Wrecked is the perfect title for this story. Oh the tears with this one! Don't you hate it when you have a book on your TBR forever and then you finally get to it and you wish you would have read it long ago? This is one of those books. Aden and Sawyer's story destroyed me. They both were dealing with such tragic events in their life and finding each other couldn't even be the blessing they needed it to be. This story was so emotional and dealt with PTSD and losing a loved one to cancer. This was a very heartfelt story and gave me a good cry.

I have really enjoyed the books I have read by JB Salsbury. These books are compelling, unique, and full of great characters. She has a way of writing that is engaging and surprising, but also relatable. I could relate to Sawyer and understood her pull toward Aden. Their romance was electric and followed a path that I did not find too rushed or too slow as a reader. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book.

Wrecked was quite difficult to get through. The plot, the characters, their personal turmoil, all of it really, felt forced and not believable at all. There were numerous instances of cheesy and unoriginal one-liners. This is not a book I would recommend to anyone.

I thought the author did a pretty good job of tackling PTSD. It's a hard topic of conversation and it's even harder to write about it. However, the way she approached it in the book showed a real look at every day life living with it.

In one word WOW of Wrecked by JB Salsbury. This was a unique story in many levels but the main one is what got me, trust. We have Sawyer who is going through a rough time with her twin, Celia. These two are more than just sisters they balance each other in a way that makes them better separately. Sawyer doesn’t see herself like Celia see’s her so JB Salsbury and her clever mind makes the biggest change ever in their lives. Then we have Aden who has so much guilt in his life but never has moved on from his past. These two together have love for each other but the biggest thing they never have had is trust. I loved how JB Salsbury can make a woman who is afraid to well live and a man who feels he doesn’t deserve to live come together in a way that will blow you away. Get WRECKED you will love it like I have.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this title. Unfortunately in this case I found it difficult to connect to the story. As I didn't completely finish this book I will not be publishing a review. We do not review uncompleted books on the blog, and again, thank you for sending through a review copy. Although this title didn't work for me, I do look forward to reading more from this author in the future as I have loved her previous work.

Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 4 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Ariel

Holy cow…

There’s no other way to put it other than Wrecked left me… well, wrecked. The new novel from J.B. Salsbury is absolutely heart-wrenching in the best possible way. It made me cry in multiple parts, and made me really stop to think about certain things. It is not a light read by any means, but oh so worth it.

Aden Colt is damaged. He left the army years ago, but the things that he witnessed still haunt him. He blames himself for the death of several of his men, and suffers from some really intense PTSD that he currently medicates with alcohol and women. My heart seriously went out to Aden. I can’t even imagine the things that he’s been through. I spent the entire novel wanting to give him a hug and take him to a therapist, because he clearly needs one. I really appreciated how Salsbury portrayed Aden’s PTSD. It was rough to read about, but man was it powerful. Aden wasn’t the only one with a rough life though.

Sawyer has just moved home after breaking up with her boyfriend only to find out that her twin sister, Celia, is not doing well. Celia has a tumor that is slowly ending her life. She recently had to move home to Arizona from her life she was living in San Diego. The only problem is, her stuff is all still in California. No problem, Sawyer can go pack it all up for her and hire movers to bring it to Phoenix. The only issue is that no one in San Diego knows that Celia is sick, and she wants it to stay that way. She’d rather them remember the fun, outgoing girl they all know and love than know the truth. And that’s how Sawyer ends up in San Diego, with no one knowing her real name. Even Aden, the man she is so clearly falling in love with.

I really don’t think I was emotionally prepared for this book. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great romance. The romance scenes between Aden and Sawyer were off the charts, and their chemistry was perfect. Watching Aden help Sawyer come out of her shell was a lot of fun, and as the book went on you could really see Sawyer becoming more and more like her sister, in a good way. The only part that I found really lacking in the book was some of the Sawyer stuff. She has her own issues that she should probably be going to therapy for, and I don’t feel like they ever really got resolved completely. And that still wasn’t enough to detract from how much I enjoyed reading this book.

Wrecked gets 4 out of 5 from me. If you’re up for something a little more difficult content-wise, I would highly suggest picking this one up. I would keep in mind that it gets much darker towards the end in regards to Aden’s PTSD. If you feel it’s something you’re in for, you will not regret giving it a try.

I absolutely loved this story! This was my second book by this author, and again I am floored by the smooth and talented writing.

Reading this caused me to feel everything, and I never wanted to put it down. Probably because Ms. Salsbury gives us characters that are SO easy to love. And the writing is flawless. I love her storytelling - I was pulled in and mesmerized from the beginning.

