A happy ending that was 15 years in the making. I really enjoyed this book even though it hit on some really heavy topics. All were written really well though. It's hard to imagine what this family must have gone through between Mary and Richard. I wanted to smack Mary quite often, but then hug Nancy! Janelle wasn't perfect either, which I think made me like the book even more. She made mistakes, kept secrets and was perfectly human. The story while a little deep was a great read that was very realistic. I definitely enjoyed it!

Definitely a unique story. Interesting plot. Enjoyed it a lot. Liked the ending.

Janelle seems to have been from hell and back and its not over yet. Now that her dead beat husband is dead it seems like everyone is blaming her and has no problem blaming a few close to her ether. Right now all she wants to focus on is her kids and bringing them back to normal. Zach with his super heros and therapy and Zoe with her sweetness and her daddy. All in all it seems like anything that can go wrong has and she just wants to start over again and rebuild and make a happy life for her children, but she wonders if that will ever happen. Nathan is a cop and a dang good one at that. He loves his job but what he loves more is Janelle and she is off limits and that is just not going to happen. He finds out her biggest secret and he is non to happy about it but when he is ready to face her his boss has other plans for him and so do a few others. This book is packed full of on the edge of your seat action. This book is a continuation from book one so I encourage you to read that one first other wise this book might seem to much all at once. I really like how it seems like nothing is off topic or out of read with this author or this set of stories. You will immediately have a love for the dad in this book and really really want to shoot the mom and wish her dead. There are other characters in the book that you will really love and seem very much real and others you just want to strangle, I love a good book that will play on all emotions like this one. This book grabs you and draws you in and sometime you feel like it may be to much and other times you find yourself turning the pages just to see what happens. I am really excited to read the rest of this series. This action pack book will not disappoint. Does contain strong language.

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in The Rocky Creek series. It can be read as a stand alone because there is background in it that tells what happened in the first book.

Janelle has had a hard time the last 10 years. Her abusive alcoholic ex-husband Richard is dead and her life and that of her children is left in shambles due to his last revelation before he died. He not only tried to kill her sister but he also tried to kill their adopted son. She had one last secret that she was holding on to and now it is out.

Nathan has loved Janelle since high school. He has done his very best to keep her and her family safe on his own time and also in his job as a police officer. He even broke a few rules that are coming back to bite him. The final revelation from Richard blows his world apart.

They both are now left to pick up the pieces of their lives.

I enjoyed this story and think that Ms. Ascher did a good job telling it and did her research. I was glad that in the course of it. She was able to explain what made Janelle and Kelsey the way they were. This was also a story of family dynamics.

This book was a great romance true love does when in every way I loved the families coming together when it was necessary n how they stood by the but that mother of the girls omg sh was outrageous n had some nerve doing what she did I could had jumped Into the book n beat her myself I loved the end of the book

Fantastic book. I loved all of the relationships and how everything wasn't easy and they all had things about their relationships and themselves they needed to work on. I would have personally liked a few more scenes with just zoe and her new daddy because i felt that father daughter connection was lost slightly in the drama of the book. However, this book is truly wonderful and i would love to read more books by Kathryn Ascher.

Looking back on my review of the first book in this series, Whatever It Takes, many of my questions from the end of that book are answered in On The Line. However, the whys of the answers is not really answered. Perhaps Kathryn Ascher knows that life is like that sometimes.

Questions I still have - I still do not understand why the toxic relationship between mother and daughters continued. At one point, the mother states that she does not need a reason to visit her grandchildren. But the truth of the matter is the grandmother had no right to say that. Janelle could have stopped her from visiting anytime she wished since she was the children’s legal guardian.

Then there is George, he seemed clueless to his daughters’ abuse at the hand of his wife. How could he not know what she had been saying all these years?

Shouldn’t the Detective Bonner have been charged instead of just fired? He clearly tampered with the evidence.

This soap opera sage is just as gripping even with the questions that I still have. The confusion and misconstrued actions of Janelle clearly show she needs therapy as much as her son does. In fact one of the most interesting parts is when Zach is with Andrew, the therapist. Most of all this story shows how victims often blames themselves and then make continued poor decisions based on those feelings. This is not an easy read but a compelling one.

