Cassie marries Luke to take advantage of his medical benefits but their fake marriage turns into a real relationship. This is more or less as much an indictment of the healthcare system as it is a romance. I wasn't a huge fan of Cassie but on balance, it makes for a read that reminds you how important the ACA is.

The synopsis of this one intrigued me and I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it. I'm not sure if it was me or the book, but I found it difficult to feel enough for these two to make me want to keep reading.
I might try again in the future, but for now, I'm putting it aside.

Note: clearing old books from before 2019

Did not have time to read this book - still on my TBR. Thank you for the opportunity and my apologies for not getting to it.

On paper, this is a book I should have absolutely loved but I didn't. Cassie and Luke weren't my favorites and I just couldn't connect to them. I wanted them to have more interactions whether by email or skype or just something. I loved the family dynamics a lot and to me, that's what truly saved the novel.

I wasn't able to finish this book, so I decided not to review it on my site or any of the major retailers/Goodreads.

This didn’t end up working for me very well, but I know a lot of people enjoyed it.

I always find myself gravitating towards books featuring fake relationships; I find myself fully immersed with these individuals’ lives, wanting to find out how things will go and love watching the relationship evolve into something way more than either could have expected. With Purple Hearts I liked how believable the relationship became between Cassie and Luke, despite not knowing each other that long or well enough before they decided to marry one another and I liked how their feelings developed slowly over time. The situation that they found themselves in really did contribute I believe to them being able to take their relationship to the next level. Having nearly died and then relying on your fake wife to look after you really does test the depth of one’s relationship. Despite enjoying Purple Hearts overall, it was kind of slow going for me at times, there was a lot of side stories going on to which sort of took my attention away at times, especially as I was more interested in how things would go down between Luke and Cassie. However slow pace aside, Purple Hearts was a book which I couldn’t stop reading, as I mentioned before, I tend to find myself consumed with the lives of characters and that certainly was the case with Cassie and Luke.

I thought the basis for this romance was really promising. However the execution was not what I hoped for. The characters were likable however the chemistry was awfully lacking.

In "Purple Hearts," Luke is trying to keep old demons at bay and wants to do something with his life. Cassie is reeling after getting a medical diagnosis that threatens to break her financially. On a whim, they join in an agreement where they'll get married so Cassie can use Luke's health benefits from the military. It's an agreement of convenience. Neither of them can imagine how much more than convenience this arrangement will become.

This book takes a very real situation and turns it into a story that explores the emotional implications of going off to war, coming back home again, and what it is like to be struck with something manageable that threatens your way of life nonetheless. I liked how real the author made this feel. In light of some of the questions in our political system recently, I thought it was interesting how the author gave a face to people who struggle with medical insurance coverage. It certainly made this book feel timely.

I really liked the realistic way that this book was written. The author has a knack for writing conversation. The book is narrated by both Cassie and Luke. I loved getting to see both sides of the story. You get a lot of insight into what makes the characters tick. I loved their relationship. Even though you see the ending coming from far away, because you get to know the characters so well, you are still cheering.

Overall, this is a good, romantic take on some very modern challenges!

Tess Wakefield pens a modern day love story in PURPLE HEARTS, highlighting many of the problems Americans face today—access to healthcare, cost of medical care, issues with veterans benefits, mental health, and addiction. While her efforts to draw from real-life issues are admirable, Purple Hearts is fraught with quality issues in terms of the writing, character development, believability, and pacing.

Cassie is diagnosed with Type II Diabetes towards the beginning of the novel. The medical bills that she amassed as a result are so crippling that she decides the only way she can overcome them is not to get a second job, despite being college educated and an experienced paralegal, but to defraud the U.S. Government and marry a soldier for his health insurance and extra spousal benefits. Luke has his own financial woes as a result of pissing off his former friends who are drug dealers and decides this is a marvelous idea.