Aden Colt is an angry, broody, and broken man whose past haunts him. Sawyer is beautiful, a rule follower, and definitely does not like to leave her comfort zone. When these two meet, they complement each other perfectly.

If you are a fan of this author, then you know how awesome she is, and I'm confident you'll love this book. If you haven't read anything from her, this would be a great place to start!

I was torn while reading with this book. often thought why is the author making the characters do or say this or that.
The conclusion that I came up with is because of love and second chances.

Sawyer loves her sister so much that she was willing to fulfill her request despite how hesitate she is. She’s definitely out of her comfort zone. I liked watching her change from the beginning to the end. She grew more confident and sure of herself. This helped when she runs into Aden.

Due to circumstances beyond Aden’s control he’s thrust into darkness. He’s learning to live with the horrors of war but as he finds out its hard. With the help of his salty friend and family he’s trying but it’s Sawyer who hopes him in his final journey.

I loved the range of emotions that the author created in this characters.The entire book is emotional but the last few chapters definitely had me in tears.

It's been months since Aden Colt left the Army, and still the memories haunt him. When he moved into a tiny boat off the California coast, he thought he'd found the perfect place to escape life. Then Sawyer shows up and turns his simple life upside down. Beautiful and sophisticated, she seems out of place in this laid-back beach town. Something is pushing her to experience everything she can-including Aden. But as much as he wants her, starting a relationship with Sawyer puts them both at risk. For Aden, the past doesn't stay there; it shows up unexpectedly, uncontrollably, and doesn't care whose life it wrecks.

Sawyer Forresters terminally ill sister Celia begs her to go to San Diego pretending to be her so she can pack up her belongings for her and her friends would not find out why she left. Sawyer does what she needs to do for Celia but it is not easy especially when she begins a love affair with Aden.

Aden Colt is seriously struggling with life and living after he returns from losing friends under his command. He is existing and not living. He hides behind drinking and faceless women.

Until he meets who he believes is Celia Forrester but is actually Sawyer, Celia's sister. Sawyer also has issues from her past that she needs to work through but she wants Aden, she wants him and she wants to prove to Celia she can move on and someone Celia could and would be proud of.

But what will happen when Aden finds out the truth, what will he do when he finally opened his heart and dove right in and he learns he has been lied to from the beginning? Will his love for Celia/Sawyer be strong enough to withstand the betrayal, will he understand?

JB Salsbury has done it again, she breaks your heart into a million pieces and slowly and methodically puts it back together and smooths the pieces out. She has an amazing way with a story and her characters. She writes the broken person so unbelievably wonderful. 4.5 beautiful stars!

4-4.5 ****

Sadly the H PTSD storyline is too familiar nowadays but JBS spins a story and makes it her own. Aden is a former Special Forces soldier living with the guilt of surviving his men at that hand of a traitor he believed in. He's completely aware he has PTSD and that he has very, very dark days. He staves them off with alcohol, work, and sex - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. He's become somewhat isolated from society and his family because he doesn't trust himself and others don't trust him. When you hear the phrase "Sergeant Psycho" being thrown around it's sad. When he nonchalantly mentions his sister doesn't trust him around her kids because of his PTSD, that's sadder. He's not a bad guy, but a good guy who suffered bad things and he's just trying to make it in his new world.

Sawyer has her own troubles due to her dying twin sister. She pretends to be Cecilia (and we know that's never a good thing) and goes to CA to close up Cecilia's house. Watching Cecilia pretend to be somebody she isn't and who is 180 degrees different than her is awkward, sad, and funny. When she tells Aden she's the Master Baiter (good Lord I just got that typing it LOL!) it's funny and sweet. When she hears Cecilia's friends talk about her crazy sister, Sawyer, the pain in her voice is sad.

Definitely 2 people who are hurting and deserve a HEA but you wonder how. If anything Sawyer seems more likely even with her borderline OCDness. Seeing Aden HEA seems like it's going to be elusive but this is romance. And thankfully it works and makes sense. They fill a need for each other that initially you wouldn't think works but it does. They're that perfect imbalance of opposites that balance each other out. 2 damaged souls who love each other (maybe too quickly but I don't care) and find forgiveness and the ability to accept and let go with each other.

Overall I loved it. Maybe there was too much insta-love given the depth of both MCs's pain. Maybe it was wrapped up too quickly. But..... I loved them together and absolutely wanted them together sailing off into the sunset.

Again, JBS doesn't disappoint.

It’s official, I’m totally and completely wrecked. Ruined. My heart hurts because the book almost crushed it with its incredibly powerful and emotional story. My eyes hurt because I cried hysterically through the entire last third. I’m moved down to the marrow of my bones. YES. It was THAT good.

