Review: One of the sweetest male fictional characters I've ever met!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
I have to say up front.....in this second book of her So Much It Hurts series, author Melanie Dawn has created one of the sweetest male fictional characters I've ever met!  Chris King is introduced in the first book of the series, So Much It Hurts, when fate reunites him with Kaitlyn, the girl who remembers him as her salvation from a devastating high school experience. In Then There Was You, Chris is reunited with another woman from his past, Salem, his counselor from Juvenile Detention whom he remembers as being his salvation. The beginning of the book is a flashback to the period when Salem, a counselor at Fairbanks Juvenile Detention Center has her first encounter with Chris....a 17 year old bad boy and repeat offender.  This time around he's being detained for assaulting a classmate who attacked his girlfriend Kaitlyn.  As a 24 year old fresh-out-of-college counselor and new mom, Salem's plate is very full.  She loves her work and feels very strongly that she is making a difference in the lives of the young men she counsels, but at home she is dealing with a colicky baby and a non-supportive husband while she silently shoulders the cumbersome weight of postpartum depression.  Fourteen years later Chris and Salem meet again.  Chris is living his dream as a rock star and Salem has moved forward from her bad marriage to life as a single mom.  When Salem treats Alexis, her teenage daughter, and two friends to concert tickets, the girls are overawed to find Salem has a connection to their favorite rocker, especially when he singles the group out for personal attention . As a new and very adult relationship grows between Chris and Salem, they find there are obstacles to be overcome.  Chris is a chick magnet who spends a lot of time on the road and  has no privacy, while Salem is an older woman who must deal with the inevitable questions that arise from her ex-husband and the public about the appropriateness of their relationship when she was Chris's counselor. In addition to writing a compelling love story, author Melanie Dawn has dealt with the subject of postpartum depression, a condition that frequently strikes vulnerable new mothers at a time in their lives when they feel they should be the happiest.  Having spent my career as an OB nurse, I commend Melanie for her sensitive and accurate portrayal of this condition which is so often misunderstood by friends and family. Then There Was You can definitely be read as a standalone book although I think most readers will certainly want to read the first book with Chris's and Kaitlyn's story after reading this one.  I know I do!  For steam lovers, there is plenty of steam.  For romantics, there is so much sweetness. And for those who demand a HEA, you will only be disappointed because the story is complete!