1.5 stars

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads so thank you so much to Goodreads and Jacquie Biggar for sending this out to me. It is much appreciated.

This book has a good basis for your typical fluffy mills-and-boon-esque story, and who doesn't love one of those? However, it was just not executed as well as it could have been.

First off, the book required further editing, it still had several spelling and grammatical errors throughout. The book also had some errors within the actual storyline - it was confusing determining the sequence of events regarding how long Sara's marriage had lasted and how long she had been in Tidal Falls (several different time periods were mentioned here).

Secondly, this book just contained cliche on top of cliche on top of cliche. And if the book had been further fleshed out i could have dealt with this but this book just dumped new cliches every couple of pages. Parts of the storyline were just completely unrealistic. Sara and Nick fall in love like within a couple of days, they have barely known each other more than a few months yet the neighbour has time to have a photo of them all together in her house, his Navy Seal friend grew up in the same town and his mother is one of Sara's friends and, I can only assume, the father of Annie's son Chris and... that's just for starters...

I also struggled with some of the dialogue, especially when it came to Sara's daughter Jess, some of her dialogue just did not seem realistic for an 8 year old, i have a 7 year old niece who doesn't talk anywhere close to how Jess does.

Tom as a villain i had some real issues with. He just did not make sense to me, he was supposed to have these redeeming qualities and these totally awful characteristics but he was just not believable at all.. all the scenes with him i just really struggled with.

Also, the ending felt really rushed, the whole book is leading us to this big showdown between Sara, Nick and Tom and then the whole thing only lasts about 20-30 pages.

Overall i thought the book had good bare bones but needs a lot of work.

This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books

This book was simply written and at some parts I wished the characters would have more depth to them. Sara runs from her abusive husband and she takes some insurance policy but dear hubby is just a prancer answerable to the real bad guys. The ex-navy guy next door, has a thing for Sara and this is where I wish there was something more about him. An ex-soldier can be spotted a mile away but this guy was just an ordinary Joe and I wished for more. Either way, he saves the day and gets an instant family. A great happily ever after story. Here is my other problem, this plot has been doen before and I think the author should have done a little something different to make it stand out even more.

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Sara Sheridan and her 7 year old daughter are running from her ex-husband and trying to start over without him finding them. The problem is her ex-husband, Tom, is a very powerful man and will not give up searching for them.

Nick Kelley has moved into town trying to put the pieces of his life together after serving as a Navy SEAL overseas. Sara and Nick are instantly attracted to each other and begin to get close.

When Sara learns things about Nick's past she realizes things are not always as they seem.

I really enjoyed this book and it kept me guessing!

Apparently, I've been reading this series out of order. Oops! I love the little town of Tidal Falls. Even though the people are super nosy and meddlesome matchmakers, they will stand up for you and always have your back. However, I didn't like this one as much as I liked the others. There were quite a lot of errors that the proofreaders and editors missed. Also, I wasn't as crazy about the heroine as I was with her in the beginning. That little misunderstanding about Nick and her husband grated on my nerves. Like seriously, he called in his friends as back up to help her and she thought her husband hired him? And refused to let him explain, dragging it out?! These guys were former military, highly trained, yet she thought she'd protect Nick by trying to deal with her sleazy hubby/ex-hubby on her own?! Ok, then.

Sara Sheridan is running with her young daughter from her husband who is a seriously bad guy. She is in the small town of Tidal Falls. Nick Kelley is renting a house across the street from her. She doesn't want to get involved with him but he is helping with repairs around her house. Her daughter adores him and his dog. A relationship develops but her husband is getting close and will do anything to get her back. The suspense is well done. The characters are well drawn. Both have terrible things in their history but both want to try to be a couple. I enjoyed this very much and will continue with other books in the series.