2.5⭐️
“You will not break me, for I am unbreakable. I will live with integrity, fight with honor, and die for what’s right. My watery eyes lift to his, and I find him”
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Who is the Hero?
Sawyer Evans, Age: 26, Occupation: co-owner of gym
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Who is the Heroine?
Grace Morgan, Age: 21, Occupation: waitress and amazing pie-maker
Plot overview:
- When she was seventeen, Grace came home to find two men in her house and her mother raped and bloody. She was also attacked, but survived and after her mother’s death she was sent to live with an uncle - who she considered the devil.
Sawyer is an ex Seal who has just opened a gym with his two best friends (who are also ex Seals).
Sexy Sawyer and Cupcake (aka Grace) met in book 1 (I think) and Sawyer wants to get to know Grace a lot better. Sparks fly and danger abounds as these two become a couple.
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The following are my thoughts about this book:
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* * Sawyer ticked me off. There were a couple different incidents where he was insensitive when it came to other women and how his actions made Grace feel. And then he gets all possessive when she talks to a different guy. Also, I’m never a fan of a guy who sleeps with another woman After he meets and is attracted to the heroine. I thought Sawyer was selfish and a jerk at times. I was hugely disappointed in his actions and never fully regained a good opinion of him. .
* * The heroine’s accent drove me a little nuts at time.
* * At times, I was a little confused with the characters. I’m guessing they were introduced in a previous book (which was a DNF for me), so I missed all the backstory. Therefore, because I didn’t understand the character dynamics, I had a bit of a disconnect.
* * I’m wondering too if the detail of how Sawyer got his scars was also in a different book. He had zero PTSD related to what he went through, and it was glossed over. Yet, it sounded like he had pretty severe scarring and that he and Cade went through something major. I just felt it was a big part of Sawyer’s life and I didn’t have much context around it.
* * Sawyer needed to Big Tine grovel after a couple different incidents - but nope. Instead we get Grace lusting after him and that made her a bit pathetic to me.
**Overview:**
- Content Warning: the prologue is a home invasion with a rape and murder. It is not overly descriptive, but still impactful
- Setting: Sunset Bay (in South Carolina, I think)
- Do you need to read previous books in series?: characters from this book were a big part of previous book, so it would be helpful. Although, I will say the previous book was a DNF for me.
- POV: Dual POV
- Hero likeable? not really - all he could think about was sex. At times his comments made him seem immature.
- heroine likeable? in the beginning she seemed strong, but honestly I felt like she became a bit of a doormat once she was with Sawyer
- h virgin? No
- First time they kiss: 16%
- First time they sleep together: 60%
- Safe sex? Condoms were not used but being clean was discussed before they did anything.
- First time they say I Love You 78%
- steamy? Yes. Descriptive bedroom scenes
- Chemistry? meh - I struggled with these two so I wasn’t really invested in them. Therefore, that’s probably why I didn’t feel the chemistry
- OW/OM drama? Yes!
- H/h cheat? technically, they weren’t together when Sawyer slept with another woman. But still, he had made it clear he was interested in her and was pursing her, so it was a shitty thing for him to do just because he didn’t get his way.
- Time apart? Nothing significant
- Did I skip pages? some. Like I said, I didn’t love this couple so the bedroom scenes weren’t interesting to me
- Big secrets? they both have stuff from their past they need to share
- Did I cry? No
- Did I laugh? No
- Did I swoon🥰? No
- Cliffhanger? No
- HEA? Yes
- Epilogue? Four months later
- Recommend? Not really. Sawyer could have been so much more and very swoony, but his actions and immaturity ruined the story for me.
Quotes:
“All I want is to belong to someone.”
“If the bad starts to overshadow the good, baby girl, then dig deeper, because you’ll end up havin’ more of it.”
“It’s good you still try to see the glass half-full, Grace,” he speaks again. “Whatever you do, don’t lose that, because once you do there’s nothing left.”
“You once told me that everyone should belong to someone. I’m asking you, Grace, to belong to me for the rest of your life.”