TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT, COWBOY…

A Weary warrior… After eight years as a Marine sniper, war-scarred Reid Everett is back in his native Wyoming. He knows and loves this rugged land, so working for wildlife services to reduce the booming wolf population suits him to a T.

A Caring crusader… Wildlife biologist Haley Cooper is desperate to make a difference. Leaving the world of academia behind, she accepts a position as a wolf advocate to protect the animals she loves.

Raw attraction… Their jobs set them on a collision course, but chemistry sparks like wildfire between Reid and Haley. They’ll have to brave some rough territory if they hope to reconcile their polarizing views with a passion that won’t be denied.

I went into this book without reading the blurb really, I saw the cowboy cover and since I haven' read many cowboy romances I decided to give it a try. It turned out to be more than cowboy romance but rather a curious mix of military, cowboy and wildlife/environmentalist story.

I liked the writing and the story had an easy flow to. It takes place over the course of a few years and I especially appreciated the slow build up of the romance. Reid and Haley met when she was really young and there was strong chemistry between them but the timing was all wrong and with him on a mission in Iraq they started an epistolary friendship. After getting together some years later with a little help of some friends, unfortunate circumstances and personal difference drew them apart until they finally met again when both were ready for each other.

It's a nice, curious story of becoming your own person, making tough choices but deep down it is a tender, heartfelt love story. 

A really strong aspect of the story which I particularly enjoyed was the how different Reid and Haley were. They stood at the opposite sides on everything, yet they managed to overcome their differences once they were grown up enough to think things through and discuss them openly. 

Haley's choice of career, wildlife biologist, especially working for preservation of the wolf population was in direct conflict with Reid's family business as ranchers and lodgers/hunting guides. I liked all the details were given into these issues, they added a solid background to the romance and made the characters feel real.

I enjoyed most of the story, things were dynamic and there were a few surprise twists thrown in. It was engaging and felt realistic. Unfortunately, everything went too too sweet and cliche in the final 1/4 of the book after Reid and Haley got together eventually. I like the HEA in my romances as much as the next girl but I want it to feel a natural fit to the characters and the overall story line and not something forced and artificial, written there just to make everyone happy. 

Purchase links: Amazon / B&N / Indiebound / Books-A-Million

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Here are the rules: 

• Grab your current read 

• Open to a random page 

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

• Be careful not the include spoilers! 

• Share the title & author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers. 

I have modified them slightly for my Teasers. It will not be two sentences from a random page but two, usually more, sentences from the pages I have read so far that have struck me as most interesting, original or that I just happen to like a lot.

My teaser this week comes from The Way Home by Cindy Gerard. It is a romantic suspense novel I read last week and I absolutely loved it (my review). It a very emotional story of love and lost and it is just beautifully told. I have chose a passage towards the end of the which in my opinion reveals perfectly the intensity of the story and author's writing style. I hope it is not too spoilerish since the things in it are already included in the blurb. If this teaser made curious about the book, it released tomorrow, Oct 29.

"She was married to a man who didn't remember her.

She was in love with a man she needed to forget.

She felt confused and guilty on both counts. But there was only one thing she could do right now.

On a deep breath, she gathered herself, then made the longest walk of her life."

The Way Home - Cindy Gerard

Goodreads blurb

Four years ago Jess Albert got the news that her husband Jeff was killed in action in Afghanistan, and a painful void entered her life. The more time passed, the more acutely she felt that emptiness. But when Tyler Brown, former military hero and all-around alpha male, shows up a year after she’d last seen him, Jess gradually begins to realize there is one thing that can make her feel whole again—love.

As they’re planning their wedding and new life together, Jess receives shocking news: her husband is alive, under the care of a young Afghani woman hiding him from the Taliban. Even as he sees their happily-ever-after slip away, Ty arranges for the One Eyed Jacks and Black Ops, Inc. teams to make a daring and dangerous rescue mission to bring Jeff home. The hardest thing Ty or Jess has ever done is to let the other go.

When Jeff returns to Jess, broken physically and emotionally and with no memory of their history, they try to heal their marriage and each other. But as time brings them together more as friends than lovers, an unexpected development helps them see the true way home, to the people they love.

Title: The Way Home (One-Eyed Jacks #2)

Author: Cindy Gerard
Date of publication: 29 October 2013
Genre: Romantic suspense / Military

Author's links: Website / Blog / Goodreads

My rating: 5 Stars



I was provided with an ARC by the publisher via Netgalley.

There are two main plot lines in this book - Jess and Ty's relationship on the one hand and the story of Jeff (Jess's husband, presumably killed in action in Afghanistan) and Rabia, the Muslin woman who saved him. These stories develop parallel to one another and even though they are told from the POV of the four characters, the narrative flows very smoothly.

The four character have unique and strong voices each telling his/her story in a deeply engaging and moving way.  

I really liked both couples, though naturally, I have my favourites. I liked Jess and understood her difficulty to move on after losing hers husband and especially her reluctance to get involved with another (ex)-military man. Yet, Ty was no Jeff. His perseverance, his openness and ultimately his love won Jess over. Out of this couple I found Ty far more appealing. He was the ultimate alpha male military man - honourable, loyal, protective and at the same time patient with Jess, giving her time and space to make her own choices. She came out as a it passive in their relationship, it was Ty was doing all the giving, taking steps towards their common future and she just allowed him to love her and take care of her.

Ty and Jess may be the central couple in this book, at least on first glance, but it was Jeff and Rabia who stole my heart and took my breath way. I felt very deeply for their suffering and all the pain they had to go through. Jeff's struggles initially just to to survive and then to regain what he had lost (his memory, his past, his physical and mental health) were presented with great sympathy and compassion and I found his story absolutely riveting.

Rabia, the Muslim woman who became his saviour both literally and figuratively was also a well developed strong character. There was some politics involved around her but they were in no way intrusive and just completed her character without taking away the romance of the story.

Initially my heart broke for Jeff and Rabia when he first remembered the attack on him, then when he was finally rescued and returned home, Jess's attempts to restore their previous life brought tears to my eyes. 

I loved the romance in this book, but the suspense element also worked well for me. I liked that it didn't overshadow the love story but complemented it perfectly showing the strength and honour of all the military men involved. 

Overall, it is both a heart-breaking and a heart-warming story beautifully told. It focuses on all the important things in life - love, honour, loyalty, family. And the ending provides the perfect HEA for everyone.

PS: Now I need too go back and read Mike's story asap. I just can't help it :)