Review: Until It Fades by K.A. Tucker

Until It Fades by K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: June 27th 2017
My rating: 3.5 Stars
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Twenty-four-year-old truck stop waitress and single mother Catherine Wright has simple goals: to give her five-year-old daughter a happy life and to never again be the talk of the town in Balsam, Pennsylvania: population two thousand outside of tourist season.

And then one foggy night, on a lonely road back from another failed attempt at a relationship, Catherine saves a man’s life. It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has saved: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling.

Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works.

For a time.

But when she finds the man she saved standing on her doorstep, desperate to thank her, all that changes. What begins as an immediate friendship quickly turns into something neither of them expected. Something that Catherine isn’t sure she can handle; something that Catherine is afraid to trust.

Because how long can an extraordinary man like Brett be interested in an ordinary woman like Catherine…before the spark fades? 

My Thoughts:

Catherine thought she was in love with her thirty-year old art teacher when she was seventeen.  Her mother dragged her to the police and made her make a statement when she caught them sneaking off together.  Her reputation was dragged through the mud and Catherine’s teacher let her take all the blame, crushing her heart in the process.  Six months later, Catherine finds herself eighteen, pregnant and with very little job options seeing as most in town shun and whisper against her.  My heart went out to Catherine, because her mother threw her under the bus and she was ostracized by the town when it should’ve been her lecherous art teacher who got in trouble! I was outraged for her! At any rate, Catherine let her dreams of going to Art College and now works as a diner waitress to support her and her five-year old daughter. 

Catherine’s love life leaves something to be desired which is why she’s driving herself home after a blind date gone wrong on the stretch of highway that Brett Madden, a famous hockey player, has just crashed on. Seeing the wreck, Catherine stops and saves Brett, but won’t let her name be released to the press or Brett in an attempt to stay under the radar.  She’s had her brush with fame or infamy and doesn’t want any more attention.  It’s only a matter of time before Brett and the press gets a hold of her name.  Brett is grateful, of course, but there’s an immediate connection and attraction. Is it just the gratitude drawing him to her or could it be something deeper they both feel?  Catherine trusted those swoony feelings before and was burned, so she has a tough time letting her guard down. 

I totally understand where Catherine was coming from; she went through so much at such a young age with little support from anyone except Lou, Misty and Keith.  I would feel the need to be cautious, too, but it was a just a tiny bit frustrating in a few spots.  I was irritated Catherine kept letting her relationship with Brett stagnate to the point he might move on.  I so desperately wanted some happiness for Catherine romantically, that I wanted to shake her a few times.  But, she really deserved to be swept off her feet after everything she went through.  Brett, on the other hand, was an absolute dream come true.  He was so steady, honest and humble in spite of being such a big star and a total hunk!

There wasn’t a ton of angst which I’m not real keen on, so good news for me, but Until It Fades wasn’t my favorite K.A. Tucker story.  Still, it was a feel good, fairy tale sort of sweet romance that’ll leave you happy in the end.