Net Galley provided a copy.

This is the sequel to "What it Takes" as well as Janelle & Nathan's story. Kelsey is recovering after her now deceased brother-in-law,Richard, shot her in the thigh and let her bleed on the floor of their summer cabin. The whole time Zach, Kelsey's son that Janelle & Richard adopted from her, was watching all of this unfold because Richard kidnapped him.
Now that the police are involved, the investigations take place, making sure it was a suicide. Nathan can't be involved in any investigation because he was the 1st cop to be on the scene.
Arriving at the hospital, tv cameras are all lined up. When Janelle sees the news story she's shocked. Before Richard died, he filmed a tape and told America everything about Kelsey's secret. How Janelle was having an affair with Nathan for 3 years AND that his daughter, Zoe, was actually Janelle and Nathan's love child. After that confession, everyone is in shock, including Janelle, because she never knew that her dead husband suspected anything. He was never home with her nor the kids, that's why Nathan was always there. He became apart of the family, in more ways then one. How will Nathan react to finding out that the 3 year old that he played with daily while guarding their home, was his OWN daughter? Will he forgive Janelle for the lies? Does he still want a future with them? Will their mother, Mary, ever accept the girls for who they are, not what she expects of them? Will Patrick stay with Kelsey, or does she have way too much drama in her life?

READ ON

Kathryn Ascher's On the Line is the second book in The Rocky Creek series and it begins where the first book, What it Takes, ended. It's a well-written story of two sisters, their choices and relationships. Janelle Wagoner is shocked to watch her late husband's video on television. As she listens to his words, she realizes that her entire life is unraveling in front of millions of people. Richard's words drive this story and his presence is felt during the novel.
Kathryn Ascher presents an intriguing, well-written story of two women, Janelle and her sister actress Kelsey Morgan. Kelsey and Janelle are very close. In fact, Janelle and Richard are raising Kelsey's son as their own. The sisters share many secrets with each other and keep a few secrets to themselves. Ascher’s portrayal of the sister's relationship with their mother, Mary Morgan, and the impact of two generation of domestic and verbal abuse are well documented and expertly researched. Loved the scenes at Richard's funeral services when Mary and Richard's sister verbally attack Janelle.
Richard's video alters Nathan Harris' life as well. Nathan has loved Janelle for years and was deeply hurt when she married Richard. Now, he is dealing with several important issues; he's been suspended from his job and he may be a father. Nathan is under a lot of stress. His role in Richard's death is being investigated and he needs to decide if he should he forgive Janelle and become a father to his daughter.
I liked the continuity between What it Takes (book one in the series) and On The Line. Characters appeared in book books and the crossover plot lines which began in book one were resolved in On The Line. I feel that readers should read What It Takes first to understand background information provided. The characters are multi -faceted and realistic -- the author writes a great villain and a nasty mother--and the plot had enough intrigue and twists to keep me invested in the story.

On the Line is about a young woman, Janelle Morgan, dealing with the aftermath of a public spectacle that her deceased husband left her with just before taking his own life. Janelle deals with issues stemming from her childhood on her quest for normalcy, love and happiness.

I really enjoyed On the Line. I loved how the novel picked up right where What It Takes (review here) left off. It was a nice feature however if I hadn’t of read What It Takes previously or remembered what happened then I probably would have been totally lost for the first few chapters.

The other shoe finally dropped, (if you remember from my latest What I’m Reading post, I had said I was waiting for the other shoe to drop on their happiness). The looming thundercloud finally made it’s presence. Things were just too happy for them to not have something go wrong. I was half expecting what played out to happen, it was kind of predictable but it was definitely needed.

I really didn’t like Mary Morgan, Janelle and Kelsey’s mother. I felt like her character was a bit overplayed, like she kept popping up almost every scene. The abuse she enforced on her daughters was atrocious and was really thrown in your face over the course of the novel. I get that it was part of her personality but by the end of the novel I was ready to reach in and try and shake some sense into her.

All in all, it was a very good book. I was kind of sad with the ending because it ended just like that, kind of out of the blue. But it was still good.

Keep an eye out for my review of Into the Light for the books release this fall!