Finders Keepers (Lost & Found) Paperback – September 17, 2013

I'm a big fan of Nicole Williams' books. I fell in love with Jesse and Rowen nearly immediately in Lost and Found. I followed them obsessively through Near and Far and hated to give them up at the end. After reading the first two books, if anyone would have told me that I would wind up falling head-over-heels in book love for Garth Black, I would have told them they were out of their mind. It's not that I didn't *hope* that there was more to Garth than met the eye, but I just wasn't sure. There were hints in his behavior at the end of the first book and during the second that led me to believe there might be more to him, but not every character has redeeming qualities, after all, despite how badly you might want them to. I was prepared to deal with that, if it was the case."That's exactly the kind of guy you leave behind."People have been leaving Garth Black behind his entire life. He's come to expect it. He doesn't do relationships. He has very few actual friends. Jesse, Rowen and Josie are pretty much it. I won't say he treats them badly, for the most part. His past has definitely shaped his present. What he needs to realize is that it doesn't have to shape his future."Are you decent?" That was a question I didn't need to answer. "Never mind. Most obvious question ever. How about... are you clothed?"On the surface, Garth is stubborn. He's an a**hole. He does things to piss people off, whether deliberately or not. He likes to drink, sleep with women and fight. He's a cowboy from the wrong side of the tracks. He lives in a horrible trailer with his alcoholic and abusive father. At first glance, Garth isn't a very nice guy. He's hot as hell, there's no denying that, but that's about all he has going for him. He uses his looks to his advantage. He doesn't sugar-coat things. He tells it like it is. Or it seems like he does, anyhow."Don't tell me who to love, Garth Black. And don't you dare tell me it's a waste to give it to you."In addition to hiding a great, warm heart, Garth's also keeping secrets. The biggest one being that he's in love with one of his best friends, Josie. He and Josie hooked up one night when she was dating his best friend, Jesse, effectively ruining friendships and relationships both. It was assumed it was Garth being Garth, but in reality it was so much more than that. It wasn't a cheap and meaningless one-night stand for him. He loves her, but he knows believes he doesn't deserve her. That he could never deserve someone like her."Without realizing exactly what I needed, I suddenly had it. A measure of comfort exactly when I needed it. A silent need picked up on and responded to. It was foreign in the best kind of way. Josie's hand heated mine, its warmth traveling up my arm and spreading around until no sign of a chill was left to be found. No sign of the winter I'd lived in my entire life was still around.""Because you deserve better than my best. You deserve the man I can and should be. Not the one everyone else knows."Feelings come out pretty early on in the book after Garth experiences a huge loss that shakes him to the core. He begins to question everything he's known and everything he thought he didn't want or couldn't have. More than a love story, this book is about Garth's journey of self-discovery. He finds that there can be more to him - that he is deserving of friendship and love. He and Josie's journey is pretty uneventful, considering how tumultuous Jesse and Rowen's was. Sure, there were some dramatic and angsty moments. Not everyone in town was happy with their relationship and they both had to deal with that in some very different ways. But, I always believed they would come back to each other in the end."I've known Josie Gibson since before I figured out girls like here were disastrous to guys like me."It would have been easy to dislike Josie early on in this series because of her past with Jesse. But, she really never seemed like a huge threat to his and Rowen's relationship. I connected with her nearly immediately in the books. She's a strong, stubborn, sassy, yet somehow sweet, country girl. She became a great friend to Rowen, giving her the grounding and clarity she needed so badly at times. She does the same for Garth in this book. She's an incredible woman. They're all lucky to have her in their lives - and she's just as lucky to have them."It doesn't have to be Garth Black against the whole world, you know. Give your friends a little more credit.""That was one misfit telling another misfit that she's got your back should you need it. That was one misfit telling another that you don't have to go through whatever you're going through alone. That was me telling you that you've got friends. So lean on them, god dammit. Stop acting like every battle you face is a one-man-war."I loved that Jesse and Rowen were back in this book. I really wasn't ready to give them up. If you've read the first two books in this series, you know that Rowen didn't have an easy time opening up to the possibility of love with someone as, for lack of a better term, good, as Jesse. She was able to take her experiences and help Garth in this book."These two are the couple to beat. The love they have for each other is the kind to aspire to. I don't know about you, but I sure wouldn't mind having someone beside me who could give these two a run for their money."I just loved everything about this book, it was easily my favorite in the series. Nicole Williams writes amazing characters. They are so complex, have so much depth, but they are somehow totally relatable. This book took me through the full gamut of emotions. I laughed, I cried, I smiled. I wanted to yell and shake Garth. I won't say his journey was beautiful, because there was too much pain for it to be that, but it was special. There are so many swoon-worthy moments in this book. I never thought I would get that from Garth Black. Who knew there was an insecure romantic underneath that tough cowboy exterior?"She taught me how to love. She taught me who I wanted to love. Even though I failed at it, stumbled over my own two feet so many times I was face-planting more than I was walking, she showed me the perseverance of love."

