Review: Serena Bells best to date! A great contemporary, second-chance romance!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2014
"She didn’t have words for how she’d wanted to receive everything about him, the anger she could see on his face, his need begging in his eyes, the way he braced himself as if he were going to deliver something that was part gift, part mean withholding. She wanted it as rough as he wanted to give it; she wanted it for as long as he could hold out; she wanted it now and then again after the first time. She feared she would never be done wanting it."Hold On Tight is a stand-alone novel by author Serena Bell. This second chance romance is told from dual points of view of the two main characters, Jake and Mira. This is the third book I’ve read by this author and while I think she’s done a good job on the other books I’ve read, Hold On Tight is definitely my favorite!Jake and Mira meet and are drawn to each other but the timing is all wrong. Jake’s on military leave, about to be deployed, and Mira is going to art school. After spending what time they have together, they part their seperate ways. Fast forward 8 years later…Jake is a disabled veteran, recently back home after losing a leg in an IED blast and trying to cope with his loss. Mira is a single mom struggling to put roots down in Seattle. A chance meeting bring Jake and Mira together again and gives Mira the opportunity to tell Jake that her son Sam, is his! The book deals with both characters individual struggles as well as how they try to cope with the new dynamic of Jake becoming part of his son's life."She had let go of the idea of Jake little by little, but he never went away entirely. He reappeared at odd intervals, at pivotal moments. When Sam smiled for the first time, when he reached out and grabbed her nose, when he rolled over. No matter how much her parents celebrated with her, Jake was there, a presence, an absence.Only not Jake. Some guy she’d made up. A hopeful, nave dream."I have to admit I stopped a book mid-read to start Hold On Tight. I am a total sucker for “wounded warrior” type stories and Hold On Tight didn’t disappoint. A major part of the story line deals with Jake’s struggle to overcome the events of the past and decisions he made while fighting overseas. Jake’s struggle was with this loss of his leg was one of the more realistic depictions of a disability that I have read in a romance book. Certain parts of the story, including his inability to do certain tasks or the logistics of being intimate with a prosthetic had an element of authenticity that have been missing in other books with similar story lines I've read. I'm not saying it was 100% accurate, obviously, this is fiction, but it did seem more realistic.Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Everything was just very well done. The writing was good, the dynamics between all the characters really worked. The steam factor was medium and appropriate for the story."...he couldn’t stop thinking about grabbing her and pushing up her shirt and sucking her breasts and unfastening her Professional Lady Pants and getting his hand in her panties so he could see if she was ready. Somehow, years of combat, of death and destruction, hadn’t managed to eradicate the memory of her wet heat against his fingers that night by the lake. Or the sounds she’d made into his mouth when he’d kissed her.He wanted to get it right this time. He wanted to be buried in her so far she could taste him.And his ____  was totally, completely, 100 percent on board."At times I was a little frustrated with the characters. There was a lot of back and forth. Jake and Mira wanted to be together but thought they shouldn’t be together, they agreed to try but then one would pull back, that kind of thing. I still really enjoyed the story and thought it ranked high on the readability scale!I recommend this book for readers that enjoy contemporary romances, second chance romances, and disabled hero's. A very solid 4.25 STARS!Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review