I recommend this book to the brave women stronger than the natural fear of rejection we all harbor. I found that the exposition of the protagonists' heartbreak in at so many levels daunting and mystifying. The truly unconditional love portrayed in this novel was in the end a triumph over tragedy. Wonderful read.

Fans of legal romance will love this latest novel from Deborah Hawkins. Ride Your Heart ‘til it Breaks is the story of two deeply damaged people: one a lawyer and the other a musician. Each has denied their innermost desires out of a sense of poor self worth for decades.

Karen stepped away from her dreams of performing music in order to act on a very different stage: the courtroom. Now a successful judge with a dying marriage, her path again crosses that of Stan, a dissolute professional musician who consistently denies himself his dream of a loving family life. Hawkins skillfully weaves the story of how these two tortured souls move from their toxic past and destructive habits toward a fulfilling life they have long dreamed about. Simultaneously frustrating and mesmerizing, the book is a nonstop roller coaster of emotion and intrigue as Karen wrestles with leaving her stuffy legal society lifestyle, and Stan comes to grips with his inner most fears and inability to love and be loved.

Richly woven in pitch perfect description of San Diego’s neighborhoods and haunts, this tale is bound to hold the reader enthralled until the very final scene of simultaneous redemption and self immolation

This is a story about passion about rediscovery. That Carrie moves through her loveless marriage a the legal worlds methodically, with an underlying need for something more, makes for a protagonist who questions her carefully-construed world and is, however reluctantly, willing to consider new opportunities despite experiences of the past.  The result, more than most romances, is complex and truly indicative of changing matters of the heart and the intersection of social and political worlds in a legal community replete with strict perspectives and associations born more of convenience than of love.

In short: there's nothing 'formula' about the character, romance, or interactions in Ride Your Heart: only a simmering set of choices and consequences that will keep readers guessing until its satisfying conclusion.