Review: It was okay...nothing exceptional.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 21, 2014
3.5 StarsNick buried his teenage daughter a year ago.  Every day is an ugly reminder that as a father he failed to protect his only daughter.  He divorced his wife 3 years ago and he has joint custody of his son.  The nights he doesn’t have his son at home he spends at the local Cajun bar.  The owner sees the pain in his eyes and the inability to forgive himself.Hope has been on the run for the past 3 months  from her abusive ex-husband’s family.  She finally found an out in their relationship and now she is running from town to town, never staying long enough to make any friends.  Friends would only complicate things as then they would be in danger if his family ever found her.  She works for cash only so she doesn’t leave a paper trail.  The local Cajun bar and grill was willing to take her in.  The owner sees an opportunity to make certain that Nick and Hope can be the light to each other’s dark.Nick seems to be always in the right place at the right time when it comes to helping Hope.  He is a tender hearted man and he doesn’t like her living conditions so he offers her a condo in his building that he is renovating.  It should be noted that his condo is also in the same building…in fact he is the only occupant of that building.  Clever…Nick finally is able to let himself feel something other than grief, but Hope is guarded and unwilling to open up to him or anybody else.  Everyone around Hope knows that she is hiding from her past but not willing to rock the boat and have her take off in a run.  Nick is the only one who is going to be able to keep her where she belongs.Besides dealing with keeping her past away from her present, Hope also has to deal with Nick’s crazy ex-wife.  The ex-wife is determined that she has her family together again.The story takes place in New Orleans with Cajun dialect.  The author included a glossary of familiar Cajun phrases to help the reader.  I found myself having to skip over those parts because it drove me crazy hearing in my head the voice of Cajun…that’s worse than me speaking with a British accent in my head.