I’m not quite sure how to feel about this book. On the one hand, I like the message it sends about pursuing your dreams and overcoming your past. It’s a book about forgiveness and redemption and making peace with your mistakes. Or at least, I think that was the goal of the book. As I said, I appreciated the underlying message but had a hard time connecting with the characters. Although Sara and Tom felt real in the sense that the issues they dealt with – PTSD, self-doubt, insecurity, jealousy, etc. – were real, the intensity of their emotions at times felt overwhelming. Ultimately, this intensity translated into a lot of grief and arguments rather than a love for the ages.

They expect full honesty from one another, but neither of them actually discloses everything about themselves and, honestly, that’s not unexpected given the short amount of time they’ve known each other. What is unexpected is that they have that expectation at all and that they fight frequently over keeping secrets. They don’t really have a reason to be angry with one another about not disclosing aspects of their traumatic pasts. That kind of trust takes time and consistent, open communication. Like I said, the intensity if off the charts. So much so, it felt like the book was on the verge of becoming a suspense novel or a thriller where I was just waiting for one of them to snap and do something crazy.

I did like that Tom was upfront about how he felt about Sara. I think a lot of successful, alpha males in romance novels tend to be underwhelming in their verbal displays of emotion, so seeing Tom continuously lay all his emotions out there was refreshing and something I’d like to see more of. Likewise, I liked how headstrong Sara was. She was feisty and witty once she became more comfortable with Tom.

*Thank you to Goodreads, Amazon Digital Services, and Olivia Boothe for the free copy in exchange for an honest review! ( )