An accident on a rain-slicked highway leaves Jenna Baker alone… Jenna is scarred, confused and vulnerable after surviving an accident that took her husband’s life. After a year of mourning Tyler and struggling to raise their son on her own, Jenna’s best friend whisks her off to fulfill her lifelong dream of visiting Ireland. She never dreamed her trip would include a self-appointed tour guide in … tour guide in the form of a sexy Irishman with piercing blue eyes and a smile that promises to fill her empty heart.
Brady Connelly is irresistibly drawn to the lovely, broken Yank…
As the weeks pass, Brady comforts and supports Jenna, convincing her to live and chase her dreams. His attraction to her grows and their chemistry ignites, but Jenna isn’t sure she’s truly ready to move on. How can he convince her to release the past and take a leap of faith…with him?
The impossible happens, and Jenna’s world is thrown into chaos…
Tyler is alive and re-enters Jenna’s life, burdened with guilty secrets. Jenna knows she has to try to make things work between them, if only for their son’s sake, but she’s blessed—or cursed—with vivid visions of Brady. The visions begin to consume her and leave her questioning her sanity and the bittersweet nature of her marriage.
Jenna’s dreams of Brady become her lifeline as she questions the boundaries of fantasy and reality.
Is her one hope for happiness waiting for her somewhere across the sea?
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This is not your everyday romance …. it’s different, very different. It’s almost like reading two books, but it all fits together. Let me explain.
Circumstances as you understand them in the first third of the book has you leaning strongly in one direction. After 14 months of grieving Jenna finally is able to move on from her deceased husband, Tyler, and start building a new life without him … or so she thinks. But all is not what it seems. Enter one HUGH plot twist. A twist that totally changes the whole story….
For me, the plot twist saved the storyline. Why? I felt Jenna was being blindsided. After deciding it was time to live again, It only took a couple weeks for her fall in love. I kept saying, What? Being attracted to someone is one thing, but falling in love????? That’s way too soon … like rebound soon.
But as I said above, all is not what it seems. Just because something seems real, doesn’t make it real. Jenna has a rude awakening and finds this out. Not only is her world shocked and shaken, she learns things she never, ever would have thought possible just a year earlier.
OBSERVATIONS and STARS
I didn’t get my happy ever after here but Jenna got hers, and I’m grateful for that. So what would be my HEA from this book? I needed to see Auntie Karma visit Tyler and Alex. That never happened. Yes, we get ‘woe is me’ vibes from Tyler, but honestly, that man badly needs to learn a lesson or two…. or three. And Alex, she was worse than Tyler. At least Tyler felt a little remorse. Alex only cared for herself and her selfish desires. She didn’t give one iota who she hurt, maimed or grieved. She was an expert manipulator and enjoyed causing pain , especially when it meant getting her way. One reviewer called Tyler a scumbag. Well. if he was scum, then Alex was rotting trash that stunk to high heaven.
I kept wondering if it bothered Alex at all that Tyler would leave her in a heartbeat if Jenna would take him back. Alex played second fiddle. Did that matter to her? She thought she won, but did she? Her pride had to take a hit somewhere., sometimes.
I wanted to see how Tyler reacted to Brady when they met.
I saw Tyler as weak, self serving and double minded. He messed up BIG time, and his actions produced collateral damage. So, where were the consequences for all this? Did he live out his life grieving what he threw away?
Alex truly is a despot. Just where are the consequences for her actions? She deserves a BIG comeuppance. She manipulated and used Tyler’s grief to her advantage. She didn’t give a second thought to breaking up a home. No Tyler wasn’t innocent, as I said above, he was weak and double minded. He made his choices just as Alex made hers. Where is the reaping what you sow?
WHY THREE STARS
… I took a star away because Tyler and Alex didn’t pay for their ‘sins’. I also took a star away because the first third of the book had me rolling my eyes a lot with Jenna’s sudden newfound love life. Then after her rude awakening, she was weak in more ways than one. Yes, she had been through a lot but Tyler didn’t deserve her love … thank goodness for Brady. Also, Jayden didn’t need to be around Alex/Tyler. Who knows how Alex would treat him and what would rub off on him.