DISCLAIMER: I was lucky enough to receive this book from BookSirens on behalf of the author. This is in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I hope the prospective reader will read this review fully before making any prejudgments on the book. I will give the book my thoughts, good and bad. Also, this review contains opinions that are my own and not the author’s. My thoughts will be different from your thoughts and just know that before reading the book. Lower in the review, I will talk about disclaimers in the book as well that you should read before opening the book.

Our story begins with Jenny in turmoil. She lost everything when her special ops husband was killed. She tries to fix her broken heart with a cycle of self-destruction. Her uncaring attitude is what puts her in a seriously dangerous situation. All it takes is one night to send her life into a tailspin. Jenny is faced with a life or death situation when she kills a violent man. Even though it was self-defense, she flees in fear and escapes to an unknown place. This is the wakeup call she needs to turn her life around. That is where she meets Lieutenant Jon Dowling. He is handsome and everything Jenny was hoping for. Will her dark past catch up with her? She knows she has to fight for her life, but will her fight end in pain or a happily ever after?

In a story like this, background is very important. You have to get a clear idea of what each character has gone through to be able to understand how their future is going to go. You need to know about Jenny’s past and her pain to understand her fight later. I feel as if this book had that at times, but I noticed some events sped through very quickly. Some of the moments in the story seemed to be very important later, but not important when they are explained. That makes it hard to read when you are constantly needing to go back to see if you missed something. Once I find it, I realize that I have to fill in the blanks anyway. It was a little frustrating at times. I feel as if the character’s background was lacking a little bit.

Since we know about the background, I want to talk about the characters themselves next. I do think the characters are very important into sending the reader on an adventure and taking the reader completely out of the story. I think these characters had wonderful moments, but I felt sometimes there were important things skipped. There seemed to be some moments where I was left wanting more. I was waiting for the characters to grow and develop, and I didn’t feel they did too much more. I felt there were times where it was very flat, and I wanted excitement. The positive notes that the characters had were the complex situations that they had to fight through. They were able to overcome obstacles and I think that makes the characters different and unique.

I always like to give a disclaimer for those who are not as comfortable with violence, intimacy or language. I can say that this has all three. There were violent moments in the novel when it came to descriptions, although, the violence was not overly descriptive. I was not uncomfortable with the amount of violence that has been used as it was necessary to those moments. Intimacy scenes were throughout the book. I didn’t feel as if they were descriptive and not comfortable to read. They were to the point and not overly drawn out. There was a lot of cursing, but not excessive. I am not a fan of a lot of unneeded cursing and I didn’t find that in this book. Overall, there was not too much I can fault about the disclaimers.

My rating: While I did enjoy the book as a whole, I felt as if I struggled to finish it at some points. Some chapters had significant breaks that made me feel as if I could put down the book.  I didn’t find the flow that I enjoy while reading the story. I did complete the book, but I found the ending predictable. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. There was so much more I wanted from this book. I like to be on the edge of my seat, and I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the result.

I hope this review helps you in making your next book choice. Happy reading!