Review: Talia Learns to Trust and Share-  Good Military Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 26, 2012
I love a good military romance so when I saw the blurb on this one I just had to read it so requested it from Net Galley.  This was my first time reading this author and I was told so many good things about her awesome heroes.  I was not disappointed in my expectation on that score.  ;DTalia is a Marine coming home on leave to what she thinks is to be a long lonely break.  Her eyes gaze enviously on all the happy reunions at the airport.  To her surprise, her childhood friend, Angela, and her brother Liam who Talia has been crushing on for years come to meet her.  Their family has been good to Talia since she was a teenager when her own mom (and only near relation) is not there for her.  Talia carries a boatload of bad, negative thinking about herself which makes her push everyone away.  She thinks she's not good enough to be included in family like Liam's and she is gun shy of men leaving her from her dad all the way through a slough of men who can't deal with her mom's issues.  Talia loves Liam and his family so much that she is afraid to let them in on her life just in case they are disgusted by her home life and toss her aside.Liam an ex-marine and now civilian contractor for the military, has had a thing for Talia for some time.  He put himself out there for a relationship before, but it was a no-go.  Now, more than ever, he wants a relationship with her.  He sees the possibility of a long-term relationship with Talia who is the strong kind of woman who can keep up with his darker sexual needs.  But as much as her eyes smolder with interest, she still keeps him at a distance.  This time, Liam's done with distance and Talia will just have to accept that.The story is more of a novella so Callie Croix did a great job of keeping the plot fairly simple and the pacing moving right along.  I loved how the story swapped perspectives between Talia and Liam since it was told between the push and pull between them for Talia to let Liam into her life.  There was also really good pacing in the build up of the relationship side though the smolder flared to full-on fire as soon as they were able to get alone.  It did not feel rushed since they already knew each other and Talia's just coming home from duty and has a hot alpha male staring back with interest (mmhmm, nuff said).The characters were layered and I enjoyed getting to know them.  As said before, Talia's got a lot to deal with in her life.  It's pretty bad when she prefers the military life of Afghanistan as more peaceful to life at home.  I have to confess that there did come a point in the story that I grew irritated with her and wanted to bop her for holding onto her issues too long after Liam came through for her more than once (okay, yeah, so I didn't even figuratively bop her because she's a marine and would take me down in a heart beat).  Liam as a character deserves a gold medal for hanging in there with her and hang on tenaciously he did.  Good thing he's a strong, dominate guy who knows what he wants and goes after it with a 'take no prisoners' approach.  He was also the tender supportive friend who was just 'there' and not demanding anything.Oh, I should mention that there were hints though no actual scenes of BDSM if that makes a difference to a reader.So, it was a nice read that I would recommend to any folk who love military romances on the steamy side with strong main characters.