When I read the synopsis and saw that diabetes was the culprit of the heroine’s medical costs, I envisioned that maybe this person went into diabetic coma and was hospitalized for a long period of time, while doctors worked to get her diabetes under control. (I had a client who had to be placed in a medically-induced coma as a result of complications from type II diabetes) A health problem in this realm of severity would have made the case for the cost of medical bills from diabetes to be “unmanageable.” This, however, was not what happened.

It’s noted that the author did consult with people who suffered from type II diabetes, so as to portray the illness in a real way. But I didn’t find this particular choice of illness to make a whole lot of sense. There are so many other illnesses the author (or rather Alloy Entertainment since this company came up with the concept of this novel) could have chosen to use in this novel to make this a little bit more believable, especially in the area of cost.

I can’t imagine that Cassie’s medical bills were in the arena of completely debilitating. I’m positive my student loans are more burdensome than this. Cassie’s medical bills are as follows: an ambulance bill, medical testing for diabetes (this is a blood test), a short hospital stay, medications, and diabetes testing supplies. In America, these bills are extremely costly but couldn’t she have made payment arrangements? Well yes, but Cassie refuses to get a second job so that she can fulfill her dream of becoming a successful singer.

Cassie is not very sympathetic or likable character. She and Luke are on opposite ends of the spectrum here. Luke is the more conservative and traditional guy, while Cassie is much more progressive a self-described feminist. But doesn’t marrying a guy solely for his monetary support go against her feminist principles? Aside from that point, her choices alone made her come across as selfish and lazy.

As if readers could forgot that Cassie has diabetes (because she brings it up all the time) there is a large portion of an entire chapter during which Cassie shares all the food that she’s eating. Even when Luke is meeting with someone about his medical problems, she makes it a point to tell the other person that she has diabetes for no reason.

One thing I noticed right away is the poor writing quality. I believe the author wanted to create a quirky heroine who was unapologetically herself but her inner dialogue was terrible. In an attempt to, I guess, foreshadow the impending diabetes diagnosis, the author has Cassie talking about her relationship with her “gut” throughout the whole book.

“We had to be on the same team, my gut and I, because for the past few months it’d been off, cranky. I pictured it as a wise, old, talking anthropomorphized object, like a character in an animated movie. What my gut communicated was usually limited to things like I do not care for these Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, or Good effort with the bean soup, I’m going to expand and sit with this for a while.”

“My gut flared again, and I avoided hitting the bumper of the Honda in front of me by an inch. I wanted to slam my head against the steering wheel.”

“The mass had spread through my whole body, throbbing dizzying me. This happened a lot. Like, twice a day, thereabouts. Hence the gut intimacy.”

Luke has his own narrative quirks when he talks about being on Oxycontin versus being sober, “cloud head” and “regular head” respectively. I get where the author was going with this, but this was just another example of the awkward writing style.

“I called it ‘cloud head.’ My cloud head was carefree, dumb, sweet, like a kid. Cloud head didn’t want too many details. Cloud head knew that everything was going to be okay. My regular head couldn’t do that. My regular head would get caught up in everything that could go wrong, and lash out. I needed cloud head for the tough times, so that they looked more simple and nice than they actually were…”

The dialogue in this novel is perhaps some of the most stilted and unnatural dialogue I have ever read. Some of it made me cringe.

“Wanna get turnt?”

Or my favorite line.

“I want to get sloppy.”
“Chyeah,” Davies said. “I’m in.”

Since the author addresses so many hot topics in this novel, she has a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time. There are several passages that are pure information dumping sections in the middle of the story and that read like a public service announcement.

For those curious about whether the love story makes up for the writing quality, let me tell you that it does not. These characters are barely together romantically in this novel. Even when Luke comes back from Afghanistan, Cassie is dating someone else. The author doesn’t spend page time building the relationship between Cassie and Luke in a way that translates to the reader. There is so much telling instead of showing that it prevents the reader from developing any strong feelings towards the characters or their “love story” at all. With Luke coming back from war in the way that he did, that plot point alone could have been used in a great way to beautifully shape a foundation for their relationship. Instead, the author gives us no build-up at all, and at the very end both mysteriously decide they love each other and then the novel ends.

