Category Archives: book reviews

book reviews, Romance

REVIEW ~ Going Wild by Gretchen Galway

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When accountant Jane finds herself attracted to handsome, free-spirited Grant, will she pursue her long-term goals… or her heart?

All work and no play…

Jane Garcia’s life is going according to plan: she’s dumped the cheating ex, moved into a beautiful house overlooking the San Francisco Bay, and expects to move up at her accounting firm. But when financial trouble strikes, she’s forced to rent a room to Grant Whitman, a scruffy writer with a full beard who knits his own hats.

No man is an island…

Grant Whitman has spent countless weeks alone in the wilderness researching his best-selling books. But after he meets Jane, he knows solitude isn’t going cut it anymore. She’s smart, strong, sexy… and the chemistry between them could roast marshmallows. The problem? A guy like Grant just doesn’t fit into Jane’s plans.

Fools rush in…

As they grow closer, Jane isn’t sure she can continue to resist Grant—or even wants to. Soon all her careful plans begin to unravel like a badly knitted hat. And then, to his surprise, so do Grant’s.

But can their wild fling outlast the summer?

Starting this review is difficult for me because I LOVED the story and I really, really loved Grant. Jane though…I can’t say I ever warmed up to her. She was rigid, judgmental and so singularly focused that after a while I was hoping for a twist where a WAY better choice for Grant came along.

Alas, there was no twist.

Jane and Grant meet when she accidentally bumps into him with her minivan. She’s running late for a party at her employer’s home and she takes one look at his unkempt appearance and assumes he is a step above a vagrant and forces a wad of cash into his hand. Strike one.

What I liked about Going Wild was that Jane and Grant were both in a bit of a bind and needed each other. He wasn’t some dashing hero diving in to save her, and the fact that she was so independent and capable was something I really admired and loved about Jane. What I couldn’t understand was how someone so capable could let her mother treat her the way she did. But…family. I just wished that she would have stood up for herself when it came to Nicole or Troy or her mom. Any one of those would have done, especially considering the way she said really messed up things to Grant without even considering that it might hurt his feelings.

Grant is amazing. A creative non-fiction writer, he’s got a serious case of writer’s block and he’s certain Jane Garcia is the key to breaking it. Turns out, he was right and we get to see the fun that ensues.

By the time the end rolled around, I was smiling like a fool because Going Wild was a good story, and in line with the Oakland Hills series. Jane somewhat redeemed herself at the end, but honestly by then I no longer cared about her, but because Grant wanted her and I wanted him to get his HEA, I’m all right with it.

 

The Oakland Hills series:

Love Handles (free) – http://amzn.to/2CzWFig

This Time Next Door – http://amzn.to/2EGEgGC

Not Quite Perfect – http://amzn.to/2HyptLZ

This Changes Everything – http://amzn.to/2sKiOL9

Going for Broke – http://amzn.to/2GwnEhr

Going Wild – http://amzn.to/2EVtb3K

book reviews, New Releases, Romance

HAPPY RELEASE DAY & Review!! 💙💚 Fool Me Twice by Lillian Anderson

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Title: Fool Me Twice
Author: Lilliana Anderson
Genre: Romantic Comedy/Contemporary
Release Date: February 21, 2018
‘Some husbands bought their wives flowers, others bought jewellery. Mine? He returned the things he stole.’

I should have known better. Hot guys didn’t hit on big girls without an agenda. They didn’t approach them in bars and talk their way into your bed. They also didn’t make you feel beautiful and proud of your curves. But, I was going through a dry spell—actually, I’d kind of been going through a dry spell all my life—and dry spells sucked. Of course I slept with him.

I was such a fool. 

I believed his lines. Fell for his easy smile; the man swept me off my feet, rocked my world, then robbed me blind. 

I really needed a three date rule.

Angry and embarrassed, I engaged the help of my best friend to track the thief down and make him return what he took. But when I found him, he wasn’t alone….

What does a girl do when she finds not one thief, but an entire family? 

