Review: Sidebarred by Emma Chase

Sidebarred, book 3.5 of the Legal Briefs series.

Oh Emma Chase, you were an author I was meant to discover. I love each and every book I’ve read by you. You’re an author I re-read and Sustained happened to be one of my top books of 2015. I loved Jake and his relationship with Chelsea and the kids so to say I was ECSTATIC to hear that there Emma Chase was writing a novella about this family, well, ecstatic would be putting it mildly. This book did not disappoint me at all.

Before I go into just why I liked it so much, I will say, you really do have to be a fan of Sustained first because else, you are not going to find much to like in this book. Basically, this book is in some ways fan service for all the readers who loved Jake and Chelsea so much but honestly, I don’t mind. I was just really happy to see what the future held for them.

The premise of this story is simple. Something MAJOR is happening for Chelsea and Jake. I won’t give it away though very astute readers will know what it is just from reading the synopsis. As this MAJOR thing changes their life, it changes the relationships between Jake and Chelsea, and Jake and the kids. For the good and sometimes for the more difficult. This book really plays on emotions.

I was so happy to revisit these characters, especially the children who really won me over in Jake’s story. It was nice to see them all a little bit more mature but still kids. It was REALLY great to see how their relationships to Jake and Chelsea had grown. And yeah, the epilogue is pretty darn schmaltzy but I still connected to it. Rory and Jake’s relationship is really what led Jake into the lives of the McQuaid family so it was nice to see a fabulous denouement for them.

This isn’t a long story but I will say, it flew by way too fast. I would have enjoyed EVEN MORE scenes of the lives of the McQuaid-Becker household. But as I said, this book really is for fans of Jake’s story. It’s definitely not where you want to start if you’re just getting into this series but man oh man, it’s worth it when you are ready to read it!

Sidebarred is available now and the original story starring Jake and Chelsea is currently only $0.99 on Kindle so go get it before the deal disappears.

ARC provided by author for review.

Tagged: Emma Chase