Micaela

Once upon a time, a boy and a girl met and fell in love…

That’s the way my love story began, but unlike the fairy tale, it ended with me standing in the cemetery, watching my prince get lowered into the ground, along with all our dreams.

Now he’s gone and I’m lost.

Until an impromptu trip to my family’s beach house has me spending time with Ryan.

With his help, I’m learning to live again and make plans for the future.

The only problem is, we both know they can’t include him.

So, when our time is up, we do the only thing we can do—go our separate ways.

Ryan

My entire life, I’ve felt like the waves in a raging sea—crashing and breaking, never settling.

Until Micaela stormed in like a hurricane, colliding into my life and my heart.

I thought she’d be my destruction, but instead she turned out to be my calm.

The more time we spend together, the more life she breathes into both of us.

But all too quickly, our time is up and she’s ready to face her future—one I can’t be a part of.

So, I do the impossible and walk away.

But life is crazy, and love knows no bounds. You might’ve thought this is where our story ends, but the truth is… it’s only the beginning.

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Review:

Nikki Ash is back with what she does best, secret/surprise baby romances and a story tied to her Fighting series. In this case, Micaela is the granddaughter of the first couple in the Fighting series, Liz and Cooper, and the hero, Ryan, is the adopted son of Kayla and Bentley from Fighting with Faith. While you don’t need to know that past to read this book, it does help understand the ties between Micaela and Ryan. Both Micaela and Ryan are in difficult places in their life when they end up sharing a beach house, just the two of them. Michaela is trying to break through the fog of grief around losing her husband and Ryan, divorced, is preparing to return to another military tour. While there is a bit of an age gap between the two and at times, Michaela did seem young, the trauma of her past made her grow up faster than her friends. That time together was time for both of them to grow and learn what they want from live as well as being swept up into a romance neither were looking for. Overall, I did enjoy this story and I’m excited for the rest of the books. It was nice to revisit with old characters and Nikki Ash really does best at stories in this trope.

The next part is more of a *Spoiler* so if you don’t want to know, then stop reading now.

Micaela ends up pregnant from that time with Ryan. She doesn’t know until after he’s left for another military tour and decides not to tell him while he’s away. She explains this choice by her fear that something will happen to Ryan since her husband died during military training. As far as secret baby reasonings go, it’s not the worst but it’s definitely not the best. Micaela did suffer the trauma of losing her husband and to have her baby’s father in a similar life-threatening situation is real tough. But the ties between her family and Ryan’s family are so strong that her reasoning behind not telling him just seems weak. Nikki Ash has written a lot of secret baby romances and it’s really a tough trope to pull off well and have the heroine seem sympathetic. The best on is actually Micaela’s grandparent’s story, where the heroine didn’t have contact information or a way to tell the hero. Looking at the family tree of these books, I’ve realized this is the third generation of a secret baby story. When Ryan does find out, his anger over Micaela keeping it a secret and betraying his trust is washed away by the events occurring. I think I wanted more conflicted around the “secret” but the flow of the story does make sense. It’s just not my favorite way for it to play out.

*Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Published by SomewhereLostInBooks

I’m Melisa! I’m an avid reader. I love romance novels and decided, hey, why not write about what I love and hate about the genre. And my favorite books. And when I get to meet authors. And all round why romance novels are awesome. Expect a lot of fan-girling, laughter, and some tears. View all posts by SomewhereLostInBooks