review || IMPULSION

Impulsion by Jamie Magee

Publisher: Self-Published (5/17/2014)
Series: Station 32
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Source: NetGalley
Purchase links || amazon | bn || add to goodreads

Rating: ★★★★★







With a glance Wyatt Doran stole Harley Tatum’s heart. With each summer that passed, touch by touch, they robbed each other’s innocence, birthing a love that was so deep that it scorched within. Without warning, they were ripped from the clutches of each other, placed in lives that were worlds apart. Only to cross paths after a freak accident where Harley’s horse rig was flipped. An accident that Wyatt Doran, from fire station 32, responded. 

The tension was immediate, the emotions were raw. One breath told them they were not the same as before, one touch….changed their world. 

{ review } .

I was apprehensive to read this (once I had a full copy), but my goodness, once I started there was no going back. The first review copy I had was only two, three chapters long and I was a bit confused as to the length and what I was reading... It was about horses, yet the series was named STATION 32 -- pair that with the blue flame, and I thought for sure this was going to be a firefighter story.

Oh, no worries, it really does deal with fire fighting; but really, the biggest part of who Harley and Wyatt are? It's the horses.

This book certainly had it's long, drawn out moments... but I still always wanted to read more -- to push a little further into the story of Wyatt and Harley, and see everything finally fall into place for them. And for that, the book deserves all 5 stars.

We first meet Wyatt and Harley when they're teenagers. When Wyatt learns that his family is going to be boarding a rich priss rider, he wants to dislike Harley. But when she comes walking out of the horsetrailer, he's struck dumb.

Throughout the story -- at least the teenaged years -- Harley was taught lessons from her father, the biggest one being to demand what you wanted: don't beg, don't ask, demand. While she demanded for the horse she wanted, she demanded Willowhaven to board Danny Boy... when it came to her love for Wyatt, she didn't say a word.

These two manage to keep their love for one another under close wraps for years. It's the summer before they're both eighteen that it accidentally comes to light. With it comes a fierce breaking apart and her mother's threats to the Doran family. 

"How long, Wyatt!"

He gave his mother a hard stare. "How long have I loved her?"

"Do not give me that bullshit, son."

"First sight. How long have we been a couple? The first July." 

The thing about this conversation between mother and son is this --

He's telling the absolute truth.

And while Camille knows that Harley's mother can ruin their livelihood, as well as find a way to put Wyatt in jail, after the initial anger she's in their court. She takes away his keys, only to give them back on his eighteenth birthday, telling him that if he loves her the way he says he loves her, he'll wait until she's eighteen.

The thing with Wyatt and Harley is they went months without seeing one another but always remained faithful. Their relationship was only face-to-face in the summertime, but there was never anyone else for either. They were one another's first kiss (which they fumbled through and then learned from) and first love in every sense of the word. When they're torn apart, though, it's as if each of their world's crumble.

Wyatt chases after her, and hits a road block.

Harley chases after him, and hits a road block.

Both lose faith in what they had.

You can't even say "It took the rodeo to knock Harley out of Wyatt" because all the rodeo did was make him feel guilty for being with other women -- and even then, he couldn't be sober.

When their worlds come colliding back, they had things to discuss, and fears to get over, but if there were ever two people who were so perfectly right for one another, it was Harley and Wyatt. 

...it was odd that the horse mellowed that fast, especially since it was injured. Wyatt started to look him over, thinking his first assessment was way off. All at once, he recognized this horse.

He moved his hands all over him, and Danny Boy kicked back. Right then, a sick thought hit him. He charged out the side of the trailer to yell at Easton and the others that this was Danny Boy, but as soon as he did he saw Easton looking back at him, along with Truman. The grave looks on their faces knocked the wind out of Wyatt.

Wyatt charged forward, feeling Memphis grasp him from behind, and other guys from the squad attempting to hold him back. They might as well have been paper dolls. He plowed right through them and dove across the glass on the pavement.

It was Harley...There was no worse nightmare than showing up to a scene where someone you loved was hurt.

The first time he sees her in years, and this was how it happened.

Suddenly given the opportunity to see the love of his life, and he balks a bit. He hides from her. It takes his mom pushing him to get him to see the light. His mom, more of a mom to Harley than Claire ever was, pushes Harley too; pushes her to see beyond what is right in front of her, and understand what really is:

"You see now, Harley, when you're afraid and you run, you quit. You put it all on the table and walk out. When you don't run, when you decide to be brave and fight for what's yours, you find out that the fear was inflating everything you saw." -- Camille

I loved every moment of their journey -- in fact, part of the reason I'm so excited for FRICTION is to see more Harley and Wyatt (and as I'm a few chapters in, I have to say -- love that we see some of Wyatt's rodeo days where he's grieving something fierce).