DNF @ 15%
So melodramatic and tortured!
Didn’t even remember that I’d tried to read it another time before.
Should have checked my Goodreads account first. ( )

Barely got past the prologue. When you start a book with the protagonist in her pre-teen, you can have her develop a crush on a “young man” (the protagonist’s description of the male lead), but it gets a bit creepy when the writing hints at returned feelings.
Either the male lead is only a year or two older (which stretches the “young man” description, especially coming from a 12-year old), or the male lead is closer to 16, which seems way too uck to me).

Then you jump 12 years and have the female lead being horribly scarred… sorry, just not my jam.

I got the entire series for free from Amazon so I didn’t read the blurb before grabbing it. After reading all the blurbs, I find I may not be interested in reading it after all.

YMMV ( )

To be fair, it’s not a bad book, it just has several strikes against it according to my personal tastes in HR:

1. Squeaky clean. There are scenes where they have sex but no description or detail.
2. Heroine chases hero. Very much not my jam.
3. Zero angst. I got excited when the heroine was overhearing her husband talk to Oliver because I ADORE overheard insults, but in this case, the convo she overheard just put her fears to rest, and set her further on the path of saving her husband/marriage. Boring!
4. The hero despairs of letting his guard down and letting love in. In my experience, people with trauma and baggage aren’t like “well I could love, but that sounds scary, so nah.” Defense mechanisms are more complex, but whatever.
5. Heroine with no baggage. I really only read HR books with heroines I can relate to, so basically non-traditionally attractive (plain, chubby, scarred, etc). This heroine is so scarred she ostensibly landed hard on the shelf (her fiancée dumped her!) but she is pretty blasé about it. She references being hurt and scared in the past when reaching out to heal her husband’s Epic Pain, but she is absurdly well-adjusted and confident for a woman raised in a society where the only thing a woman has to offer is beauty and a dowry.

I’m pausing at chapter 30. I’ll come back to it when I am in a mood to give it the proper attention.