THE TWISTED ROAD TO YOU

THE TWISTED ROAD TO YOU                      BARBARA LONGLEY

Struggling with both PTSD and the trauma of his ex-wife’s infidelity, retired Marine Wesley Holt seeks a simple civilian life. His favorite waitress at the Perfect Diner secretly stirs his heart. Yet Wes—scarred by betrayal and racked by guilt over his fallen comrades in Afghanistan—stays quiet, convinced he can never love again…or be loved.

Waitress and single mother Carlie Stewart hides fear behind her smile. Her ex-husband has escaped from prison and wants their son—and revenge. When the fugitive arrives to wreak havoc, Wes insists Carlie and her son stay with him for protection. Finally daring to let her guard down, Carlie divulges her dark past to Wes, and to her surprise, Wes appreciates her strengths and longs to trust her with his tattered heart. The safer they feel with each other, the more trust and passion grow. But can they overcome the demons in their pasts—and the heartbreak they’ve carried into the present—to build a lasting future together?
     

MY REVIEW:

     Twisted is a good way of putting it.  Because all the roads for every person in this story was twisted one way or another.  Thanks to their service to the USA.  You see all the guys are US Vets who worked at L&L (Langford & Lovejoy) custom handmade wooden furniture designed by the company.  They are owned by Noah Langford and Ted Lovejoy.  Most if not all were in battle together or served together in some form.
     One of the reasons for this type of crew is that one, it’s hard for guys coming out of service to get jobs but if you are visibly injured or have PTSD forget about it no one wants to touch you.  In this they all encourage each other to make it to PTSD meetings etc… They not only have this brother in arms bond but now it is a real type friendship of choice.
     One of the men that works there is an ex-Major in the Marines.  Due to not only injury which was minor to his PTSD but also stemming from first, losing his wife to another man by a Dear John letter.  Second, soon after like hours later he was deployed to missions where he felt his mind was more on what was going on at home than what was in front of him.  His team was ambushed and a guy was shot dead in the middle of it he could see the surprised expression of shock on his face as he died.  Major Wesley Holt felt if he was paying better attention he would have been able to tell him to get down that the Taliban set them up it was a trap and to take cover.
     The only relief he has had over the last year or so is at the end of his day, which is everyone else’s breakfast, because he works graveyard to keep the nightmares and flashbacks at bay.  He walks to the diner down the way from his work and where he lives above L&L so he can see Carlie Stewart.  Carlie is a single mother who works the morning shift.  She is gorgeous.  A voluptuous full figured young woman.  From the day he saw her he could not take his eyes off her.  Every time he even thought of her as anything other than his kind waitress or in his fantasy dream he would start to lose it.  Relationships and love was wrapped up in his PTSD.  All due to his ex.
     Carlie had ended up in Perfect, Indiana a little over 2 years ago.  Yet, no one really knew her.  Then one day he goes into the diner for his breakfast and the table that Carlie usually saved for him had someone in it.  She was nowhere to be seen.
The owners see him and direct him over.  They know he had eyes for her well as everyone else does, and they ask for his help to check on her.  At that moment his heart take on extra beats.  The owner not only an ex-Marine but the retired Sheriff for Perfect had a bad feeling and so did Wes.
     After a look between husband and wife he gets the nod and tells Wes that Carlie had moved to Perfect after her husband was put in prison for putting her in the hospital after he beat her halfway to death.  That’s all he needed and directions and he ran back to L&L where his apartment is on the 3rd floor pulls out his gun and ammo from the safe.  The guys at L&L are on alert by the short arrival back from the diner, his abrupt actions, him retrieving his gun, and his 3 legged ex-military dog, Rex.  They block his departure to get the 411.  Asked if he needed back up he says no and they said call if he needs them.
     When he gets close he sees all the open field where her ex could hide in waiting.  And where he can park to hike in on foot.  He and Rex do, they see her, and Tyler hunched on the couch in fear.  There is a man with a knife yelling at them.  He does notice bruises and black eye on Carlie.  He sneaks around back to the hope it’s unlocked like everyone else’s in Perfect but it’s locked.  When he hears him threaten to kill her he kicks in the door and…
     Sorry you will have to read it and see.  You will not regret it.  This writer has a great way of making your emotions go in so many directions.  There’s suspense, humor, romance, sadness, fear, and hope in this 274 pages.  I give this 5 ++++ stars.  Provided by Netgalley.com.

