Another good story about the men and women who have served our country and some of the things they have to deal with even after their service is up. I appreciated the two main characters in this story; loved how they kept "bumping into each other". And appreciated both personalities.

Madeline Bright is a cheerful army nurse and the "darling of Prairie Springs, Texas". Her deceased brother was best friends of ex-pilot Jake Hopkins, until he was killed when their army helicopter crashed years ago. Jake feels guilty about failing to save him and can't even talk about it. Now Jake is a lawyer in town where Maddie is, and although Maddie tries her hardest to show Jake how much she cares about him, Jake fights her attention every time. Watching these two battle it out was both amusing and sad at the same time. Jake must learn to reconcile with God and then his healing will begin. And when he gets his head together he wastes no time in declaring his feelings for Maddie. ( )

I must admit that I had some concern before reading this book. First of all, I don’t read very many romance novels, so I don’t know the genre very well. Second, Brenda Coulter was nice enough to send me a pre-release copy of the book and I would feel bad if it wasn’t very good and I had to say so. My opinion is my own and on my blog I’m going to say what I believe…period. Those of you who have been here for a while know that. But I shouldn’t have been concerned about either of these things. Brenda took care of that by penning an excellent book. What I should have been concerned with was sleep…since I didn’t start reading the book until 7 o’clock at night and couldn’t put the darn thing down! Inspirational romance is difficult to pull off without sounding contrived or sappy. Brenda Coulter avoids that problem by simply writing a great story. She weaves the points of view of the two main characters seamlessly and runs the reader through the full gambit of emotions from start to finish. The characters are vibrant and real; the plot is smooth and the finish is strong. You find yourself trying to offer the characters on the page advise – (“Come on, Jake! Don’t you see how she feels about you?) If you are not inspired to live life a little more brightly after reading this book, than you really are not trying. I can honestly say that this book far surpassed my expectations. As I said, I couldn’t put it down. If you have ever considered reading an inspirational romance novel – or even if you haven’t – go get yourself a copy of this one. You will get a great book to read and you will be helping to support a fellow blogger as well. In fact, pick up two copies…you wouldn’t want one to be lonely on the shelf, right? Now if you will excuse me, I need to get some sleep. ( )