Review: Excellent read!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 30, 2013
He was the family's black sheep who'd been cast out. She was the girl who'd been unfortunate enough to marry the "good" son. Every family has its secrets.The four hundred acre Pennsylvania farm that Danielle Cooper inherited upon her husband Mark's death was a curse, as were the loans he'd taken out before his untimely death. Even with her teaching job, she struggled to feed her twin sons and often did without herself so her boys wouldn't go to bed hungry. Desperate and facing foreclosure, she'd sent a text to her brother-in-law Hale, but she'd never expected the prodigal son to drive 1,300 miles from Oklahoma to come to her aide.Hale had been a good man six years ago and a reliable friend she'd never doubted, even though he'd never defended himself against the charges his father had laid against him. But things were different now, and trusting a man to live up to his promises was no longer something Dani would just take a man's word for; Hale's father and brother, both men with secrets they'd taken to the grave, had seen to that.Hale Cooper was flawed and never measured up in his father's eyes. The congenital condition that caused his deafness, followed by his mother's early death, meant he'd endured years of abuse from his drunken father and bouts of bullying at the hands of his brother and cousin. When Danielle took a summer job on his family's farm while she worked on her Ph.D. at Penn State, she became his dearest friend and the center of his world, but a girl like Dani wasn't for an imperfect man like him, so he'd stepped aside when his brother Mark expressed an interest in Dani. But Hale now wants the things he thought he wasn't entitled to before; the farm, a family, and a woman like Dani. Yet, getting what he wants, while holding on to old secrets, can destroy the fragile bonds he's painstakingly reestablished and cost him everything he desires most in the world.ANYTHING YOU ASK is a beautifully written story about a marriage of convenience, a family's long-held dark and damaging secrets, and grabbing hold of second chances and holding on tight. Hale Cooper is a noble hero who bravely made his own way in life despite a disability and being blamed and cast out for an act he didn't commit. Danielle is a heroine with no family of her own, disillusioned by marriage and haunted by Mark, the husband who was too weak to face his demons or share his secrets. Both Hale and Dani's characters were so well-written that I found myself identifying with their past and current struggles and wishing for their future happiness.Lynn Kellan's plot pulled me in and held my attention throughout and her convincing use of emotional drama, offset by warm family scenes between Hale, Dani and her twin boys, compelled me to complete this wonderful tale in a single sitting. This was my first time reading this author's work, but I am eagerly looking forward to the opportunity to read more from Ms. Kellan, as she really knows how to pull the heartstrings.Contains one scene of a sexual nature.Reviewed by Angie Just Read...for TheRomanceReviews.com