The publisher has categorized this book as Women’s Fiction but honestly it reads more as a contemporary romance. Cassie doesn’t go through any metamorphosis of the heart or a huge character change. The only thing that changed is the fact that she fell in love with Luke and therefore, is no longer committing fraud on the government.

* Thanks to Emily Bestler books for providing me with an early copy for review.

I had a problem getting interested in the book. Half-way through, or less I just skipped to the end.

There seemed to be some research issues around diabetes and medicine which pulled me out of the story.

In addition I just didn't find the heroine likeable or the romance between the hero and heroine believable or compelling.

For this reason, It wasn't one of my recommended reads for May.

I really enjoyed this military romance. Often the hero is brooding (my favorite), but even more appealing was that this plot seemed a little different so I was ready to jump in. And Ms. Wakefield pulled it off; I was intrigued by Luke from the start. I liked the fact that he seem to have demons to fight, especially his addictions. I’m a sucker for a sexy hero with plenty of baggage.

Interestingly enough I didn’t like Cassie right away, or actually for a long time. Now, I was still rooting for Luke and Cassie as a couple, don’t get me wrong. I think that her ignorance and cluelessness was part of her immaturity. I guess she rubbed me the wrong way because she was trying to work the system. Wait you say, why the double standard? Why wasI ok with Luke working the system? I think because I met him at a different point and he was trying to work hard and Cassie just wanted everything for free when I met her.

I think the reason Luke struck me right away is that while he had done some things in his past that weren’t good, he was trying to become better. When he did all those bad things I didn’t know him so I never had a chance to dislike him…I met him at a really good point his life. Or a point that he was trying to change and how could you possibly not like someone? And it didn’t hurt that his eyes were blue-silver and he was hot as hell.

And then there was Cassie. I’m always open to changing my mind, but Cassie was very selfish and she really didn’t think about anyone except herself and her own happiness. I didn’t like what she did to Luke. But then life happened and I knew before her actions actually changed that I was going to like her. I’m always about giving someone another chance. I did come around for her, but it took quite a while.

There’s definitely chemistry. I found that Luke fell for Cassie faster than she fell for him. This was not a hot and steamy romance, but a slow build of trust, despite the attraction. I do wish that I got one more romantic scene, I am a greed hopeless romantic and I just neeeeeeded it. 😉

There was one scene where I got so emotional, and it wasn’t where I expected it. All I will say it is when there was a photo being taken, and it really struck me, and I felt my eyes totally tearing up. I LOVED THAT SO MUCH.

The ending, oh man….the ending. What happened to it? I feel like I didn’t get one. I was so very ready to turn the page on my kindle for that glorious epilogue……but nothing. nada. CRYING. That was going to be the part that made me roll around and bask in the HEA. I think that Cassie and Luke got what they wanted….but …but….I don’t know? There were a lot of loose ends that I wanted tidied up. YEs, I am greedy. cry cry cry.

Rec it? Yes! Even though I am desperate for an epilogue, I still would rec this to anyone who loves their brooding military hero, especially one who is worked so hard to redeem himself.

Happy reading!

Honestly, I have mixed feelings. Not sure I cared for Cassie. Actually, I did not like her most of the time. For most of the book she seemed a bit insensitive to others around her and most of the time all she cared about was herself. Yes, the marriage was one of convenience so she could get the finances to take care of her medical needs while pursuing her music dreams, but damn, once he gets hurt, he more or less becomes an inconvenience to her. Luke though, I liked him. I looked forward to his chapters as the author would switch from one character to the other throughout the story. He agreed to marry her because he has issues of his own that a marriage could financially help him with. He tried to get away from his dark past but unfortunately, it didn't want him to stay away for too long and it affects those around him again BUT, he still tries. Amazingly, at the end, I actually believed Cassie changed a bit and was curious if the two could really make it.

