Book description:
Seeking refuge and determined to pull her life back together, Sabrina Swann returns to the sleepy Southern island of her childhood summers. The last person she expects to encounter there is Zach Tremayne, the boy who stole her heart when she was a girl. There’s a haunted look in his eyes that makes her wonder what kind of man he’s become.
Zach Tremayne can’t forget the horror he saw in his last battle in Afghanistan as a Navy SEAL. Now home on Swann Island, he’s surprised to realize he can feel anything again, never mind the sudden sure of desire for this woman from his past.
And when together they discover danger waiting in Swann’s shadows, the woman who is desperate for peace and the man who has sworn off war will realize they are willing to do anything, risk everything, to protect a love neither saw coming…
Swann Island is home to both Zach and Sabrina and home is where they both go to heal from life altering events. For Zach, it was the 36 hours on an Afghanistan mountain. 36 short hours that changed the course of his career as a SEAL and his life in the military. Sabrina had just been promoted to manager of a world famous hotel chain when a terrorist bombed the hotel she was in charge of. Being buried alive changes a person, as Sabrina finds out, and she heads home to Swann Island to lick her wounds. It doesn’t take long for Sabrina to start wondering if she was safer buried under a couple tons of old hotel.
Zach has worked hard to pull himself out of the hole he was in when he first came home to Swann Island, nearly a year ago. Though he still has the occasional flashback that never fails to bring him down, Zach feels like he’s finally headed in the right direction. When Sabrina Swann returns, he can’t help but remembering the night that a 17yr old Sabrina offered him her virginity. Though turning her down was something he’d always regretted, he also always knew that it was the right thing to do.
I actually really enjoyed this book. I liked Zach more than Sabrina, but I think that’s just because I had more empathy for him. Sabrina was a so-so heroine. Not great, but not bad either. I think what made me like her was her ability to help Zach overcome his demons. She didn’t pity him, she didn’t try to smother him. She was just there.
I’ve read in other reviews that there was too much going on throughout the book and that it was distracting. I disagree. The “secondary” romance was hardly a secondary romance. I thought Ross really tied everything together nicely at the end. There was one storyline that I really can’t say too much about that I really thought was important to the book (and Zach) as a whole. The suspense in the book was definitely suspenseful. I didn’t figure out who it was until almost the end. Shocking, I know.
Ross introduced some interesting characters that I’m sure we’ll be reading more about. I’m looking forward to it.
3.75 out of 5.
I’m currently reading Freefall. I’m on like page 53. I’m having a hard time getting into… very, very slow start.