Review: Very good romance :D
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2014
4 starsThis was a very good story. I liked Chloe and Michael and their story was engaging and had me rooting for them to work out from the beginning. I didn't read the first book in the series before reading this one and I didn't notice any issues with it functioning as a stand-alone.Chloe hasn't has a lot of people she's been close to in her life and the results of the few people that have been close have caused her to retreat in to herself and avoid any emotional ties as a way of claiming her "emotional freedom". Her mother and father had a horrible relationship and once it split up, both of them abandoned Chloe to her Grandmother (who raised her and was one of the few people to truly show her love). She married the wrong man at the age of 21 and is now divorced and paying off her cheating Ex's credit card charges he made on her cards. After this, Chloe took a job doing massage theorist temp jobs around the country and hasn't allowed anyone close to her in the last year.Michael is a helicopter pilot for the Marines. He recently had a back injury that pulled him off of active flight status and he's itching to get back to flying. Michael hasn't had anything serious with a woman in the past but he's an officer now and he's interested in finding someone special to settle down with. He's definitely not looking for a free spirit with a wonder lust that has her hopping from town to town every few months. Or course you know how the song goes "You can't always get what you want but you just might get what you need" (paraphrased obviously).Chloe and Michael's first meeting is unusual to say the least. Chloe had been in town for a few weeks and dating a lifeguard who's birthday it happened to be. As a birthday surprise (and to break a year long dry spell for Chloe) she dresses up in sexy lingerie and handcuffs herself to the bed, waiting for him to come over, only to hear his message on the answering machine that he's not going to make it due to drinking with his buddies. She's frustrated but not as much as losing the key to the cuffs frustrates her. Chloe has no choice but to yell for help and (luckily) it's Michael that answers her request for help. Michael gets Chloe free and she decides to reward him with a kiss. There's a definite attraction between them and the kiss quickly turns hot. Unfortunately, Michael's back chooses that moment to protest and Michael leaves quickly with Chloe not realizing why. She soon figures it out however, when Michael ends up on her patient rooster the next day for some issues with a disk. She works on him and then leaves him to sleep while taking care of another patient. She wakes him as the clinic is closing and they end up kissing but it soon turns in to something more. Things are pretty far when Chloe's boss interrupts and Chloe gets fired. Chloe can't find another assignment for 4 weeks but she doesn't have a place to stay (or the money to rent a place for that long) until then since her accommodations come with the assignments. Michael worries about her and when he finds out she's out of a job and place to stay he offers her his extra room. However, since their indiscretion could cause problems for Michael and their living conditions might cause problems with his CO, Michael convinces Chloe to play at his fiancee for the time she's staying there to make things look acceptable and not cause issues with his career or getting back on active flight status.Chloe isn't too thrilled about playing Michael's fiancee and she acts like it's her not wanting to be caged in but it soon becomes apparent that it's because she could fall for Michael way too easily. Chloe's not willing to accept this because in addition to her parents having a bad relationship, he dad was in the army and always chose his career above his family so Chloe never wanted to marry a military man. Things are a little weird between them at first as they try to figure out how to live together. The attraction between them makes it impossible to keep their relationship platonic and they find that they're quite compatible in that area. They start to meld together in regular living issues and concerns as well and both find that they actually like being with each other. Michael realizes that Chloe is getting to him and he wants to try to build something between them for real but her looming departure for her new assignment keeps causing issues because Chloe is determined that she has to leave when the assignment comes open. Michael is really a great guy in this and he makes a few mistakes but overall I liked how he dealt with things. Chloe was a little frustrating because she was determined to keep to her traveling lifestyle until it killed her whether she wanted to or not...although she convinced herself she wanted to. Of course there's some drama at the end as Chloe has to decide if she's willing to move past her fear and live. And there's the moves that Michael has to make to ensure that he doesn't lose Chloe. Thankfully, things work out great in the end and I loved Michael's birthday surprise for Chloe. The story ends with Michael and Chloe starting their HEA with a happy surprise.This was a very enjoyable story. Michael was wonderful and made it to my book boyfriend list. He wasn't perfect and stuck his foot in his mouth a time or 2 but he was willing to admit when he was wrong and he had a natural sweetness that worked well to counteract his slightly rough, alpha side. I liked Chloe. She was kind and a good person although she annoyed me a bit with her determination to follow her plans even when she was having to convince herself that were still a good idea (and her BFF was telling her not to). But I still liked her and I was happy for them both when they worked things out. I'd recommend this story. Thumbs up. :)