No seriously. I don’t remember crying so hard reading a book before and I downright sobbed. SOBBED.
So what made this book so good? The story. It was simple yet emotional. Gripping yet not over the top. The characters. Both Aden and Sawyer are incredibly multilayered characters filled with so much depth, it practically overflows from the pages. But I’d be lying if I told you that Aden didn’t steal my heart. I had honest to god shivers reading the prologue. SHIVERS, people.

Dead bodies litter the floor.
Shock overtakes me.
My hands shake but I feel nothing.
Only one thought pumps furiously through my mind. It should’ve been me.

A soldier riddled with nightmares that he can’t escape. A survivor burdened with guilt and rage. A man filled with emptiness and regrets. He escapes in the only way he knows how, at the bottom of a bottle. Secluding himself from everything and everyone living on his uncles boat, he doesn’t expect a beautiful stranger to make him want to live again.

"Scared?” I look up at him and get lost in the warmth of his gaze.
“No. I feel safe with you.”
“Yeah?” His lips part and his breath dances across my lips. “So I’m not a stranger anymore.”
“No.” I run my hands up the back of his neck into his hair and slide against his hard body. “You make me feel like I can do anything.”
His eyebrows drop low and his jaw ticks. “And you make me forget.”

Sawyer made a promise to her terminally sick twin sister; a promise that brings her to California and stumbling into a stranger that changes everything for her.

Because soon enough I’ll be out of his life and I’ll go back to being Sawyer, the kind of girl who would never turn the head of a guy like Aden, and I’ll be able to go on living my sheltered safe life knowing what it’s like to truly live. That is, if I survive it.

I expected a ton of angst with this book but that’s not what I got at all. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not exactly a light read but it’s also not filled with anything extra to take away from the character driven story. You really get to know Aden and Sawyer and what makes them tick. You get to see them be there for each other during some of the most difficult parts of their lives. You get to see them hold each other up and slowly fall in love. It was beautiful and touching, emotional and sweet.

"I don’t want to forget you.”
He pulls his shirt off over his head, his wide muscular chest on display and tensing with anticipation. “I’ll make sure you never will.” He pushes down his shorts and closes in until the warmth of his bare skin presses against mine. “I’ll mark your fucking soul.”

Wrecked is very appropriately titled. Both of these characters were anything if not a little broken but in completely different ways. It wasn’t dark or full of drama. It wasn’t angsty or full of gratuitous sex scenes. It was just two broken people learning to make themselves whole together. It was a beautiful and memorable romance that I won’t forget for a long, long while, and a book I can’t recommend enough.

I was interested in reading Wrecked by JB Salsbury because there aren’t very many books about contemporary veterans (people my age) and the more of these types of books I read the more my own personal history is put into perspective.

I was a sophomore in high school when the Twin Towers were struck. During my lifetime my country has been at war with one country or another half as long as I’ve been alive. Becoming an adult during it I have to admit that for a very long time I didn’t really know what that meant. I knew it was “bad” but trying to understand war and invasion as a 16 year old girl in the Midwest who lived in a town with 3,000 people in it? Yeah I’m still working on it.

Wrecked shredded me! It was awful in the most wonderful way possible. It was a bit tropey a la The Parent Trap but I will most definitely be picking up more by JB Salsbury! Aden and Sawyer were so great to watch come together and heal.

To be honest I felt that Sawyer’s issues were diminished in the light of Aden’s. Aden has got himself some serious issues and not through any fault of his own. I imagine he’d argue that point but he isn’t here so I win! I could identify with “safety Sawyer” and it made Wrecked that much more special for me. There were sad moments but the highs were just as good.

Salsbury gave us the gift of watching two broken people heal themselves and each other. I am so very glad I picked this book up!

Sawyer has to do her sister a huge favor, pack up her apartment. Doesn't seem like that big a favor, except the apartment is in California, and there may be some.... stipulations on this favor. Celia wants to push her sister out of her comfort zone, and she has figured out a way to do just that but only if Sawyer will let go a little bit of control. Sawyer agrees to go along with her sister's plan, but she didn't count on meeting Aden, or the feelings that he brought about.

Aden is a mess, after his last mission overseas went way bad, he has found himself a little hole to hide in. He is content to stay away from people on his boat, fishing, and working as the manager of his uncle's rental cottages. When the girl from cottage 4 comes back from her adventures, Aden doesn't really intend to take notice, after all he is better off without the distraction, it would mean someone else to hurt or disappoint. But there is something about her that just makes him take notice and think about her more. Trading one addiction for another, she becomes his new addiction, his new need. But what happens when things get too intense and he can't control the nightmares that haunt him? What happens when she sees just how wrecked and broken he is? Will she stay or is Aden's damage too much to handle?