“Don’t love me. You get to choose who you love, so please… please don’t waste it on me.”If you had asked me a few months ago who my all-time favourite cowboy was, I would have said “Jesse Walker” in a heartbeat. That boy was the perfect combination of sweet and sexy, cheerful but profound, and this coupled with his innate ability to love others fiercely and selflessly, made him one of my favourite book boyfriends ever. But even while I was panting after Jesse, another cowboy caught my attention – a darker, more troubled one, whose smart mouth and careless attitude were clearly masking a bleeding heart under his tough façade. That cowboy was Jesse Walker’s best friend and this is finally his book.“It didn’t matter what age I was or how much I thought I loved the woman. Marriage, rings, and vows were not created with people like me in mind.”Garth Black has lived the kind of loveless childhood nightmares are made of. Having been neglected and physically abused by his only parent since he was born, never shown an ounce of affection or affirmation in his life, he has grown into a jaded young man who believes himself to be a bad seed unworthy of being loved. He is sarcastic, short-tempered and inherently self-destructive, making it very difficult for others to care for him or enjoy being around him. Except for his two best and only friends in the world who have always seen past his reckless pretences, never cared about his upbringing or his family’s lack of social standing, and who also happen to be the only two people that Garth has ever cared for. And he’s also secretly loved one of them since he was five years old.“My childhood friend, my adolescent secret obsession, my biggest mistake.”But as deep as his feelings are for his friend, Garth has never admitted this to himself or to her. He succumbed to his feelings for her only once in his life, one regretful drunken night of lowered inhibitions and frenzied passion, which cost him both his best friends for a long time after that.“Why don’t you stop pretending to be the hero and own what you really are? The villain. Go villainize someone else’s life. You couldn’t possibly do anymore to mine.”This book starts with a heartbreaking event in Garth’s life, leaving him homeless and alone in the world, and in the unexpected care of the very woman he won’t allow himself to love. But she is not only the only woman he dreams of, she is his true match, equally quick-tempered and stubborn, always seeing through his impassive acts and this time around determined to never allow him to push her away again. Never having had anyone concerned about his wellbeing before, or anyone who cared for him enough to put his happiness first, Garth is in unfamiliar territory when his best friend starts slowly dismantling his defences. Her persistent affection and faith in him are his undoing, and soon she makes him believe that they might have a chance at happiness after all. She shows him a different way of perceiving the world around him, one that is not all-consumingly negative and destructive, giving him hope that a man like him could love and be loved by a woman like her.“It doesn’t have to be Garth Black against the whole world…”She makes him question everything his dysfunctional childhood has taught him, his warped sense of right and wrong, his rejection of all social norms and behaviours, and for the first time in his life, Garth is happy. But a lifetime of self-doubt and self-hatred is hard to ignore when the world is determined to push you back down, and for Garth it is easier to believe that he will always be unworthy of his beloved’s love than that he finally deserves someone like her in his life. Or that he has anything in him to offer to her.“How could I be what was best for her when I didn’t even know what was best for myself? How could I love her the way she deserved to be loved when my parents hadn’t shown me an ounce of it?”A tale of learning to fight for what you want most in life and breaking a cycle of self-destruction and hatred of the world around you, this is a book that broke me, gutted me, made me mama bear and cowboy groupie all rolled into one. Garth’s self-doubting tendencies arising from a continuous lack of parental encouragement in his life made me so very protective of him and incredibly invested in his happiness. His leading lady was a force to be reckoned with, her strength of character and loving determination made me smile at their every interaction, not to mention swoon at the palpable chemistry between them. Without any explicit level of detail, Ms Williams manages to make our hearts race from mere acts of hand-holding or spooning in bed. I was having palpitations from sheer kissing scenes! Somehow, the level of emotion between these characters is more than enough to make us feel satisfied on all fronts, dreamy-eyed from beginning to end. I loved this book something fierce, and I knew, just KNEW this smartass cowboy would end up stealing my heart.“I wasn’t the guy who fell in love with you this past winter… I was the boy who fell in love with you that day on the school bus when we were five. And I’m the man that always will.”

I have read most of Nicole Williams books and have loved every single one of them and this on did not let me down! As always the book was written beautifully and it was captivating from the very first page until the very last page.Nicole Williams hits you straight way with the sad story of Garth Black and you realise how little he has in life. With Jesse away, the only friend he has left is Josie. The only problem is Garth is a very stubborn man and does not want to accept help from anybody. However Josie is just as stubborn and she will not take no for an answer. With Garth spending so much time with Josie, he finally admits that he has real feelings for Josie and has since they were kids.

This is Garth and Josie's story. Garth Black likes to drink and breaks women's hearts. Josie finds Garth in his truck after his and his dads trailer was set alight with Clay Black Garth's dad inside it. Josie takes Garth to GED parents house where she lives. Josie has loved Garth for a long time. Josie and Jesse were together when Garth was meant to look after her when Jesse wasn't around, at a party of Josie's brothers. The three of them were friends, Garth didn't know why they would want to be friends with him. A good read that's why I gave this book five stars.

If ever there was a cowboy I loved more than Garth Brooks then it would be Garth Black. I loved him in the previous two books, when he was an a** and I love him even more now. I have the biggest smile on my face right now and its all thanks to Garth and Josie.

And so the battle starts .....is it Jesse or Garth decision decisions. I have loved this series so much ... I'm praying there is going to be more ..... Nicole Williams never disappoints. U get to meet the other side of Garth Black and discover there is a kinder side to him. Worth ten stars ....amazing read ....go read it now ..... go

Loved this series - the whole cowboy romance scene was captivating. I wished there could have been a few more romantic scenes between Garth and Josie after they finally made their way to each other. Love it Love it - well done Nicole, please hurry and write more.