My rating? 3 out of 5 stars. But I'd definitely give Tess Wakefield another try and read another story. If you enjoy contemporary romance (without much romance), you might like PURPLE HEARTS. Go for it. :-)

Cassie, a struggling singer/songwriter, is drowning in medical bills after she's diagnosed with diabetes. She approaches a friend in the Army about a marriage of convenience for the military benefits, but he declines. But one of his friends, Luke, overhears and volunteers instead. I liked that chapters alternated between Cassie and Luke. However, as the reader, I knew more about Luke than Cassie did, but it ended up making me sympathize with him and have very little patience for her. I wasn't super invested in them together, but I still found myself totally caught up in the book. So, I'd say I So Liked It!

Purple Hearts
Publication Date: April 25, 2017
Contemporary Romance/Military
Atria

Reviewed by Kini

Cassie Salazar and Luke Morrow couldn’t be more different. Sharp-witted Cassie works nights at a bar in Austin, Texas to make ends meet while pursuing her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. Luke is an Army trainee, about to ship out for duty, who finds comfort in the unswerving discipline of service. But a chance encounter at Cassie’s bar changes the course of both their lives.

Cassie is drowning in medical bills after being diagnosed with diabetes. When she runs into her old friend Frankie, now enlisted in the Army, she proposes a deal: she’ll marry him in exchange for better medical insurance and they can split the increased paycheck that comes with having a “family.” When Frankie declines, his attractive but frustratingly intense friend Luke volunteers to marry Cassie instead. What she doesn’t know is that he has desperate reasons of his own to get married. In this unforgettable love story, Cassie and Luke must set aside their differences to make it look like a real marriage...unless, somewhere along the way, it becomes one…

I am not even sure where to start with this, so I guess I will start by saying the original blurb sent out intrigued me. I enjoy a good marriage of convenience that turns into a real marriage. I had this on my TBR for a while and needed a refresher so I looked it up on Amazon and when I saw this line, “smart and surprising romance perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks and Jojo Moyes” I should have known I would be disappointed because neither of them write romance.

I’m going to take a slight diversion on this review, because I’m kind of irritated about this book and how the publisher choose to label it as a romance. Romance Writers of America has the following definition about romance novels: “Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.“

In this book Cassie maintains a relationship WITH ANOTHER MAN until at least the 80% mark. This is not a central love story. How it happens is that they marry and then Luke deploys to Afghanistan and even after Cassie vows that there will be no cheating, she starts dating another man. I am a pretty forgiving reader and have read books with sort of cheating and been okay. But the moment that Luke came home and was injured, Cassie had no reason to continue to date someone else. It made her seem selfish. Honestly, I am not sure why I kept reading.

When Luke was overseas, he and Cassie began exchanging emails. I felt like this was the perfect opportunity for them to build their connection and I felt really let down that it wasn’t used for that. The MC’s had trouble opening up and communicating, one of the reasons was because Cassie continued to spend time with a man who was not her husband.

The ending could possibly be described as Happy for Now, I guess. They have some resolution but it isn’t completely clear what happens with them. I definitely did not feel emotionally satisfied with it.

Even though is a categorized as a romance, both by Amazon and by the publisher in the blurb, I do not agree. While the writing/prose was okay, this being touted as a romance, I can not recommend this book. They tried to get me with that smart and surprising line in the blurb, but this was a book that did not hold up as a romance nor did it meet the expectations that come along with reading a romance.

Grade: D

This was very promising with the description of the book. Overall it was just okay for me. Cassie who is a musician finds out she has diabetes and had recently lost her job and health insurance. She runs into an old childhood friend at a bar she works part-time at and finds out he is now in the Army. She meets his friend Luke and they sort of rub each other the wrong way. Luke is a recovering opiate user how enlisted in the Army after being sober for two years. His past still haunts him and his old dealer is after him for money and threatening him.

Cassie finds a brochure left in her apron about Miliatry benefits for married couples and decided to propose a crazy scheme to her childhood friend Frankie to see if he would marry her so she could have health insurance but Frankie is seeing someone and tells her he can't. Luke over hears this conversation and offers to marry her so that they both can partake in the benefits and hopefully get his old dealer Johnno off his back.

