Each day, Livia McHugh smiles politely and acknowledges her fellow commuters as she waits for the train to the city. She dismisses this kindness as nothing special, just like her. She’s the same as a million other girls—certainly no one to be cherished. But special or not, she smiles every day, never imagining that someone would rely on the simple gesture as if it were air to breathe.
When the moment comes that Livia must do more than smile, without hesitation she steps into the fray to defend the homeless man. And she's surprised to discover an inexplicable connection with her new friend. After danger subsides, their smiles become conversation. Their words usher in a friendship, which awakens something in each of them. But it’s not long before their bond must prove its strength. Entanglements from the past challenge both their love and their lives.
Blake’s heart beats for Livia’s, even if her hands have to keep its rhythm. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love never fails. Love never fails, right?
In an interwoven tale of unlikely loves and relationships forged by fire, Debra Anastasia takes readers into the darkest corners of human existence, only to show them the radiant power of pure adoration and true sacrifice. Complicated families and confused souls find their way to light in this novel, which manages to be racy, profane, funny, and reverent all at once.
4 Stars!
Review: I have heard about this series for quite a while, and I have always thought it sounded interesting, so I finally gave it a chance. I think it was a different kind of story, which I liked, but I am also not sure how much of it seems believable to me. Blake is part of a pretty messed up trio of brothers, bound together by their past and shared history within a broken system - foster care. He is deeply troubled by his own past, and he lives that out each day, by his own code of honor and ethics. Due to several events that happened to him when he was a child, he does not want to take anything from anyone that he has not earned, yet he is also stuck living out his life in the shadows and being invisible to others. His brothers, Cole and Beckett, try their best to watch out for Blake, but they also have their own demons. So, it's a really interesting trio that you see in this story, although this is more focused on Blake and Livia.
This is where this story is somewhat hard for me to truly believe. Livia comes from a pretty typical background, although her story is not without it's own pain. Livia's mom took off when she was younger, and it has just been her, her sister and her dad for many years. She also has a horrible boyfriend that she just kind of coasts through life letting him put her down and tell her what to do. She seems blind to all that he is, yet, she not only suddenly starts to like this homeless guy, Blake, but she also suddenly has the backbone to stand up to her mean boyfriend? If you suspend those few things, the story of Livia and Blake is actually one of the sweetest that I have read in quite a while. There are things that Livia helps Blake through and helps him come to terms with, because she is suddenly strong, and that is something that I really connected to and enjoyed. I think that some of his fears were faced and overcome a little too quickly, if you consider how long real therapy can take to face fears and phobias, but, overall, I did enjoy this story. I definitely want to read the others to see how the other two find their own version of peace.
Jessica
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