Review: Rhino Ash (Saturday Barbies #2) by Lindsey Black

Ashley Jameson always tries to do the right thing, but that’s hard when your nephew keeps eating crayons, your niece is dressed as a pudding and your obnoxious older brothers crash the church’s Sunday brunch with the guy you’ve been crushing on for five years. Going to work to fight fires is a welcome relief from family obligations, until the Riot Squad arrives to investigate and Ashley once again finds himself dealing with his siblings. Oh ... and Finn Hale.

But Finn’s dark past continues to haunt him. As work gets increasingly busy with a string of arson attacks on illegal immigrants, Finn steps in to be the shoulder Ashley needs to lean on, but Ashley struggles to do the same for the man he loves. Juggling family and work can be difficult, but Ashley soon discovers that the real challenge is when it's not a struggle at all ... because you'll do anything for the ones you love.

I have to say that I was ready for Ashley to get a story after meeting his crazy but lovable family in Fishy Riot. I was not disappointed in witnessing him wrestle with his crush and growing feelings for the man who works with his twin brothers, Finn Hale. I love seeing this crush go from Hale to Finn. And Ashley really own his feelings and own the man he is falling in love with.

Ashley and Finn have been crushing on one another for years and while everyone can see it clear as day on Ash’s face, they had no clue about Finn...including Ash. But these two dance around each other with their respective jobs. The fact that Finn works with Ash’s twin brothers Clay and Taylor meant they were bound to be in contact numerous times. But it’s that one time, the one-time Finn is hurt and Ash finally has a chance to take care of him that they share a kiss, a few declarations and a cock block of epic proportions.

‘Finn … I like you.’
‘Good to know, since I’m naked in bed with you.’
‘I want you to be mine,’
‘Ash, I’ve been yours for years, you were just too stupid to notice.’

When we get the few moments of these two together, it’s brilliant. Ash and Finn have this raw honesty when it comes to their feelings and I loved the communication between them and how they knew when to push and when to back off. I would like to see Finn out running his dog and the plush rabbit to see how truly bizarre it all looks. I would hate to see Ash on the news so much even though it’s his job.

This was a fun book, I laughed a lot with both men because that’s what they do. They laugh a lot. So much in fact I decided to do a search of the word because it started to bug me. Not in a bad way but I don’t know? My favorite emotion is laughter through tears but in this, it seemed that just when we were getting serious, when Finn was telling the story about his back and things got heavy as they should be with a story like that, we were back to laughing and it took me out of the story.

I don’t want it to seem like I didn’t like this book because I really did. I just found the balance between the crimes, fires, romance and laughs not to be as balanced as I would have liked and I feel off balance having finished it and trying to sort out my feelings. The author is amazing with telling a story and bringing out emotions organically but once again, it all felt so fast that I never had time to really settle in and get comfortable.

Your family are completely bonkers, but I like them. They don’t care what people think as long as they’re together. That’s how it’s supposed to be.

This series is a lot of fun but sometimes the fun can be exhausting. I am not sure why this one felt more over the top than Taylor’s book did since that book could basically own the title over the top but Taylor’s book had more quiet and intimate moments with he and Sietta. I think for me, Ash and Finn never really got a quiet moment. I mean, even their sex felt rushed and I really wanted them to take their time with one another but everything felt like it had a insane sense of urgency to it that kept me from falling in love with their story like I wanted to. But then again, looking back on Finn’s life I can see a reason for it but at the same time, I wanted the time between Finn and Ash to be at a slower pace than the world around them.

I don’t know.

Even though the pace was a little too fast for me, I’d still recommend.