Christine Dearborn met her soulmate in high school. They eloped shortly before he went to boot camp, allowing her to escape from her austere, loveless childhood home. But being a military wife came with its own challenges, and Christine fought her own enemies at home even as her beloved battled adversaries overseas.
William Cashton had always been a guardian. When he was eighteen, he promised to protect his wife and his country. Fighting a foreign enemy turned out to be the easy part, and the war at home has more devastating casualties than Cash ever imagined.
Five years after she let Cash walk away, Christine gets a phone call that changes everything. Can Christine convince Cash to try to salvage their marriage, or will their emotional wounds be fatal?
Josie Kerr is a transplanted West Texan living on the edge of semi-profoundly rural Georgia, a.k.a. the southernmost edge of the northernmost county in Metro Atlanta.
She has an M.Ed. in Secondary English Education, but discovered that she hated high school more the second time than she did the first, so she decided to meld her love of technology with her education background and became an Instructional Designer. When not writing articles about how to fire someone without getting sued or why you should really not apply for jobs using your SexxyStud99@aol.com email address, she writes steamy romance novels that feature grown-up Heroes and Heroines.
I’ve come to believe that fate has a way of introducing us to things we don’t know we need until they’re in our lives.
My Review:
Getting through the holidays isn’t easy for everyone and can stir up and/or wring out the regrets for some, which can either result in completely ruining the holidays and further embittering the combatants, or being the impetus for real change. The first half of this tale was a rather tense and angsty read that was heavy on regrets while the characters were each quietly hopeful for clearing the air. I held my breath for this stubborn middle-aged couple, as they had successfully avoided all communication for five years after each had sullenly taken to their different corners of the country and licked their wounds while living in an odd form of marital limbo. The characters of Cash and Christine were endearingly flawed and near ruined with grief and contrition, yet still accessible; they prickled my curiosity to know all their secrets. I appreciated the realistic imperfections of these characters, they were well fleshed out and knowable to me while their reasoning and insights resonated as ringing true with their gained maturity. The writing was emotive and heart-squeezing with welcome bites of humor while the couple worked through their issues and ultimately reinforced their foundation and reestablished their commitment while scorching the sheets and singing the ceiling tiles.
Another wonderful read by Josie Kerr! This is book #3 in the series, and I loved Cash and Christine's second chance HEA.
As always with Josie's books, they are real people with real issues that are addressed throughout the book. (No fabricated and unnecessary miscommunications required to move the story along... I know I mention it with every review of one of Josie's books, because it's so refreshing!!)
Cash and Christine love one another, but lost their way. This is their second chance at happiness, and they aren't going to waste it.
This can be read as a stand alone, but why would you do that?! Read the series, you'll love it!! :-)
As usual, a nice pair of protagonists who read like real human beings with a real relationship. I’m always sad to leave Josie’s characters behind when the books end!