Genres: Contemporary Romance, Military Romance
Published by Decadent Publishing
Released on January 6, 2013
Pages: 78
Format: eBook
This one was so endearing and broke my heart a little with its portrayal of a fragile, abused woman with her baby girl diagnosed as failure to thrive and the injured Marine who fell in love with the fire he saw still burning within her.
Melody feels tired, guilty, scared and all in all just one big hot mess when she comes to Mike’s Place for her little girl. Her abusive Marine husband has been killed in the line of duty and all she can feel is relief which makes her feel guilty. Her baby girl born after the death of her husband has a heart condition that needs constant monitoring. And Melody gets twitchy any time she has to deal with a man particularly big, burly Marine or soldier types so it is with great surprise that she feels differently toward her neighbor, Captain Joe Carter who is recovering from extensive injuries.
Joe hasn’t been in the best of moods during his recovery as he is forced to wait things out, but he suddenly realizes things could be a lot worse when he becomes aware of his pretty neighbor who is running on vapors and terrified of her own shadow. He recognizes the signs and suspects the truth. He wants to gentle her and gain her trust, he wants to protect her and her baby, but most of all he just wants her. He’s never felt this way about a woman before and he suspects that she is possibly too broken to ever want him back. But with a little of Momma Carter’s tough and vigorous TLC and the people at Mike’s Place maybe something special can happen.
This story just kept hitting my emotions hard. I loved Joe and wanted to wrap Melody up for a hug. At first, I wanted to absolutely hate her husband, but yet I ended up pitying him too in the end- not that I think it is ever right or excusable to abuse someone. He was a casualty of war in more ways than one as was Melody and Joe. I really liked the attention to pacing with the tone and the development of this story. It is short, but it is by no means insta-anything.
Just another wonderful addition to a really good series of mostly standalone Marine romances.
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This sounds like a really good book. It’s books like this that push buttons emotionally that usually keep me engaged to read all in one sitting.
Exactly, Mary! It totally pushed my emotion buttons. I love reading this series, but this will end up being a favorite.
oh great review. I do have to say that I just love those stories that put your emotions through the ringer. I definitely want to try this one out as soon as I can.
Yeah, this one is touching. It can be read easily as a standalone if you want to try it w/o having to read the whole series.