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HIDDEN AWAY

HIDDEN AWAY                                              JENNIE MARTS

Secrets have a way of revealing themselves….

Right after a fire breaks out in her diner, a phone call changes Cherry Hill’s life. The tragic death of her cousin leaves Cherry sole guardian of her eight-year-old nephew. But the upper crust side of the Hill family deems her unfit and is determined to take Sam away from her. The only one on her side is the sexy sheriff, Taylor Johnson, the man who broke her heart nine years ago when he left town.

Taylor Johnson has sworn to protect the citizens of Broken Falls, but should that extend to a fake engagement to the woman who captured his heart so long ago? It doesn’t take long for his pretend feelings to turn real for both Cherry and her adorable nephew, Sam.
But Cherry’s been hiding a secret from Taylor that could rip this new family apart…
 

MY REVIEW:
This book hooked me from the very beginning.  The events unfolded at such a rate and with such emotion that it grabs hold of your emotions.
      Cherry Hill comes from a well to do family that thinks they’re the end all be all.  Thank goodness she always thought because her grandparents were loving and caring she was just like everyone else kind.  The head of the family now that her grandmother passed is her Aunt Bea.  She looks like someone who sucked a lemon, has no personality, and sits as if she has a rod in her back.
     Cherry’s father married her mother and had her and her mom left them both but everyone blames her for their break up.  Or at least for them being together.  Then her father left her with her grandparents who took care of her as he fell into the bottle.  They took great care of the same way she took care of them all the way until the end of their lives.  They willed her their restaurant that had been in the family which angered Aunt Bea and her family.  All except Stacy, Reed’s sister who was not only Cherry’s cousin but her best friend.  No one knew of this there was a secret that Stacy, her grandmother and Cherry shared and no one knew.
     Someone she had gone to school with and had been love with since she was young had moved back to town.  She had been trying to avoid him since he moved back which was really hard.  You see Taylor Johnson is the new Sheriff in town.  Being she owned the local diner it would be crazy to think that she wouldn’t run into him or that he wouldn’t stop in to eat.  But the seriously didn’t start dating until before their senior year in high school.  But the night of their senior prom they had an after party just the two of them where they took each other virginity.  
     At around that same time Taylor’s mom had been ill with a disease that was taking her life and when she passed he found it hard to adjust.  So, after graduation they had been fighting a lot due to his tension and grief.  Without saying anything to her he up and signed papers to join the service he told her goodbye and that he needed time away from the small town and he needed this.
     When she finds herself in a bad situation she texts him twice and then its crunch time.  Time to make big girl decisions…
     Eight years later…on the day there is a fire that causes major damage at her restaurant she runs into Taylor as what?  Volunteer firefighter.  Wasn’t it bad enough he came back into town as the new Sheriff?  Guess not.  As she was trying to put out the fire she burnt her arm so after the fire he sees her with the EMT working on her and he ask about her.  Before she can really say anything she gets a call then jumps in her old beat up VW and halls ass out of the parking lot.
     Taylor gets worried and drives out after her good thing because she has broken down and is sobbing on the side of the rode.  He ask and she says Stacy, Greg and their little boy were in a car accident.   The boy was the only one who made it out.  He says okay come let me take you home she starts fighting him.  She says no that Stacy left her as his guardian and he could be scared looking for them or her.  So he said he would take her to the hospital.  When they get there, the other side of the Hill family the rich side, boy do they rake her over the coals calling her not fit.  Not good enough, a tramp, and low life.
     Taylor gets so mad he said she is none of those things, plus she’s not alone, she has him and that they are getting married.  Oh Boy!
     This book was so good there is so much love in this couple not only for each other but for this little boy.  Reed the villain is perfect and Aunt Bea is too.  I give this book 5 stars.  Provided by Netgalley.com.
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HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS                            LILY EVERETT

Tis the season for family and love…

At least it's supposed to be. For Libby Leeds, however, the holiday season is just another reminder of things she'd rather forget. When she left Sanctuary Island as an orphaned child, she never thought she'd go back except in her dreams, dreams she's kept alive by writing monthly column of her fictional small-town life, until her publisher sends her back home for the holidays.

