I loved, loved, loved Rains' Hero's Welcome series and I was very happy that many of the things that made those books great translated well to a new series. I enjoyed the relationship that develops between Jack and Grace. The whole former step-sibling thing isn't icky at all and I think their friendship from years ago helps to give them a good basis for something new. The bond among the Sawyers is great and Grace befriends a couple of women that are definitely getting their own story soon. Characters and connections are a couple of things that Rains does so well - they feel real and work together in a natural way - and I was thrilled that they show so strongly here.

I did have a couple of issues that were specific to this story (and have nothing at all to what a fantastic storyteller Rains is) - the death of Jack's friend and the dealings with Grace's mother.

We know that Chris and Jack were out on a boat fishing together and that he ... disappeared, I guess? Did they actually find a body? As I understand it Jack doesn't know when or how he went overboard, that he never heard him cry out or any kind of impact. Everything is so vague about what happened to Chris that I never really figured it out. I don't know if it is intentional and will come into play more later on or if we're just supposed to make assumptions. But I really wanted some kind of closure to it :)

The other is all tied up with Grace's mom and how she treated the Sawyer's all those years ago. Grace has had years living with her mom and can see that she's not the woman she was then but the two families have been avoiding each other all this time. To expect that the guys will just forgive and forget in about two minutes isn't realistic. They've been nursing their wounds for a while and it is going to take them a bit to get over them, even if Jack is sleeping with Grace. I see her side of it but I also understand his and it's not a good situation for either of them so a little patience on everyone's part is needed. It adds some extra drama to what is already a pretty troublesome situation.

Like with her other series, there are a lot of secondary characters that help drag you in and keep you turning pages. I'm definitely looking forward to what comes next for Jack's brothers. I'm pretty sure those two are going to have some more hardship to deal with before they can find their own happy ending.

*** I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s. ***