This story was amazing! The first chapter already had me wrecked and through the pain that is this story, it kept me hanging making me hope that things would change, and not happen; even though you could see the outcome of a few things. Aden's story about his PTSD is such a sad reality that too many are facing, and too many feel that they are facing alone. My heart hurt for both Sawyer and Aden, with everything that they faced in this story. JB Salsbury can spin a tale that keeps you hanging by your toes and loving every minute of it. I give this 5 stars.

There is so many things to say about this fabulously amazing book!! You want to talk about an emotional roller coaster and pulling all the emotions to the surface, please look no further! The balance between these characters was out of this world perfect! There is a secret throughout the book, but it's proof that love knows no bounds no matter what!

Sawyer, beautiful and scared. She lives her life with safety in mind on all the things she does. Nothing to reckless everything in it order and kept clean. When her twin asks her to take her place to close up her home, so as to not let on that she is sick.... her safe life comes unraveled.
Aden, lost in his guilt from being in the military and losing his friends, his brothers, keeps himself away from the triggers. The triggers to his rage and anger. The triggers to his worst nightmares.
When he meets who he thinks is Celia, he finds peace a sense of coming home. Can they find peace in each other. Can the lies she tell ruin the one person that shows her how to live and fear the uncontrollable?
This is a book of not only romance but of a second chances. A chance to live out the life they had denied themselves. A chance to find excitement, a home.
I love the way Aden pushes her boundaries and make her try new things. I love how Celia pushes Aden to be more than the loner he has made himself become.
This book is more than just two wrecked hearts. It is about two hearts learning to love themselves and one another.

You ever read a book whose character makes a really poor choice early on and you just know that things aren't going to go well for this character? Well, without spoiling things, let me tell you that Sawyer (our heroine) makes a choice, out of a place of love, and that choice was the cause of my angst and face palming during many scenes. There was a lot of nonononono and shaking my head and then when her choice was taken to a certain point, all I could do was brace myself for the fall out that would come. I will say, to her credit, that she struggled with all the responsibility that came with the choices she made and while I hated her struggle, it made her sympathetic. I definitely couldn't do what she did and do it successfully...at least I don't think I could. Love makes us do strange things sometimes.

Aden, Sawyer's love interest, also made a choice that devastated him and it's one that has impacted his daily existence. All I could think about was how awful it must be to feel all the things he did and not have (or feel like he had) adequate ways to cope and live with what he carried in his memowry and in his heart. My heart was heavy for him and so when he saw Sawyer as a way to alleviate some of his burden, even if I knew it probably wasn't the healthiest option, I wanted that for him so badly. I wanted both of them to have the respite they found in each other--but the struggle to get that was huge.

That struggle. though, is what makes the ending so extra special. The feeling of happiness and warmth that exuded from the pages of the epilogue were like a balm; it's one of my favorite epilogues ive read in a while. Wrecked may have the potential to wreck you, but the ending will leave you smiling.

I don't think I've ever read a book whose title fit it so perfectly more than this one. Going into Wrecked, I knew it was going to an emotional book just by reading the blurb. Haunted ex-military hero? Check. Heroine that doesn't quite know her place in the world? Check. Two characters learning how to open themselves up to each other? Check! What I didn't know was that JB Salsbury was going to absolutely wreck me. I was up at all hours of the night getting my ugly cry on. These characters... JB's writing style... Everything sucked me in from the first page and held me hostage until the very end. Now I don't normally like characters that knowingly keep the truth from another character, but Sawyer's situation was unique. It was something she had to do in order to find herself. She spent so much of her life hidden in the shadows that she doesn't know how to live. And while she tries to make everyone else happy, it is slowly wearing her down until her sister steps in with the seemingly perfect solution. Of course, things don't go quite as planned and life threw her a curve ball in the shape of Aden. I loved Aden. The man is a tortured soul and I just wanted to gobble him up in a bear hug. He survived the worst and he too doesn't know how to live. Together, they healed each other's wounds. They were the rock, the emotional support needed to get through the darkest days. And I absolutely loved that.

Wrecked also made me laugh at some points, especially watching Sawyer out of her element in the water. Sometimes you gotta laugh through the tears and that's what the characters did. They found joy and laughter. As a reader, that made me smile and giggle. Amazing job by the author.

Surprising and unpredictable! I was not expecting such raw emotions! When I first started this I had low expectations but by chapter 2 I was hooked and could not put it down. Sawyer and Aden are well matched and make the scenes unforgettable. I was so pleased with the ending but disappointed that I did not feel a sequel is a possibility for the future.

I absolutely loved this book, and I have ordered it for two of the libraries in our system.