
4.0
I would like to thank GRR for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
Ahhhhh i'm so sad this series is over, but also, because Down Home has such a special place in my heart, i know that when i'm in the mood for a cowboy comfort reread, this will be one i'll reach for, and i love that so much! Always happy to celebrate a bingeable series that has brought me so much swoony joy over the years!
Seth and Aiden really had to work for their HEA in this final installment. Both were babes with baggage and so seated in their individual headspaces that they'd no chance to truly pull themselves out of their self-imposed prisons without the electric energy of the other.
I'm usually not a fan of messy, but there was something so sweet and vulnerable about Aiden that it was hard not to feel for him and love him to bits throughout this book. Even when i wanted to shake him hard and hug him just as intensely!
That being said, i am absolutely NOT A FAN of mother figures like Aiden's. I am even less a fan of the easy forgiveness of the kind of vitriolic trash that was Aiden's mother. Imo if i spend a significant amount of time hating on a vile character who deeply impacts the health and stability of my MC, i want justice and proper retribution for that c*nt. I didn't get that here, and i'm steaming from the ears about it...buuuuut I get why the bowels of hell did not open up to reclaim Babs. The MCs were quality humans and she was the caustic foil for their development, but i will never have any sympathy for a parent who kicks their kid out to fend for themselves. Go fk yourself!
Moving on.
Aiden was found by the right people, and luckily grew into a wild vivacious thing, inevitably drawing serious and sturdy Seth (and pretty much everyone he encountered) into his sunshiney orbit...hoping that by being an affable puppy it would ease the desire to give him the boot. And caretaker Seth could no more resist Aiden's complexity than hinder his intrinsic nature to keep the people he loved safe. Even from himself. In the most roundabout way, but still.
Neither of them wanted to hurt each other, but they did it anyway. Both of them running from their feelings and pushing the other away, complicating 2+2 when they should have both tried harder to stand as 1. But it's the nature of small town Sweetwater to hone her cowboys through these sorts of hardships, and their HEAs are always worth it in the end.
That being said, i would have loved more chapters showing Seth and Aiden's togetherness and their thriving, getting to share in their joys as they worked the Double Jay toward heartwarming success. I loved the idea of the revitalization of the ranch being a reflection of Aiden and Seth's love journey, and even though there were sprinkles in the early narrative of them patching up the ranch and working together like old times, i would have really enjoyed more than just an epilogue of them prospering in their forever home.
Down Home HEAs take hard work, muddy boots, some Stetson wearing, denim clad darlings, and a whole lotta love (;p)! Here's hoping Parker St. John has not hung up their cowboy blues permanently, because this series was awesome and i can only imagine greater things to come now that this show is over! Can't wait for whatever's next because PSJ is brilliant and i'm sure it'll be a wild one!
So now you'd better stop
and rebuild all your ruins
For peace and trust can win the day
despite of all your losing
Immigrant Song,
Led Zeppelin
Ahhhhh i'm so sad this series is over, but also, because Down Home has such a special place in my heart, i know that when i'm in the mood for a cowboy comfort reread, this will be one i'll reach for, and i love that so much! Always happy to celebrate a bingeable series that has brought me so much swoony joy over the years!
Seth and Aiden really had to work for their HEA in this final installment. Both were babes with baggage and so seated in their individual headspaces that they'd no chance to truly pull themselves out of their self-imposed prisons without the electric energy of the other.
I'm usually not a fan of messy, but there was something so sweet and vulnerable about Aiden that it was hard not to feel for him and love him to bits throughout this book. Even when i wanted to shake him hard and hug him just as intensely!
That being said, i am absolutely NOT A FAN of mother figures like Aiden's. I am even less a fan of the easy forgiveness of the kind of vitriolic trash that was Aiden's mother. Imo if i spend a significant amount of time hating on a vile character who deeply impacts the health and stability of my MC, i want justice and proper retribution for that c*nt. I didn't get that here, and i'm steaming from the ears about it...buuuuut I get why the bowels of hell did not open up to reclaim Babs. The MCs were quality humans and she was the caustic foil for their development, but i will never have any sympathy for a parent who kicks their kid out to fend for themselves. Go fk yourself!
Moving on.
Aiden was found by the right people, and luckily grew into a wild vivacious thing, inevitably drawing serious and sturdy Seth (and pretty much everyone he encountered) into his sunshiney orbit...hoping that by being an affable puppy it would ease the desire to give him the boot. And caretaker Seth could no more resist Aiden's complexity than hinder his intrinsic nature to keep the people he loved safe. Even from himself. In the most roundabout way, but still.
Neither of them wanted to hurt each other, but they did it anyway. Both of them running from their feelings and pushing the other away, complicating 2+2 when they should have both tried harder to stand as 1. But it's the nature of small town Sweetwater to hone her cowboys through these sorts of hardships, and their HEAs are always worth it in the end.
That being said, i would have loved more chapters showing Seth and Aiden's togetherness and their thriving, getting to share in their joys as they worked the Double Jay toward heartwarming success. I loved the idea of the revitalization of the ranch being a reflection of Aiden and Seth's love journey, and even though there were sprinkles in the early narrative of them patching up the ranch and working together like old times, i would have really enjoyed more than just an epilogue of them prospering in their forever home.
Down Home HEAs take hard work, muddy boots, some Stetson wearing, denim clad darlings, and a whole lotta love (;p)! Here's hoping Parker St. John has not hung up their cowboy blues permanently, because this series was awesome and i can only imagine greater things to come now that this show is over! Can't wait for whatever's next because PSJ is brilliant and i'm sure it'll be a wild one!