She marries into it, of course.
I have mixed feelings about Fool Me Twice. On the one hand it was a fun and funny romance featuring a curvy girl and a sexy guy with an accent, two things guaranteed to get me all hot & bothered…and interested. But on the other hand, this story wasn’t everything I hoped it would be, which is why I only gave it 3.75 stars.
The story itself was good with a really intriguing premise and the chemistry between Holland and Nate (not Ben) was really hot. But the story loses something with only being told from her point of view. That fact alone made it hard to connect with Nate, to give a damn about why he and his family did what they did, which is key, in my opinion, to forgiving him for the way he treated her. Twice.
Fool Me Twice was a good read, but I never fully connected.
Bestselling Author of the Beautiful Series, Drawn and 47 Things, Lilliana has always loved to read and write, considering it the best form of escapism that the world has to offer.
Australian born and bred, she writes New Adult Romance revolving around her authentically Aussie characters with all the quirks you’d expect from those born Down Under.
Lilliana feels that the world should see Australia for more than just it’s outback and tries to show characters in a city and suburban setting.
When she isn’t writing, she wears the hat of ‘wife and mother’ to her husband and four children.
Before Lilliana turned to writing, she worked in a variety of industries and studied humanities and communications before transferring to commerce/law at university.
Originally from Sydney’s Western suburbs, she currently lives a fairly quiet life in suburban Melbourne.

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book reviews, Romance

5 STAR REVIEW!! ~ Sweet Dreams (Sugar Rush #1) by Nina Lane

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He may own a candy company, but this wealthy bachelor is no Willy Wonka. 

Sugar Rush Candy Company CEO Luke Stone is a devoted businessman who doesn’t do relationships. He does short-term affairs with clearly defined rules. But when a sexy bohemian sweetheart propositions him in a bar, Luke is tempted to want more.

Polly Lockhart is horrified when she wakes the morning after her twenty-fifth birthday to realize she made a fool of herself with a sinfully delicious man. She tells herself she doesn’t have time for romance anyway, as she’s fighting to keep her mother’s beloved bakery afloat and finish her culinary studies. That all changes when her class tours the famed Sugar Rush headquarters, and Polly collides with her dream man again.

As she succumbs to their hot attraction, Polly soon realizes her bakery isn’t the only thing that needs saving. Luke, driven and unyielding, will burn out unless someone convinces him to taste the sweetness of life. But can Polly remember this sugar rush is only temporary?

So, I really had a fun time reading Sweet Dreams! I loved Luke and Polly on their own and as a couple. It’s rare that you get two characters with their own hang ups about relationships or career goals, who don’t beat your over the head with those facts until you really don’t give a damn. Nina Lane did a fantastic job of making me care about why Luke was such a workaholic and why it was important. She did the same thing with explaining why Polly was so attached to her mother’s bakery, Wild Child.

And how they met, oh my god! That smoldering stare, the dark hallway dirty talk and that steamy kiss…wow! Then there came the inevitable hilarious tossing of the cookies, which was cringe-worthy and funny and mortifying. But it also made me love Polly even more.

Watching Luke and Polly fall into a relationship neither of them wanted is fun and fantastic. The things she gets him to do are fun and allow us to get to know Luke outside his role as CEO of Sugar Rush candy company. The way he so often stepped outside of his comfort zone to help her was sweet and totally hot and made it very hard not to fall in love with Luke…even when you really wanted to shake the hell out of him.

Toss in a few fun but quirky secondary characters like Ramona and Tim who were frequent visitors to Wild Child and even Aunt Julia who was both a terror and a delight, and Sweet Dreams is damn near perfect! I just hope there a lot more Aunt Julia in the rest of the series because that old lady has definitely got some stories!

I’m a sucker for opposites attract stories and though Polly and Luke were totally different from the outside, as Luke points out, they actually are more a like than you think. But watching them earn their happy ending? Well that was a treat all on its own.

book reviews, Romance, Sales

REVIEW ~ Mr. Sinful (Heartfelt Book 1) by Serenity Woods

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Seven Sexy Sins. One Mr. Sinful.

Faith Hillman is in trouble. She’s writing an article on ways to spice up your love life for her popular blog, but she’s hit a major snag—she hasn’t experienced any of the Seven Sexy Sins on her list. Luckily, her brother’s best friend, Rusty Thorne, offers to help with her research.

