Nobody Bodine is a nobody who came from a nobody and will always be a nobody.
He disappears into the shadows—no one sees him if he doesn’t want them to. He exists in neither the white man’s world nor the tribe’s, dispensing vigilante justice when he sees fit. There’s no other place for a man like him in this world.
Until Melinda Mitchell shows up on the rez. From the first moment he lays eyes … moment he lays eyes on her, he can tell there’s something different about her. For starters, she’s not afraid of him. She asks where his scars came from, and why he has so many. But more than that, she sees him. For the first time in his life, Nobody feels like a somebody in her eyes.
Melinda has come west to run the new day care on the White Sandy Reservation. She’s intrigued by this strange man and his tattered skin, and when she discovers that he’s a self-appointed guardian angel for the boy in her care, she realizes that there’s more to Nobody than meets the eyes. But how far will he go to keep the boy safe? And will she be able to draw him into the light
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Terrific book. It is the only one of the series I have read, and it left me wanting to read the others. It was an emotional book about a man who endured horrible things as a child and the effect on his life thereafter. It was also the story of the woman who saw past the scars to the man.
Melinda left Ohio after yet another failed relationship to join her sister at the White Sandy rez. She will run the new daycare center. The man who cleans the center and visits her sister and brother-in-law late at night intrigues her with his scars and haunted eyes.
Nobody was a hero who pulled at the heartstrings. Named Nobody by his mother, who told him he was “a nobody who came from nobody and would always be a nobody,” he lives in the shadows and avoids contact with almost everyone. His history is heartbreaking, but it left him with a streak of protectiveness, especially toward children.
I loved the connection that formed between Melinda and Nobody from the moment they met. Nobody has an uncanny knack for melting into the shadows, and it’s a rare person who can see him when he does. Melinda is one of those people, and it scares Nobody spitless. I loved watching her get to know him by slipping into his world. She understands him and what makes him the way he is, and she doesn’t try to force him into her world. Instead, she accepts him in all of his solitary glory while ensuring he doesn’t push her away. Nobody bought into the world’s opinion that he’s no good and doesn’t understand what Melinda sees in him. His internal commentaries are both funny and heartbreaking as he tries to wrap his head around her interest.
It isn’t long before their two worlds collide in the person of a young victim of the same kind of abuse Nobody suffered. Nobody protects young Jamie with his own form of justice, frequently taking the boy to his own home and giving him a safe space to recover. I loved the connection between the two of them. Jamie worships Nobody; his imitation of his hero is spot-on. He is also as protective of Nobody as Nobody is of him. When Melinda becomes aware of Jamie’s situation, her reaction is to remove Jamie from his home ASAP. She receives an eye-opening education on what happens to Native children when they end up in foster care and struggles to find a compromise.
I loved the solution that Melinda and Nobody devised and that it had a good chance of working. Unfortunately, fate intervened before their plans could be fully executed. Melinda has the problem well in hand, but it requires Nobody’s patience and cooperation. I ached for Nobody, whose worry for Jamie became so overwhelming that he did a very stupid thing. This left Melinda in an awkward position of having to find a way to fix the results of his actions and ensure that the solution is the one they want. I was quite impressed with Melinda as she went to bat for both Jamie and Nobody, though her methods for Nobody were very unorthodox. I ached for Nobody as he endured the consequences of his actions and worried that he’d also lost Melinda.
The ending brought tears to my eyes as Melinda waited and hoped for Nobody’s return. I loved that she wasn’t going to give him long to avoid her. I loved how, once again, she felt him before she saw him. Nobody broke my heart as he shared his fears and his feelings with her. “I’ve never loved anyone. I don’t know how to love you. Will you show me how?” And Melinda says, “All I can ask is that you don’t give up on us.” Nobody: “Us. Never had an us before.” Sigh.
#netgalley
I do not think it was possible to fall even more in love with this series…I was wrong..Nobody’s story is heartbreaking but beautiful.