Can't Let Her Go: A Nashville Dreams Novel

This is the way you write a grand gesture. Contemporary romance featuring a social media savvy singer and a paparazzi phobic cowboy. Ethan Walker has avoided the spotlight ever since his parents, the King and Queen of Nashville music, died trying to avoid the paparazzi. Since that time he has retreated to his horses and the bar he owns with his friends. Chelsea Harris is a star of Nashville who wants to record a charity album to raise money for colon cancer research. She wants to sing a duet with Ethan for the album. Ethan hasn’t sang professionally since his parents tried to turn him into a pop star when he was 19. They meet, banter back and forth. Chelsea buys a horse to stable at his barn. There is smexy times in between trying to avoid the cameras. There is a break up and an EPIC grand gesture. 3 stars.

3.75 stars--CAN’T LET HER GO is the second instalment in Sandy James’ contemporary, adult NASHVILLE DREAMS romance series focusing on three friends who own and operate Words and Music-a bar in Nashville, Tennessee: Brad Maxwell, Ethan Walker and Russell Green. This is reluctant, former teen singing sensation Ethan Walker, and country singer Chelsea Harris’s story line. CAN’T LET HER GO can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary. Told from dual third person perspectives (Chelsea and Ethan) CAN’T LET HER GO follows the building relationship between former child star Ethan Walker, and country music celebrity Chelsea Harris. Ethan Walker is the progeny of country music’s hottest couple but when his father tried to outrun the paparazzi, our hero was left an orphan with a great disdain for everything music and celebrity represents. Enter rising country music star Chelsea Harris-the woman with whom Ethan would fall in love. Chelsea is hoping to release a charity album of duets featuring the children of former music stars, and Ethan Walker is her only hold-out. What ensues are the contemptuous relationship between Chelsea and Ethan, and the fall-out when their friendship and association becomes fodder for the tabloid press. Ethan Walker is content to work on his ranch, and sit behind the bar serving drinks to his friends and customers but Chelsea Harris’ persistence as it pertains to a duet with our story line hero pushes all of Ethan’s buttons including the buttons that stir up too many memories of his parents and the past. His behaviour and reluctance to help is fuelled by the loss of his parents, and a loss of power over his life as a singing star but I have to questions his lack of maturity on too many occasions. Chelsea is determined to release a charity album in honor of her father, who passed away, an album meant to bring awareness and raise funds for cancer research. The relationship between Chelsea and Ethan begins acrimoniously as Chelsea persists in her attempts to bring Ethan on board. Ethan is determined to remain out of the music business having had to deal with the fall-out of fame and paparazzi at a very young age. The $ex scenes are intimate but mostly implied. We are reintroduced to Ethan’s business partners Russell Green, Brad Maxwell and Savannah Wolf (Can’t Walk Away #1), as well as introduction of Chelsea’s agent Addie, her mother Betsy , and Chuck Austin, a man who sets out to destroy the building relationship between Ethan and Chelsea. The world building focuses on two things close to the author’s heart: horses and cancer research. We are up close and personal as Sandy James takes the reader into the world of raising horses, as well as the struggle with which many families have to deal-losing a loved one to cancer. CAN’T LET HER GO is a story of friendship and family; of betrayal and loss; of letting go of the past and moving forward with life. The premise is engaging and thought-provoking; the romance is hindered by memories of the past; the characters are colorful and charismatic.

Can't Let Her Go is part bright lights, big city and part hearty realism. Either way you slice it, Ms. James delivers a down home good time. Sandy James sets out to prove a point with Ethan and Chelsea. Ethan grew up in the spotlight. Famous parents saw to that, but for him it was a lonely road. Chelsea has dreams of being a star. She's on the verge of success, when she meets the man who will change her life and steal her heart. Can these two opposites learn how to make beautiful music together? Can't Let Her Go is a tale of sacrifice, compromise and following your heart. Even at the risk of accomplishing your dreams. The sweetest sound I ever heard was the music of the heart, that shines through in ever word of this beautiful ballad of love.