Having had a crush on him since the age of twelve, Faith agrees, on the proviso that he signs a contract keeping their short-term relationship a secret. Her brother once decked him for kissing her on her eighteenth birthday, so Rusty’s happy to concur.

While they work their way through the wicked list, Rusty enjoys showing Faith all the sexual delights he can think of. But it’s only as the sins draw to a close that he understands that, where love is concerned, he’s the student and Faith’s the teacher.

He’s determined to keep to the terms of the contract, but when it comes to the crunch, will he be able to let her go?

Warning: Includes rebellious hero who enjoys inserting Tab A into Slots B, C, and even occasionally D. Also includes highly inappropriate use of a Mars Bar.

I have to tell you that I absolutely LOVE the falling for your brother’s best friend trope. It’s hard to screw up and when done well, like Serenity Woods has done in Mr. Sinful, well it is a damn pleasure to read.

Faith is a well-known sex and relationships blogger without a lot of experience in either area, but she has nationwide recognition and a great new idea. Seven sexy sins. When her brother’s best mate, Rusty, offers to play her Mr. Sinful for just seven sexy encounters, she accepts without much thought to the consequences. It involves everything you think it would—scorching sex scenes, the feels, aww moments and even some naughty business with a chocolate bar—and then some.

I loved that Faith was the brave one in this relationship. Sure, she was naïve but it was due to a lack of experience not because she was sheltered and she was easy to root for. Fighting her feelings proves to be an impossible task, but watching her straighten her spine and decide to lay it all out there was amazing.

Rusty though, well he was magnificent. So damn tortured and scarred that he couldn’t see how amazing he was, and more importantly, all the good things he deserved. He’s the kind of guy you’re proud to call your book boyfriend. Stubborn to the point of stupidity, good and loving. Oh and did I mention, hot?

My only real complaint was Faith’s brother, Dan. It’s a personal peeve of mine, overprotective family, and he was kind of over the top. I understand his rationale but still, Faith was a grown woman with a job and a home so I think it’s unreasonable for him to think he can have that much say over her love life. He redeemed himself, but I still feel like I owe him a smack upside the head.

Heartfelt Series
Mr. Seductive (Book  2)
Mr. Sensational (Book 3)

book reviews, Romance

REVIEW ~ His Redneck Girl by Lindsey Brookes

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Jimmie Joe Johnson has spent years living up to his hound dog reputation. If he can’t have the one female he truly wants, then any female will do. When he isn’t off diddlin’ some female, he’s practicing for pool playoffs, determined to get his pool team to Vegas. Not only for bragging rights, but for the free trip to ‘Sin City’ and cash prize that comes along with it.
Baylee Jean Brown has never gotten over her first and only love, Jimmie Joe Johnson. So when she discovers the truth about why he really ended things with her all those years before, she sets out to get her man back. And no other thigh-parting female is going to stand in her way. She just has to find a way to make him take notice of her, considering he’d been avoiding her since that day her spell-threatening aunt (yes, she does come from a long line of witches), threatened to place his man-parts in a jar on her windowsill.
Avoiding Baylee Jean Brown in a town the size of Possum Hollow is hard enough, but all of the sudden she’s dressing sexy and aiming all that female heat in his direction. He tries to convince her that she’s better off without him, but how can he expect her to listen to reason when his own heart and body refuse to? Now his man-parts are in a whole different kind of danger. Not because her aunt might still carry through with her threat to pickle them, but because he knows no other woman will ever do.

Baylee Jean Brown is still in love with her first and only big love, Jimmie Joe. But he broke her heart and now that she knows why, Baylee has to find a way to forgive her meddling aunt and win her man back! And that just gets us past the first couple pages of His Redneck Girl! Unfortunately in the years since they’d broken up, Jimmie Joe has become a bit of a…hound dog. Bouncing from one female to the next, never staying long enough to form an attachment, which means turning him into a one woman man—again—was going to be an adventure. Lindsey Brookes set the stage wonderfully in this story, filled with fun and yes, hijinks.

