Synopsis

For four years, Grace Sullivan wrote to a Marine she never met, and fell in love. But when his deployment ended, so did the letters. Ever since that day, Grace has been coasting, academically and emotionally. The one thing she’s decided? No way is Noah Jackson — or any man — ever going to break her heart again.

Noah has always known exactly what he wants out of life. Success. Stability. Control. That’s why he joined the Marines and that’s why he’s fighting his way — literally — through college. Now that he’s got the rest of his life on track, he has one last conquest: Grace Sullivan. But since he  was the one who stopped writing, he knows that winning her back will be his biggest battle yet.

Excerpt

Noah

Bo was lounging against the truck when I returned from Grace’s apartment. He was chatting up some blonde chick who looked like all the other blonde chicks he’d ever been with. They were interchangeable to me, and likely to Bo, too, since he called them all “Babe.”

I figured I would know if he ever fell for a girl when he called her by her first name instead of some random endearment.

“That was a clusterf*, eh?” He asked as I approached.

“Yup.” I climbed into my truck and threw my books into the back. I revved the engine a couple of times to signal that I wanted Bo to get in the damn truck. He could pick up chicks another time.

“At the risk of sounding like a girl, do you want to talk about it?” Bo asked when he finally got into the passenger seat. I threw the truck in reverse and peeled out of campus parking.

“No, Bo Peep, I don’t,” I bit out.

So much for being good at doing.

“What were you thinking?”

“What part of ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ did you not understand.”

“Are you giving up?”

“What?” I swung my head toward him. Bo threw up his hands. “No way.” I looked back at the road.

“Then let’s strategize.”

“I’ve already made every strategic mistake possible. I left too late last night to catch her. I surprised and maybe embarrassed her after class. If I catch her at a party and spill beer all over her, my trifecta of stupidity can be complete.”

“So now what?”

“Now, it’s time to regroup.”

“You want to fight or drink tonight?”

“Both.”

Review

I’m never sure how much I will like a book from the New Adult genre.  Many times the book is littered with F bombs or lots of sex and little story line.  I was very surprised while reading this book to find that this had neither of those!  Don’t get me wrong, there was a handful of F bombs, but not every other sentence.  And yes there are two fairly graphic sex scenes, but minor compared to other books.  The actual story between Noah and Grace was intricate and very well written.  There is a history of them writing back and forth for 4 years while he was stationed in Afghanistan.  In fact, at the beginning of each chapter there is a short letter that Noah wrote to Grace which gives you a little of their history.  Each chapter also flips back and forth between Noah and Grace and the author lets you know when the point of view changes from character to character.

Since Grace was young when she started writing to Noah, I think she might have built him up in her mind of who he was versus what was reality.  Grace was also very insecure with who she was and what she wanted from life and from Noah.  True Noah wrote her a “Dear Jane” letter and disappeared for two years, but she was never far from his mind and he had to come to terms with who he was as a man and what he could give Grace in life.

There was some humor in here too and Noah’s best friend Bo is a hoot!  I was going to tell Jen she needed to write a story about Bo but she has already beat me to that punch.  The second book is called Unspoken and is Bo’s story.  Not sure who his love interest will be but can’t wait to find out!

Author Links

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Giveaway

Jen is graciously giving away a copy of her book and Bo’s dog tags.  Just enter below to win!  Open to US Residents only
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I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review