So they get married and Luke gets shipped off to Afghanistan and ends up getting injured and sent back home where he and Cassie are now forced to live with each other while he recovers and continue the sham of a marriage where in the end they somehow fall for each other and live HEA.

I don't get Luke and Cassie as a couple. They couldn't be more opposite. I didn't feel any connection or chemistry between them at all, they bickered most of the time. Cassie was just an annoying lead to me. She was very self righteous and entitled and just rubbed me the wrong way the whole time.

I wanted to like this one but in the end it was just off for me.

We have a fiver! One of the best books I have read this year. It looks as if this is this author's debut novel, and I have become an instant fan. Purple Hearts is a marriage of convenience romance. Cass, recently fired is in desperate need for life saving medication for her recently diagnosed diabetes. With no regular job and no insurance, Cassie boldly conducts a plan to marry Luke, an Army trainee solely for his benefits. Including health insurance.

Like doesn't hesitate seeing this as a financial opportunity for himself.
Leaving the reasons unknown to Cassie. Of course nothing goes according to plan.

I was so impressed with the writing. Luke's demons were real and raw, undesguised. I learned from Luke's journey. My heart melted for these two. Cassies' drive was gritty and unrelenting. What strong character development! Yes this is a love story. But it's gritty, passionate and intense. A love story with depth, written with unrestrained honesty. A must read!

Thank you Simon and Schuster for the ARC.

I'm really on the fence about my review of Purple Hearts. I really enjoyed it, but I wanted so much more from the characters. The storyline felt like a Nicholas Sparks classic, but it lacked the chemistry and romance that I was craving. The characters were fun and interesting, but I just wanted them to connect more and show a little more emotion.

The writing style was fast paced and light hearted, and I found myself reading through the novel very quickly. I loved how easily the novel flowed from one page to the next, but when I had about 20 pages left in the book I started to panic a little because it seemed like so much more needed to happen. As much as I enjoyed the first portion of the book, the last bit seemed rushed and cut short.

Purple Hearts is a fun, fast paced book filled with relatable characters and real life issues. I found myself constantly wondering what I would do if put in the situations that the main characters faced. I laughed and I cried (just a little!), and I found myself not wanting this novel to end. I would definitely recommend this novel to readers who enjoy Nicholas Sparks, JoJo Moyes and other contemporary romance novels.

I'm still a bit baffled on this one. I really liked the story premise and being former Army myself it really peaked my interest. I think though that the delivery failed on several parts.

One of the things that I struggled with was that the book never really held my attention. About the half way mark I started skimming and then it was just down hill from there. I don't think the writing was bad, it was just the lack of action and all the with the story.

The other part I had problems with was the character of Cassie. I never liked her and she just rubbed me the wrong way through out the book. There was also that one thing she did. I couldn't move past it and she just really upset me. I could go on but it would spoil the book.

I think this book is a 50/50 shot for recommending it. It wasn't for me but it might be for you. *shrugs*

I'm not rating this yet because I honestly dont know how. I'd give it 5 stars for the writing, but 2 stars for the lack of chemistry I felt between the characters. I'd give it 4 stars for the plot and the potential it had to be a really memorable story, but 2 stars because of how selfish I found the heroine and how abrupt the ending felt.

I need to mention my appreciation for the honesty this author gave to the storyline, touching on real world issues like political disagreements, dissension over foreign conflict, the healthcare crisis, drug addiction, illness, financial insecurity, the lack of support for veterans.

But I couldn't get past how self absorbed Cassie was throughout the entire book and I felt that her selfishness hindered any real build between her and Luke from becoming evident to the reader. I was just missing something, I guess. Or a lot of somethings. The writing in this book was really great and I immediately thought I'd found a gem when I started reading. Given that, I'm open to reading other work from this author, I just didn't come away feeling much for this particular story.