His Redneck Girl is firmly a laugh out loud romantic comedy. Watching Baylee Jean get all dolled up, dressing sexy and flashy to get his attention was hilarious. Watching Jimmie Joe try and resist her though? Priceless. Baylee is exactly the kind of heroine you want to root for, strong and independent and ready to do what it takes to get her man, even if it means chasing off “every hussy in the county”. Lindsey Brookes has crafted such a fun story, completely with elements of paranormal with the reputed witches in the family and who can forget the talking possum?

The way the characters talk does take some getting used to, but after the first chapter it kind of flows off the page. His Redneck Girl is a fun, redneck love story that will have you laughing and swooning til the end.

book reviews, Novellas, Romance

Review ~ April Fool Bride by Joan Reeves

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Is it a marriage of convenience or something more?

Oil heiress Madeline Quinn needs a husband by the time she turns twenty-five in order to claim her full inheritance. Mad Maddie, as the tabloids christened her, has learned the hard way that men only see dollar signs when they look at her.

Maddie decides a marriage of convenience is the only answer. She turns to the one man in the world she can trust, her housekeeper’s son who always treated her like a little sister when they were kids growing up together.

Jake Becker hasn’t seen Maddie since the night she tried to seduce him. Why should he help the woman who changed the course of his life? Simple. Revenge.

Or is it something else? Something that sizzles like steam heat between Maddie and Jake that neither can resist!?

April Fool Bride was a fast, fun read. What appealed to me about this story is that it is—technically—a second chance romance and a marriage of convenience, two of my favorite tropes. Years ago oil heiress Maddie had a huge crush on the housekeeper’s son, Jake. One night she decided to act on that teenage crush and let’s just say that it didn’t end all that great for him. Or her, really.

Fast forward to the future and Maddie needs a man she can trust and there’s only one man she’s ever met who fits the bill. Jake.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this story is the deft way Joan Reeves was able to flesh out the characters by using the other character’s perspective. When we first learn about Maddie, it’s through Jake and it ain’t pretty. He makes her seem almost irredeemable, which did color my opinion of her. But we learned more about the new grownup Maddie through Jake’s perspective, which also made it clear why he fell for her.

This is a fast read, only about 120+ pages, but it reads like a full length story in that there are no elements missing. The mom and the stepmom were fun, meddlesome, characters who added a few layers of depth to tell us who our hero and heroine really are. It was hot, fun and fast, but most of all it was a good time!

April Fool Bride is book 1 in the All Brides Are Beautiful romance series.

book reviews, New Releases, Romance

Review ~ WishCraft by Savannah Kade

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~~ Sexy, emotional, often funny, always messy, true love romance ~~

Delilah has spent the past year doing what she does best: casting simple spells and trying to get over a heartbreaking betrayal. In doing so, she’s become a not-so-good witch. Picking up men and making them forget her is easier than getting involved.

Brandon can’t remember anything after he left the bar. He has only a foggy memory of a blond and a craving for pumpkin muffins. When he finally figures out what happened that night, he realizes he has to find the woman and break the spell on him. He’s after Delilah, even if he doesn’t know quite what for.

But Delilah isn’t fast enough, and Brandon knows he’s been had. Still, two can play that game! Can he play it without losing his heart?

Meet the Goodmans, a family of modern-day witches in Los Angeles. Follow them from Hollywood Boulevard to the beach, from heartbreak to true love. This series has real emotion, hard won happy endings, and smoking hot romance.

WishCraft is the story of Delilah and Brandon. She practices magic, but not in a point hats and brooms kind of way. Just in a way that allows her to have a little bit of fun between the sheets with a handsome stranger…and have him remember nothing of it the next day. Until she meets Brandon, a good guy, a handsome guy. A guy on whom her little spells doesn’t seem to work. He can’t remember everything, but he also can’t forget some things and it all leaves him worried and intrigued. That is the beauty of Savannah Kade’s modern romance. It is a unique twist on the modern one night stand and the contemporary witch trope, but that’s also what makes it a fun read.