Owen Shepard is a fallen hero, wounded in action rescuing three of his fellow soldiers, but after a whirlwind of media attention, all this charismatic Army Ranger wants is to get back on his feet and make it to Sanctuary Island to be with his daughter in time for Christmas. What he didn't expect was to be put on a crash course with a columnist hiding her past. Will the magic of Sanctuary Island at Christmastime allow them to find healing together?
 

MY REVIEW:
     Once again Lilly Everett has written a book that tugs at your heart strings and right before Christmas.
     This book revolves around Libby Leeds (Elizabeth) who writes a blog that is her writings of fiction.  On what it would be like to have loving family once again who lived back on Sanctuary Island like she did when she was a young girl.  She would cook the wonderful home cook meals from scratch she knew she had dreamt about.
     You see back when Libby was an eight years old her parents were in a terrible car accident that killed them both.  Rather than she be left there to be raised under the uncaring had of her grandfather.  Her dad’s brother Ray took her to Queens to raiser her himself never to return to Sanctuary Island again.
     This is why when blog started being read by so many people and was noticed that her boss Hugo Downing asked her to write for them she couldn’t refuse.  But it wasn’t just for herself.  You see Uncle Ray was becoming more and more ill with Alzheimer’s and started needing 24 hour care and her apartment was just too small. 
     Her lie was now coming to bite her in the rear.  Hugo Downing calls to tell her a Sanctuary Island Army Ranger Hero was coming home after being in Afghanistan and being injured.  Sergeant Owen Shepard, as she listens to her bosses booming voice over the phone she and his family will be going to have Christmas dinner with her and her husband. Yeah! That was another snag she didn’t have a husband either.  Hell she hadn’t had a boyfriend in years, 4 at least.
     She was in a panic and said she couldn’t do it.  But Downing’s said she could and would.  So she had to tell the truth.  So did he, he had already told everyone in a newsletter.  She had to tell all of it but what would happen?  She can’t cook, no husband, and she doesn’t live on the island.  He asked how she picked that place.  She said she once lived there before her parents were killed.  He asked if she had any family still there she said yes, a grandfather, he said get it done that she had two weeks to make it work.  Or you go to JAIL FOR FRAUD!
     She swallows her pride calls her grandfather.  He pays for her flight out.  As she’s on the ferry she bangs into a man with her suit case.  No really she bangs into him.  To her surprise it’s Owen Shepard.  She offers him a seat by her since the ferry is packed.  Right away there’s a connection.
     Owen is taken aback because he finds himself spilling his guts to her.  No to mention he is oddly attracted to her.  She is cute, nice and she babbles but she is very genuine and he needs that in his life.  She’s real and she doesn’t hold back she’s got a backbone too.
     They exchange first names and just before he gets there he explains he has a daughter her never met and that he agreed to do this Perfect Christmas for her with this online magazine.  When she realizes he doesn’t get who she is she tries to tell him but he’s so excited about seeing his daughter and introducing Libby to her.  When they get off no one is there for either of them but it is busy due to a festival.  When a guy comes out of nowhere coming right at her, Owen’s instincts has him positioning himself in front of her, but she just seem of center with his arrival.  When he calls out her name and hugs her and she is stiff for a moment he sees that.
     The guy that picks her up just says, “Follow my lead.”
     This was a very good story with a lot of twist and turns.  The characters were interesting to say the least.  I love military stories.  This one didn’t disappoint at all.  The mishaps to make this whole thing come about was just too funny.  I give this book 5 stars.  Provided by Netgalley.com.

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