Chasing Sedona (St. Augustine University Series Book 1) by Kenzie Green

Sedona Madison arrived at St. Augustine University five years after a tragic accident that changed the course of her life. Sedona had sworn to her parents she would never return to St. Augustine, but when she discovers the one man who might have the answers to her past calls St. Augustine his home, she abandons every promise in search of answers. If they wouldn’t tell her the truth, she was going to find it herself, even if that meant losing their support along the way.

As she gets closer to unraveling the secrets of her past, Sedona finds herself falling for the seductive, insufferable man she met her first night in town.

Eagle, a man who is harboring secrets of his own is unwilling to revisit the past. He created a life separate from the one he claimed five years prior and no amount of love could convince him otherwise. Despite his head telling him to run, Eagle’s heart rebels – leading him on a chase towards the brown-eyed beauty who will inevitably rip his heart out when she discovers the harrowing secret he has been hiding.

As Sedona pushes to find the answers she so desperately needs, Eagle fights to keep his secrets buried deep. She was an unexpected, complicated disaster; she was everything he didn’t know he needed.

My Review

I recieved an arc copy of this book and I am leaving an honest review voluntarily.

Sedona is a well-off teenager who has recently had to bury her mom, discover her life wasn’t what she thought, and deal with a lot of trauma and issue in her own family. She didn’t get along with her stepdad and felt like she had nowhere to go. She moves to New York to go to St. Augustine University. 

We don’t know the time between the prologue and the arrival at school in a new state. Her brother is discussed in this but talked about as thriving. Sedona has an issue she is trying to find answers to. She is very sheltered and finally living as she starts college.

This book does jump points of view between Sedona and Eagle. Eagle is an older guy who has been successful but was there at her brother’s accident. He also felt the repercussions of it and carried the scars. He did recover and go back to school and start a business. We don’t get more details about this accident, just that it was life-changing. He hangs out with the university crowd still. 

They end up at a party together and can’t help but notice each other. Him the tattooed god, and her the uninhibited lightweight. He is very protective and intelligent. He takes her and his friend and his girl home to continue the party safely. But then the girls get a little reckless. Upon saving her, he finally figures out who she is. I don’t think she knows they have history. 

This book gets super sweet as Sedona and Eagle start dating. We get quite a bit of his history minus the accident and a lot of hers, including why she chose to come to St. Augustine University. Oh, they finally give in to the chemistry between them. So steamy and sweet. Things get tense as she gets answers and meets her estranged unexpected father. Just as I think all will work, and her reaction will be okay when he finally spills the beans. It happens you learn more, but she is heartbroken, and he tried to explain to no avail. 

This book gets awkward as the main characters struggle with their past and their wants. They do finally talk, and the book does take an unexpected emotional turn. I won’t tell you that this ends happily, but you won’t be disappointed. 

I’m excited to read more in this series. I thought the book had a nice seamless flow from one perspective to the next. The author embraced the emotional and traumatic parts of the story with a loving hand. Instead, the author did a fabulous job of having broken characters who aren’t perfect and must embrace their truth to move forward. As the truth all comes out, the story does get more tangled. I love how the author embraced the story behind both characters and how they had a connection but needed to understand that what they knew was only one side of the story. In both Eagles accident and Sedona family issues, it made all the difference. 

This was a fantastic debut read. I love the location and descriptions the author had as well as the romance in the book. I liked how the author interconnected the main characters to both the past and future. I love that Sedona wasn’t looking for a savior but someone to ride through life with her. I love that she admitted he was her forever at the end, even though she could have taken a more mature approach to their issues and resolved them sooner. This book very much reads like a new adult romance with undercurrents of a sweet slow-burn romance. 

If you would like to read Chasing Sedona by Kenzie Green you can find it on Amazon. As an Amazon associate I earn on qualifying purchases. Dont forget to check out the Author Interview with Kenzie Green.

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