AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Delicate Ink (Montgomery Ink #1)

Delicate Ink (Montgomery Ink #1), by Carrie Ann Ryan
Publish Date: October 14, 2014
Publisher: Fated Desires Publishing
Format: audiobook, published
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon

Rating: 4 STARS

(Synopsis) On the wrong side of thirty, Austin Montgomery is ready to settle down. Unfortunately, his inked sleeves and scruffy beard isn’t the suave business appearance some women crave. Only finding a woman who can deal with his job, as a tattoo artist and owner of Montgomery Ink, his seven meddling siblings, and his own gruff attitude won’t be easy.

Finding a man is the last thing on Sierra Elder’s mind. A recent transplant to Denver, her focus is on opening her own boutique. Wanting to cover up scars that run deeper than her flesh, she finds in Austin a man that truly gets to her—in more ways than one.

Although wary, they embark on a slow, tempestuous burn of a relationship. When blasts from both their pasts intrude on their present, however, it will take more than a promise of what could be to keep them together.

After experiencing Carrie Ann Ryan's Redwood Pack series, I was curious about her other series, Montgomery Ink. I took one look at the cover and was sold. I mean, hello? 

Honestly, more than the cover, it was the fact that this is a sibling series that sold me. I absolutely love those. There's something so awesome and touching about stories surrounding an extremely close-knit family with lots of siblings that love each other more than themselves. That perfectly describes the Montgomerys. 

The series begins where you would expect - with the oldest of the eight Montgomery kids, Austin. He's in a bad place. He's nearly 40 and he's got no prospects for a future with a wife and kids and all that. On top of that, he just found out the the Montgomery patriarch has cancer. It's really not a good time to start a new relationship, and yet he can't help himself when Sierra Elder opens a boutique across the street from his tattoo shop. 

Things are just starting to get interesting when both Sierra's and Austin's pasts come back to haunt them in big ways. Then, the question becomes whether their new-found relationship can survive these stresses. 

I really enjoyed Delicate Ink. I absolutely loved the Montgomery family dynamic. There's eight kids, two parents, and several BFFs, spouses and grandkids. There's quite a number of times when the whole family is together, and I love those times. There is no familial baggage here, which is refreshing. The kids were brought up with love and they've been allowed to make their own choices and mistakes along the way. 

Austin and Sierra are great together. They don't always make the best choices, but at least they communicated better than most couples.

I loved the audio version of Delicate Ink. It's narrated by Gregory Salinas. He's got this super sexy super deep voice, which usually doesn't work for me when it comes to reading the female POVs. But, I thought he did a pretty good job. If you're on the fence about audiobooks in general or this one in particular, Delicate Ink is the perfect book to start with. The Kindle version is free, and thanks to Whispersynch, the Audible version is only $1.99. This is eight-and-a-half hours of fun for only two bucks. You can't beat that. 

The other siblings' stories are slowly getting set up in the first book, and just make me want to read them all in a row. In fact, I think I might just do that...