Steve cleared his throat to get Kelly's attention. "I know that it's not really any of my business, Kelly - but what you really need to do, is to just give Luke a little more time. Once he begins to get stronger, and he feels better, it should improve his mental state. And seeing a shrink should help. I know this from personal experience with other patients. Let's just wait until he's ready."

I received my copy of this eBook in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I am a sucker for the injured soldier romances! I pictured these two - Kelly and Luke - rather like Logan and Veronica, of Veronica Mars fame, though with a tighter relationship in their backstory (and certainly more siblings on Kelly's side than Veronica had!) and history together. You could feel the love radiating off the two of them, the electric spark of attraction that had been growing and brewing beneath the surface for them for years.

From the moment he saved a six year old Kelly from drowning, it was pretty apparent that she was special to Luke, to everyone who mattered. That her sisters marriage brought the two of them back together was heaven sent, though the timing could have been better as it was merely hours before Luke was set to return to the Air Force ending his leave. It was enough of a motivator to bring the two back together, despite Kelly's confessions years prior on the same beach near Dragonfly Pointe.

After a few quiet moments, he finally spoke. "You don't know how many times I've thought about coming back here, Kel... how many times that I've dreamed of you when I was overseas."

Her eyes jerked immediately to his. "Oh, Luke. You've never said those kinds of things to me before." She closed her eyes. "Don't tell me you're finally going to admit your feelings for me now-when I've worked so hard trying to get over you? You shot me down pretty good a few years back."

"You'd never believe how hard it was for me to say no to you."

I love when a couple seems to be falling together into something divine right at the very beginning! They'd had a friendship of sorts, based on her brother Dan's drive to help save a battered and abused young Luke in his teens, but it was also something familial. Like he was a fixture, big brother's friend that she'd always adored. Of course, shipping out at the end of the next day when they'd resolved themselves to be together would be their first hurdle. A man who had not had anything in his youth, nothing he was truly proud of or loved but the skill and the career that he had made for himself in the Air Force. Remind me of anyone?



Yeah... If you know me, and how much of a 'Team Logan' supporter I am, than you know how I feel about broken yet strong, caring men like that. I think that was one of the reasons this book did so well for. Luke Bryant was so compelling and soooo broken! His childhood had been shattered by abuse and then, when he finally feels like he has something to live for and something to dream about to come home to... It's all ripped away from him through a devastating combat injury. He's left burned, more scarred than ever physically, and now with the added prospect of life without one of his legs. You know he must feel like something so shattered and broken, and Kelly, who was seven years his junior couldn't possibly be interested in being with him now that he is so disfigured. Who would want to dump that kind of life on anyone? She had thought he would be whole, or as whole as he could have possibly been physically, not what he'd become - the useless, helpless mass he'd become. He'd lost his sense of worth, and he'd lost faith in the strength of the beautiful woman who wanted to spend her life by his side.

Jake hesitated, staring intently at Kelly. "Well, are you strong enough to handle this? That's why Luke's probably never thought he was good enough for you, sweetie - he's putting on a front to protect himself, from the hurt he'd be feeling, if you rejected him the way he was now."

"Nothing's gonna ever make me stop loving Luke," she answered fiercely. "That's the way it's always been, and that's the way it's always gonna be."

Time and patience is all it takes. Kelly refuses to give up on him, and the payoff in the end is so rewarding!

A wonderful love story about perseverance in the face of adversity and that even though someone is injured or disabled, that doesn't make them any less the person that they were before. Love can overcome all obstacles with a little faith and a lot of hard work. Four stars and two enthusiastic thumbs up! ( )