For me, the star of WishCraft is Brandon. He seems like a pretty straightforward guy who takes mostly reasonable steps to figure out what was wrong with him, and the addition of his friend Dan, added a much needed dose of humor. Brandon was a good guy, and he made a few missteps but his intentions were pure. Delilah though, was harder to like for me. She wiped people’s memories and was unrepentant about it, which made it difficult to understand her motives. The one flaw in this story was that the author, Savannah Kade, waited too long to reveal the WHY behind Delilah’s behavior. We get a tiny glimpse, which honestly didn’t make her all that sympathetic. And by the time we do get the big reveal, I found it hard to forgive her. Aside from that small thing, WishCraft was a fun story with a unqiue twist.

book reviews, New Releases, Romance

Review ~ Redeeming Lottie by Melissa Ellen

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Things I never planned on happening in my life: Getting married, being a mother to a house full of kids, and returning to my small hometown in Texas.

I especially never planned on seeing Tucker Monroe again.
Sexy smile. Country charm. A man and a life I left behind for a reason.

The only plan I had for myself was my career.

My career as a buyer for one of the largest high end department stores was the only commitment I had time for. The only one I was willing to make.

Now, being left with no choice but to return to my hometown, I’m finding it hard to remember why I left in the first place. Because all that’s on my mind is Tucker. He is just as sexy. Just as charming. Just as dangerous as he used to be…

When you’re a woman like Lottie, you know what you want in life, an more importantly, what you don’t want. For her she didn’t want marriage and kids and definitely not a life in her small Texas hometown. She has a fabulous life in the big city and a great job, but life laughs when you make plans and following Lottie on her journey was both hilarious and sobering.

What I enjoyed about Redeeming Lottie was that she’s like most women of a certain age, certain in what she wants her life to look like. But somewhere along the way that changes for her, and she can’t seem to figure out why. This to me was the most compelling part of the story, watching her figure it all out. Sometimes, we think we have to stick to our set course instead of taking a step back to see if it’s still the right course for us and this was a message the reader gets loud and clear in Melissa Ellen’s story.

I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of most first person stories and it took me some time to get beyond the whole ‘jet setting, super fabulous’ life Lottie created for herself. It was clear from the beginning this was a surface happiness and I was eager to find out more. The writing itself was solid but not great, however Redeeming Lottie is all about the story and the message.

Tucker was…amazingly everything and his little niece just the most adorable girl. Watching this story unfold was a joy, and the story had a surprising depth that kept me reading to the end.

book reviews, Events, Romance

Blog Tour ~ Art of Forgiveness by Monique Orgeron

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Title: Art of Forgiveness
Series: A Stern Family Saga, Book 2
Author: Monique Orgeron
Genre: Contemporary Romance w/ Suspense
Release Date: January 19, 2018
Can love survive years of pain?

Liam Stern lived a charmed and carefree life. Always surrounded by friends, he was the boy who could have any girl he wanted, and did.

Until Avery.

She was pure and innocent. She was the one he never saw coming.

She was the only thing that mattered, but the time came for him to fulfill his destiny. To protect Avery from a life she was not made for, he would have to give up the one thing he loved most in this world: her.

Now the decisions made years ago come back to cost them both, dearly.

Avery Edwards was a good girl, never stepping out of line, always the obedient daughter. 

Until Liam showed her everything she was missing in her life: love.

Liam was her future, or at least she thought.

Until he broke her.

That was the beginning of her nightmare.

After years apart, Liam and his family hold her future in their hands. Rebuilding a girl who no longer cares to live.

After years of hating Liam, can Avery truly give him her forgiveness?

Get your copy HERE!!!

The Art of Forgiveness has done something that very few books have been able to do, and that is get a good review despite my mixed feelings. Because, make no mistake, this story by Monique Orgeron is a good read. A frustrating and compelling read all at once.

Avery was a victim of bullying at school and verbal abuse at home for most of her life and I understand that informed a lot of what she did and how she acted. But her willingness to just push her happiness aside—as an adult—for her delusional mother made it hard to sympathize with her. During the first few chapters of the book I nearly stopped reading because I just couldn’t take her saying ‘oh it was easier so I just did as she said’. It was so damn frustrating.

Then the sh*t hit the fan and I stayed up way too late trying to see what was going on. And what that was, was awful. Terrible. A hellish nightmare that made me feel for Avery viscerally. I wanted to step in front of her and slay those dragons for her, because that was worse than anything she’d ever been through and but for the genre, I did worry she wasn’t strong enough to handle it.

