Enthralling story about life in the military and the healing that can come from the love of a good man.

Highly decorated Staff Sergeant Corey Yarwood is an instructor at the Basic Reconnaissance Course. He’s struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and is on the verge of becoming an alcoholic. In the midst of defending another bar patron, Corey meets Sean Chandler. Sean is a musician and actor who sings and plays the guitar at the bar. The two of them begin a relationship, but must deal with Corey’s PTSD and the investigation into events that happened in Afghanistan.

The entire story is told from Corey’s point of view. He’s extremely ethical, kind and strong. He believes in doing the right thing, and he finds it extremely frustrating that he can’t remember everything that happened during his last deployment.

I fell in love with Corey, and desperately wanted to see him find happiness and peace. Sean was very kind with a calming personality, but he was also very possessive and immature in some ways. Sean really helped Corey deal with his panic attacks and drinking. Unfortunately, I never felt like I got to know Sean as well as I would have liked to. He had an interesting life as an actor and musician, and it would have been great to spend more time exploring it.

The development of the relationship between Cory and Sean, while strong at the beginning with plenty of great dialogue, became mostly a sexual one toward the end. However, they did bring kissing to a whole new level of sexiness! Although I found the story extremely interesting, I really wish more time would have been spent watching them bond.

The majority of the story is spent watching Corey perform as an instructor and learning the details of what takes place during training. Another portion is spent dealing with the investigation of the events in Afghanistan. We also spent quite a bit of time with Cory and his therapist. I really liked the way the author addressed this issue by including some of the detailed conversations. It seems like she did quite a bit of research making the story feel very realistic.

I did not read the first two books in the series, and while I certainly didn’t feel lost at all, I think fans will enjoy seeing earlier characters. I thought this was an excellent story about a courageous man serving in the military, both during and after deployment, and the effects and treatment of PTSD. The author has a riveting writing style, and she did a wonderful job covering so many complicated subjects in a way that made them easy to understand.

Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Book Blurb

Positively phenomenal! A unique spin on the friends to lover theme with an amazing relationship-based story.

Andrew Thompson and Caleb Lakes meet and become the best of friends while young teenagers. The story takes us through the next 20 years of their lives as they maintain their status as best friends with benefits. The question is whether or not they can ever move past this point.

I loved both of these very well developed characters. Caleb was sweet, charming, an amazing friend, and a very strong person. It was adorable how he always had to be dressed to perfection. Andrew is brilliant, graduating from school early and ultimately becoming a top neurosurgeon. He’s extremely kind but also very lonely due to his brilliance. He longs for a permanent relationship, but repeatedly chooses men who cheat on him.

However, when he and Caleb don’t have current boyfriends, they take advantage of their amazing sexual chemistry. All of the amazing sex scenes took place with Andrew and Caleb. Even though they both had other boyfriends throughout the story, it was mostly told to us through discussions between Andrew and Caleb. There was a lot of dialogue in this story, which is something I enjoy, and a good portion of it was told while these two were engaged in sexual activity.

It was hard to imagine enjoying a story where the two lovers aren’t truly romantically involved — at least in their eyes. To the reader and their friends, it was obvious these two were meant for each other. However, the author managed to make me believe that their relationship worked for them, and thankfully there wasn’t a lot of angst in the story. I almost wanted things to happen faster, but in all honesty, they weren’t ready for it. By the time they figured it out, I was crying happy tears!

If you enjoy an amazing friends to lovers with benefits theme with great dialogue, strong characters, and an interesting life journey, this more than fits the bill.

Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Book Blurb

Opening up your heart and mind can lead to clarity and acceptance in your relationships and life.

Mark Cooper was forced to leave his home in Australia to follow his Mom and her new husband to Pennsylvania. He now has to rush a local fraternity, and he’s not happy about it. Deacon Holt happens to belong to the fraternity next door, but he isn’t going to let a little rivalry keep him from hanging out with Mark. Now these two need to see if they have enough of a connection to build a real relationship.

Mark Cooper is such an angry person at the beginning of the story, as he’s trying so hard to please so many other people. He does it in a way that certainly doesn’t make him appear spineless, but I did feel sorry for him. He has no idea what he really wants out of life yet.

Deacon is the level-headed guy that always seems to know exactly what to say and what to do. He knows what he wants out of life, and he’s determined to get it. He has to deal with his Mom who has some serious OCD issues, including constantly imagining the worst case scenario. He did a great job trying to help her deal with her issues, while at the same time realizing that he could never solve her problems for her.

It was really interesting watching these two characters learn about themselves and make a conscious effort to accept certain traits while trying to bring about change in other aspects. Watching Mark realize that his attitude was triggering some of the problems with other people was really eye-opening. He slowly realized it wasn’t really him against the world. He was simply getting his own attitude reflected back at him. Seeing Deacon accept that he likes being the guy that provides support to others was also interesting.

These two together were smoking hot. The sex scenes were off the charts, although the fisting scene was a bit too realistically painful to read. I really liked both Mark and Deacon at the beginning of the story, but I loved them by the end. This was a decent length novel, and yet I still wanted more. The ending was wonderful, but I would also love at least another glimpse into their lives.

Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Book Blurb