Reading Romances Challenge - April

April's theme was Beauty and the Beast--one of the main characters is physically marred in some way or emotionally tortured. I immediately looked up Decadent Publishing's Challenge Series, where every book deals with exactly this. I decided to go with the emotional torture and read Healing Hearts by Liz Crowe.

Jay Longmire had it all--a successful business, a beautiful wife, two loving children. But one normal Sunday evening in Ann Arbor everything was ripped from his arms at knifepoint. He has retreated to Traverse City to hide from the world, nursing his physical and emotional wounds and trying to cope with mind-numbing guilt over his inability to protect his family.

Abby Powers serves him coffee he never drinks and has become obsessed with the movie-star handsome but melancholy man. And the anticipation of his appearance every day takes her mind off her own messy life.

What begins as a near desperate physical connection out of the blue develops into a friendship that has the potential to heal two damaged hearts. But Jay is terrified to love again. While Abby's fierce independence forces them both to acknowledge the deeper relationship they both desire, but that remains just out of reach.

Wow, you will be hard-pressed to find a hero more emotionally tortured than this man! He is a mess. This book is not for those who have trouble reading about violent situations because Jay's memories share the excruciating details again and again. Those parts were tough for me to read. It definitely pushed me beyond my comfort level. However, the story itself, the romance, the hero's transformation, and the heroine were all wonderful. I highly recommend this book (just not for the faint of heart).