And I have to give it up to Monique Orgeron for proving me wrong. That chick was strong, stronger than even she knew. The Art of Forgiveness was a story about exactly that, forgiveness. But not just Liam and the mindf*ck he unleashed on her as a teenager, but also herself for allowing it to happen and even her Mom, which…wow. I don’t see myself forgiving that woman anytime soon.

I should mention Liam since he is the hero, but honestly Liam didn’t really do much for me. He was a weak man, a scaredy cat at best and that just isn’t sexy at all. From the beginning he had all the say and while I can forgive him a little based on the decisions he made at 18, the fact that he kept doing it years later made it a little hard to swallow.

Now for the rest of the characters. I absolutely loved Catherine, she was a total badass who ruled her family with a fist made of iron and velvet. Honestly, I want to be Catherine when I grow up. And the Stern brothers? Good lord were they all hot and bossy and just what you’d expect when you got a group of big, alpha men together. Some of my favorite parts of the story were when this big strong men devolved into little boys.

I wish that the romance had been more intertwined into the story, because truthfully it was more like part one and part two of a story, but I still really enjoyed reading The Art of Forgiveness.


Written by Monique Orgeron’s eldest, most beautiful, and intelligent daughter. (My sister is going to hate this part.)

My mom happens to be the most caring, loving, and stubborn person I know, well anyone knows. She gives 100% percent of herself to everyone and has given up so much of herself for my sister and I. For twenty-one years she has poured her heart and soul into making sure we know that we are loved and that we can do anything we put our minds too, but it was about time she figured that out about herself. 

Up until this year I hadn’t seen my mom do anything for only her, but this book has allowed her to travel the world through the pages of a book, make new friends, and feel the joy of doing something exciting. 

There is a new light behind her eyes and it is just making me feel more joy than she can ever imagine. While she might be annoying most of the time, I am so thrilled that she is finally allowing herself to grow as a person and not spend all of her energy on her family. 

It has been a long journey of self-discovery for my mom; she has gone from domestic supermom to domestic goddess throughout the process of writing. 

We are so very excited and proud of you! I love you as big as the world.

-Bria and Tony

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book reviews, Romance

Review ~ A Time to be Tender by Sheila Seabrook

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Heartbreaking to heartwarming…stories of love and redemption, trust and second chances.

It started out as an escape…
Help one sad and lonely widower get his life—and his family—back together again while she hid from her past. But Jane Watts didn’t expect to fall for the cowboy next door. Nor did she anticipate he’d fall for her in return.

It was supposed to be an easy out…
The booze, the brawls, the bull riding. But Mike Toryn didn’t ask to be saved by his secretive neighbor. Nor did he expect that he would want to save her in return.

What should have been uncomplicated and temporary had suddenly become profound and heartbreaking. And neither Mike nor Jane did heartbreak, not ever again.

From the Rocky Mountain contemporary romance series:
Book 1 – Always Remember
Book 2 – Terms of Surrender
Book 3 – A Time to be Tender

This story was surprisingly good, if a little slow and quite heavy at times, but A Time to be Tender didn’t suffer for it. This is the story about two people, Jane and Mike, who needed each other more than they realized. Both have been dragged through hell, and only with the help of each other, will they find their way back to a life in the light.

Mike lost the love of his life, his wife, and he just completely fell apart. Spectacularly fell apart to the point where a social worker came in and took his twin girls from him. Instead of working hard to get it all back, Mike went in the other direction, drinking and fighting, oh and bull riding. Because you know, that’s safe.

Jane, well Jane has been through even more and the stubborn woman refuses to talk about it. With anyone. I won’t give away her secrets because they are a really big part of A Time to be Tender, but it is a doozy. But thanks to her meddling mama, she and Mike start spending time together and they both begin to feel better.

The thing I liked about this story was that it didn’t read like your traditional romance. The build was slow, as it should be between two broken people, but even though it was rarely mentioned, you could see the affection building. The trust and eventually, the love.

Jane was a real treat because her insecurities were very real and once you find out why, completely understandable. It wasn’t some perceived problem that makes the reader roll her eyes and skim ahead. If I had any complaint it would be that I had to wait until the end of the story to find out what happened to Jane. I just felt like if that reveal had come sooner, it would have been more satisfying.