Highball Rush by Claire Kingsley Review – UPDATED 2019

Ahh another great Claire Kinglsey book. This time it’s the 6th and final book of her Bootleg Springs series called “Highball Rush by Claire Kingsley” that features the Bodine brothers.

And she does a great job in crafting the bad boy – Gibson – in her story. Great enough to make you feel a little weak in the knees and get your attention.

The deep voiced bad boy crooner who’s more comfortable on his own than with crowds of people wanting a piece of him.

He’d rather be singing a song in some dive-bar or starting a fight than dealing with the paparazzi.

It’s a tough one for Gibson.

Another Amazing Contemporary Romance Claire Kingsley Book

For the majority of his life, he’s found solace in his one constant love of music.

It’s what helped him through the years of dealing with an alcoholic and abusive father who he constantly tried to shield and save his siblings from.

And then when he becomes YouTube famous, his love turns on him and gives him what he doesn’t want. The fame and attention from all kinds of people.

Naturally, with fame brings people’s desire to know more about him. He quickly finds that being famous, the people want a deep dive inquisition done to find out his backstory and his personal life. They want to know just who this tough singer really is.

And that’s the furthest thing from what Gibson wants.

He wants the past to be left alone so he can move on.

Until he finds Callie and things begin to change.

She’s the one thing he’s been missing – waiting for – this whole time.

I find books like this a little hard to classify. I guess they’d fall under the contemporary romance heading, but for me I always find that I’m reaching for a Cowboy Romance or Western Romance classification. I’d do the same with Virginia Hodgson’s Second Chance Ranch. But as it involves a ranch I guess it might be closer to a western romance than Higball Rush would be.

Claire Kingsley Bootleg Springs Series Book Reviews

First off, if you’re thinking about reading this book, you need to start by reading the first books in this series which are:

• Whiskey Chaser (Bootleg Springs Book 1) This is the beginning of the series featuring Scarlett. She’s the crazy tom-boy hell on wheels woman who loves to party. She’s trouble at every turn and breaks hearts along the way. And then she met her smoky hot next door neighbor Devlin who’s hit rock bottom and is …
• Sidecar Crush (Bootleg Springs Book 2) The second book in the Bootleg Springs series, this one picks up after Scarlett and features her brother Jameson Bodine. And Jameson is is the polar opposite from Scarlett. Where Scarlett was wild and crazy, Jameson is much quieter more reserved and more of an artistic charming type.
• Moonshine Kiss (Bootleg Springs Book 3) This one’s a little more of an almost slow-burn romance type story where both the main characters having harbored a secret love for one another for quite some time. But due to his family’s terrible behavior, one way or another, Bowie Bodine has always figured he was never good enough to be with Cassidy. Well, that and she’s the town deputy.
• Bourbon Bliss (Bootleg Springs Book 4) Another swoon worthy romance from the power writing team Claire Kinglsey and Lucy Score. This is another “opposites attract” romance but this time is a numbers nerd and a retired football player. And the way Claire characteristically pulls on your heartstrings as she weaves her storytelling magic. It will have you hooked from the opening sentence.

Gin Fling & Highball Rush by Claire Kingsley – The Final Two Installments

Gin Fling (Bootleg Springs Book 5 ) It’s a really nice touch the way Claire comes back to different characters that she’s introduced in earlier books and then devotes a whole book on their lives and experiences. It really adds a nice element to the whole series and really helps bring about a feeling of completeness. And this time it’s Jonah and Shelby‘s turn. And it’s even more unique as neither of them are Bootleg Spring natives. So there’s the whole element of them dealing with feeling like they’re outsiders who don’t really fit in the town. But then there’s the mystery surrounding Callie. Oh, the mystery. I’m not going to say anything other than there are sooo many delectable twists and turns that it will have you salivating for the last book of the series. And by now you know that the last book is “Highball Rush”.

Highball Rush by Claire Kingsley Summary

Kingsley does a masterful job building and weaving the story through this little county. She builds and develops the back story as she goes while more and more insight into how people live their lives.

Like how tight knit the community is – where everyone knows everything about everyone.

Or how almost everything is done and done better with a little moonshine.

It’s like you get to take a peek into lives and a way of living that is quite different from your own.

The town of Bootleg sure is a unique one.

It seems to be a dichotomy and contradiction of sorts.

On one hand, it’s a tight community of neighbors who stick together, while on the other it’s one that meets out it’s own form of justice.

But there is always the common thread of everyone being willing to help others out in the community whenever there is a need. Nice, classic small-town stuff that we hope  still exists somewhere in this day and age.

Highball Rush – The Magical Collaboration of Claire Kinglsey & Lucy Score

This book is a collaborative effort between Claire Kingsley and Lucy Score and they make an incredible team.

Somehow they manage to meld together humor, suspense and romantic tension while maintaining an underlying mystery throughout the whole thing. And here in Highball Rush the mystery is finally resolved.

I don’t want to say too much and give it all away…

With all that being said, I kind of wished that a few other things were fleshed out a bit more before the book and the series ended. The main thing I was hoping for was a bit more of a revelation or the revealing of just what sort of dirty deeds the Judge and Imogene got involved with. But I’m really having to stretch for this critique.

It’s too bad that this is the final book of the series, but it ends satisfyingly with the beautiful bad boy Gibson finding love and the mystery surrounding Callie is finally revealed.

And I highly recommend you check out more of it here.

If you’re looking for something a little different try our Bossman By Vi Keeland Review here.