As the final book in this series Ford did not disappoint. Samantha Chase did a great job of telling the story of Ford's Reluctance to return home while showing how the relationships he had with friends was pulling him back. You can see the struggles he is wrestling with while he tries to believe that he can find and leave the woman he loves.
While Ford's immediate family isn't very loving, you can see the bond he formed with his grandparents and he would do anything for his grandmother while feeling blindsided by his grandfather's plans.
Callie is a well written character who knows that Ford will be leaving but falls in love with him anyway.
Ms Chase does a wonderful job with the Epilogue - bringing all 7 couples together to celebrate New Year's Eve and looking forward to the start of a New Year and New life. ( )

Samantha Chase continues to showcase what a treasure she really is. Ford is realistic, simplistic and complicated. It's amazing that a subject that is so simple can breed so many complicated emotions. Ford has spent his life running. From home, from responsibility and mostly from himself. Callie has spent her life wishing for a place to belong to. A home of her own, people who love her and a life that makes her happy. Ironic isn't it that both were searching for the same thing. Acceptance. A place to belong. A sense of security. Each was searching for something they always had, but failed to realize. A HOME. Ford is an epiphany moment. The manifestation of something special and the realization of something wonderful. ( )

review to come ( )

Fifteen years ago, seven young men were sentenced to detention together. They managed to forge a bond that has kept them close as they have left Eagle's Ridge to live their lives. One by one, they have been pulled back to their hometown & established their future. Ford is fighting this with every measure of his being. He is determined that he can never live where everyone knows everything he does & how he lives. Now, in a storm, a tree has crashed down on his grandmother's house & she has been injured. Ford promised her that he'd come home & oversee the repairs. He's already antsy & ready to leave, or so he thinks. But what's he going to do about the ranch & his grandfather's construction company?

Callie grew up with very little. Her mother worked several jobs so that they could get by. One job was cleaning houses, including Ford's grandparents. Callie had a crush on Ford throughout her teenage years. Now she is teaching kindergarteners & living in the guesthouse at the ranch. While Ford has been back, they've developed a friendship. Can Callie keep her feelings from getting stronger?

I love the connection that was established between Callie & Ford years before with the dollhouse & how it helps reestablish their relationship in some ways. The characters are fully developed & the interactions between the 7 men makes it clear how close their relationships have remained. Those interactions provided a number of hilarious moments in the book. The feelings come across that remind you of a family, not by blood but by experience & similar goals. This was another wonderful book in the series & well worth the money & time to read it. ( )