C+
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Inspirational, Romance
Theme: Friends to Lovers
Archetype: Character with a Disability, Military
This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Emily A. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Inspirational Romance category.
The summary:
Former Marine Jake Porter has far deeper scars than the one that marks his face. He struggles with symptoms of PTSD, lives a solitary life, and avoids relationships.
When Lyndie James, Jake’s childhood best friend, lands back in Holley, Texas, Jake cautiously hires her to exercise his Thoroughbreds. Lyndie is tender-hearted, fiercely determined, and afraid of nothing, just like she was as a child. Jake pairs her with Silver Leaf, a horse full of promise but lacking in results, hoping she can solve the mystery of the stallion’s reluctance to run.
Though Jake and Lyndie have grown into very different adults, the bond that existed during their childhood still ties them together. Against Jake’s will, Lyndie’s sparkling, optimistic personality begins to tear down the walls he’s built around his heart. A glimmer of the hope he’d thought he’d lost returns, but fears and regrets still plague him. Will Jake ever be able to love Lyndie like she deserves, or is his heart too shattered to mend?
Here is Emily A.'s review:
So much of this book worked for me, but the ending did not. The ending made me realize I had problems before the ending. This review will start with the strengths.
Jake was a well-developed character, and his PTSD seemed well-done. The flashbacks to Iraq seemed powerful and well-researched and vivid and compelling. All of his previous problems seemed realistic and my heart went out to him.
I found all of the characters mostly likable and I connected with all of them. Amber and Will were sweet secondary characters, who had a romance with a big age difference. I haven’t read any of the other books in the series, but found the cameos intriguing (i.e. sequel and prequel bait).
I liked the chemistry between the heroine and the hero. It felt sweet and innocent and yet real and palpable. I could believe they were attracted to each other. I could believe he wanted to be with Lyndie. I liked that she wasn’t scared of him like some of the people around him. Her nickname for him— Tall, Dark and Brooding— was funny and endearing.
Lyndie was very caring and easy to care about, but she was also a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She had quirks like dogs with silly names (Empress Felicity and Gentleman Tobias) and wrote children’s books about magical stories with fairies, unicorns, pirates, etc. She loves animals, particularly horses and dogs, and she wants to help every wounded being on the planet including Jake and his horse Silver Leaf.
Part of her need to heal comes from being the older sister to a young woman with severe Cerebral Palsy and other disabilities. Lyndie helps her parents take care of her sister Mollie. This presented several challenges that were not fully explored. I would think the level of help she provides would present a challenge if she were simultaneously raising a family or even just getting married considering thirty year old Lyndie thinks her parents always need her close by. This should have been an obstacle, but it’s over once Jake agrees to help.
Lyndie is an exercise rider who wants to be a jockey. I rode a horse once at age 10 , so I don’t know how accurate the horse stuff is. Jake is a trainer and her boss.
“Given a choice between riding and your sense of peace,” she repeated “I choose you.”
Wrong choice. Life is unsafe. You can live your life in fear or embrace risk. Jake is only basing this on his paranoia, and if it was only about him I would agree with Lyndie. I’m worried that Jake will eventually isolate Lyndie from the world. It seems possible that eventually he will make her choose to give up more and more things, even mundane things like riding in a car, going to see a concert, etc., for his peace of mind. (People die in random car accidents and there are various risks to being in a crowded public space.) Lyndie doesn’t think so.
Jake’s fear for her safety, she knew, stemmed from his mistaken belief that her protection rested on his shoulders. One day, he’d see it didn’t. In time she believed that Jake could learn to trust the God who was able, the God who was good, with it all.
For Lyndie’s sake I hope this is true, but both Lyndie and my mom don’t believe you should marry someone you’re hoping to change. That quote was followed by less than five pages in the book, which also left doubt. I was disappointed the always sacrificing Lyndie gave up her dream of being a jockey, but according to Wikipedia, that’s what a MPDG does.
One final problem was how the treatment of Jake’s PTSD was handled. He found a counselor whom he trusts, which is good. The counselor in question is his mom’s best friend and Lyndie’s mother Karen, which is not good. Since they have all the same friends and family there are multiple conflicts of interest. As a professional I think Karen should have recommended him to someone else. I also wanted the family dynamic of Karen relying on her adult daughter to help with the family situation explored more, even if they wound up in the same place. Karen was kind and dealing with tough situations, so I did find her sympathetic. Lyndie is so instinctively helpful that it may be more her decision to help out.
The grade reflects my joy in most of the story, the difficulty of the ending, and the counseling problem.
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I am struck by yet another what I would call a low grade for this story. Which reminds of how many low grades these RITA nominated books have received.
I have to ask if people here are the only discerning, discriminating readers out there because once again I find myself wondering about the criteria for a nomination. Because if it is based on book sales, then clearly there a Great Many people out there with far different expectations from a book than I have.