Follow up to the 2017 Kindle Scout Winner, Shelter My Heart.Do you remember your first love in high school? What if you never stopped?For decades, Katherine “Kitty” McNally has secretly loved John Henshaw, the man lying shot and unconscious in the hospital bed next to her. Then again, maybe not so secretly. Those closest to her, including her soon-to-be ex-husband, have suspected it for years. … ex-husband, have suspected it for years. Their story ended with a gunshot wound the last time, too. Life seems to have taken her full circle, but only the dead know the secrets she still keeps.
Detective John Henshaw fell in love with his “Kat” the moment she became his geometry tutor in high school. When they graduated, he thought their future was sealed. Wrong. Enter life’s nonstop curveballs. The worst two moments of his life were the two times he lost Kat. After thirty-five years and one failed marriage trying to forget her, he can’t escape the fact that he’s never stopped loving her. Maybe it’s just his ego, but he could swear he sees a spark of love in her eyes every time she looks at him. That’s what keeps him in the New Jersey town that holds his most painful memories. That’s why he accepted his place decades ago as a family friend to the McNally sisters.
As John recovers from his injuries in Kitty’s care, she has one last chance to confront her past and rekindle their love–if John can forgive her once he learns the truth.
**Romantic Women’s Fiction – includes BOOK CLUB discussion questions. Contains adult content but little to no violence.
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I love a great second chances story and John and Kitty’s tale was as heart-wrenchingly realistic as it was escapist. Torn apart as teenagers by external forces, John and Kitty never stop wondering whether the adults in their lives really knew best, or whether hopes for what could have been had stronger rooting than the sheer optimism of youth.
O’Connor gives us a masterful depiction of interloping parents, real-life obstacles that come in John and Kitty’s twenties and thirties, and a third important factor that has killed many promising relationships: bad timing and dumb luck. Despite all of this, she pulls off a satisfying resolution that shows us how two people can find their way back to one-another, even after half a lifetime has passed.
“Surrender My Heart” is the third in L.G. O’Connor’s “Caught Up in Love” saga, which follows a family of strong, dynamic women on their paths to lasting love. All three books are standalones within the series.
Oh my goodness, what words do I use to describe this book. Heartbreaking, romantic, guilty, funny, happy, sad, and finally happy ending. Told from both John and Kitty’s voices, O’Connor weaves a story about love that spans over time that never ended. John and Kitty both loved each other with all their hearts but when circumstances, relatives, and situations get in their way, Kitty runs off. When they are reunited at class reunions, they realize that the spark is still there. Circumstances keep them apart – it is never the right time. When situations change, John and Kitty find that there may be hope but only after they tell each other secrets which they have been hiding for a long time. I read “Shelter My Heart”and really liked it but this one had me going for the hankies.
Favorite Quotes:
Someone once asked me what I’d tell myself if I could go back in time. I wouldn’t say anything. I’d be too busy kicking my own ass from here to kingdom come for making the wrong choices. For thinking life would always be as good as it was when I was eighteen.
“Great job, Kitty!” says the overly friendly instructor. “You did awesome for your first class.” I give her a tight smile and try to ignore the fact that I’m saturated and most assuredly going to wake up crippled tomorrow… They barely broke a sweat and look like fresh-cut flowers in their stylish weekend wear. I hate them.
Being this close to Kat and not being able to touch her makes me feel like I’m dying of hunger in front of a locked refrigerator.
In the end, I made the best of the worst choices for all of us.
Sometimes you gotta surrender your heart and go all in. That’s what I’m doing. With us. One life, Kat. That’s all we’ve got.
My Review:
I adored this book and resented each and every interruption to my rapt perusal, and I should be ashamed to admit… I may have hissed at and ignored the ringing phone. This was my virgin voyage with L.G. O’Connor but I plan to haunt her listings from now on, she is a gifted scribe, a master storyteller, and my new favorite – even though she gutted me. The writing and storylines were simply superb, addictive, and well-crafted. I instantly fell in and remained immersed in Ms. O’Connor’s emotive and richly textured writing style, which featured my favorite dual POV and covered the characters’ history through three different timelines which each involved an epic, sensual, and bone-deep love for a soulmate, bad timing, family drama, betrayal, horrendous luck, and heartbreaking tragedy. Despite the sound of all that, the emotional tone was thoughtfully paced, deeply moving, and well-balanced without being overly angsty. I was engaged and intrigued throughout this heart-squeezing book with the only possible improvement being a longer epilogue as I didn’t want to say goodbye to the characters just yet, but I’m greedy like that.
I’m a sucker for a second chance romance and LG O’Connor delivered with Surrender My Heart, the story of John and Kitty.
With so many obstacles in John and Kitty’s younger years, it seems their lives are just all about bad timing. Although it seems that everyone has secrets in this story, until those secrets come to light, no one can fully move on. I absolutely loved how this story shows that true love will find away and that two people can be together even after so many years apart.
Surrender My Heart was an absolutely wonderful book about an amazing journey of love.