Author: Beverly Ovalle
Genre/Age: Romance/NA
Series: The Santiago's Series (Book Two)
Publisher: Midwest Dragon Press
Format: ebook via Reading Alley
Rating: ✺✺✺.5
Links: Goodreads
Synopsis: Lee Santiago went from one mistake to the next. When a friend dies, exposing his mortality all too well Lee’s family steps in to force him to make something of himself. He can’t be a party boy all his life and if he wants to sign his life away, it will be on the dotted line. He doesn’t even have time to say goodbye. Anyway it was only a drunken one night stand.
Isabelle was always the good girl. Until that night. When the man she’d always worshiped finally noticed her. She couldn’t say no. She’s heartsick to find out he doesn’t remember it. Isabella’s life crashes around her when the results are in. The truth comes out and she has nowhere to turn. She looks for Lee, but he’s gone.
Will he be man enough to step up and face the consequences when he learns the truth?
One night can change everything...
When Lee wakes one morning, he finds a girl laying next to him and he has no memory of their night together. He doesn't even know who it is because he's so quick to get rid of her that he doesn't bother to look. Little does he know, he just spent the evening with the one girl he's always wanted. And by carelessly shoving her away, he made the biggest mistake of his life. But before he can fix it, tragedy strikes and Lee is left shaken to his core and reevaluating his life choices, leading him to enlist in the Navy.
Izzy doesn't have time to rejoice the fact that her dream of being with the guy she's pined for has finally come true. She has a funeral to attend and then Lee disappears, altogether. But it isn't until she finds out that she is expecting his baby that her world finally crashes down. And when Lee finds out, they each have some tough choices to make about their futures.
This book had several great moments and even a few gut-wrenching ones. The pacing started out quick but was slower, overall. There was a nice amount of character development but not very much face time between our couple. They spend over half of the book apart. I would have liked to see them struggle to become a couple more than just witnessing their decision to be together. The romance was good, though, when they finally did come face to face and there was plenty of conflict to keep things interesting in the meantime.
As prior military, myself, I am always wary of books with military characters. Why? Because no matter how much research an author does, they always seem to get something wrong in regards to terminology or procedures. This is one of those themes in which you really have to live it to know it. And as prior Navy, myself, I always seem to notice any discrepancies.
In this case, it was clear that the author knew what she was talking about. I even took a peek at her biography and saw that she, too, was a veteran. This definitely showed in her writing as the details about boot camp graduation stood out to me. Even the bit about getting a custom omelet made me smile. That was always my favorite part of galley breakfast. P.S. I always got my omelets with just cheese. *chuckle*
I did have a few mild issues with the way the story was told. For one, I am used to dual POV books and those usually pick up where the other leaves off, giving us a real-time experience throughout the story. This one followed its own rules and sometimes continued on but other times backtracked and actually repeated snippets of the story. The repetition became annoying. Yes, there are two sides of the story but we don't really need to see every single moment from both sides.
The other thing I noticed was how the story included literally just about every waking moment. In detail. I don't mind some downtime. It's necessary to keep a story from becoming too jumbled and it gives a reader time to breathe. But needing to know every single move that a character makes, from their meals to their showers, over and over... It becomes tedious to read all of the mundane daily tasks.
In closing...
A pretty good read with likable characters. 3.5 suns!
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