Grayson Reeves, a wildland firefighter, blames herself for the death of her best friend and scaps to her hometown, Sky Valley, NC, a place she swore she’d never come back to when she was 17. She’s back and not much has changed except herself. Faith Owen has also returned in search of her artistic muse and to get over a bad relationship. While Grayson suffers in silence, Faith is too attracted to Grayson to back away.

Vaun has created two characters with such potential, but the reader will be sorely disappointed when the characters remain rather amorphous throughout the book. The author was almost there but, in the end, she didn’t produce. The nding was rushed and readers will be disappointed and/or feel cheated they weren’t present when the characters made the decision that netiher was going to return to her former life.

There are several books published recently with characters suffering from diagnosed PTSD or with PTSD-like symptoms who are suddenly healed by the love of a good woman. While love may have a role in healing, it cannot resolve the issues by itself. Vaun’s book is another book where PTSD plays a strong role in the book, but it is either not mentioned as such or is only hinted at and where the suffering character is miraculously made whole again by falling in love.

Vaun’s fans will undoubtedly love this book. Readers new to Vaun may enjoy this author for having crated the flawed Grayson.

My thanks to Bold Strokes Books for an eARC. ( )