Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. The writing was too cheesy and juvenile which made it very unrealistic. Gah (seriously, who uses that word?)! Enough with the nicknames! They haven't even gone on a date and he is calling her Freckles, sweetheart, babe or my girl. But the worst was when he kept saying "woman" (ex. Do you hear me woman? or Wake! Up! Woman!). When someone calls a female that, he is being domineering and controlling. Not what a true hero should be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Susan Owensby for a copy of "True Hero" in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I started this but it felt too cliched, I can no longer download the book to give it a second chance

ARC gratefully received from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

This book. It’s not hearts and flowers. Well the ending might be. Ally gets her happy ending eventually but it’s a long, hard fought battle.

This book makes for pretty uncomfortable reading at times. That isn’t something I usually go for. I don’t mind a few tears in fact I relish all the tears. But physically flinching when I read. I don’t sign up for that. But I do sign up for strong women and the men who love them. And this book has that in abundance.

As much as this book made me uncomfortable nothing was done for shock factor. It was all imperative to the story. Ally had to endure the worst to find the best. Such is life. Ally’s life was harder there for a while than anyone’s should ever be.

I will forward to reading more books by Susan in the future. Hopefully about some of the characters from this book if I read the signals correctly.

A story filled with love, abuse, challenges, resilience, loyalty, humor, and even a wonderful moment from beyond.

When life becomes a nightmare and the only choice is to run to survive that is exactly what mom, Sarah, will do with her son, Jacob.

When Navy SEAL, Jonah, hears the waitress ask if she can keep him forever only to then not get her to speak to him for years he decides she is his next mission.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was truly a depressing story, I was so sad after I read it, and I hate that. The book was well written, I do not take that away from the author, actually I think she did a great job in making us feel as readers, it was just so heartbreaking. No one, no one should have to suffer to what Ally went thru, it just gutted me, and even Sam, that poor little boy, to have to live life scared it truly gut wrenching. The sad part of it all, is that it happens in real life, maybe not to the degree, as last part of torture, but pretty the rest of it. I was happy that she finally got a break.

This is an intriguing story is about a former Navy Seal and a woman running from her abusive husband and it is filled with romance and suspense. While I enjoyed the story and the characters, the dialogue didn't feel natural or realistic and I thought the hero acted immature.

Ally has no other choice but to run away from her abusive husband. She knows she and her eight year old son will never be safe if they stay. Ally and her son are now living a quiet life in a small town where she works as a waitress and tries to stay under the radar. She has been through alot and is shy and afraid to get close to anyone, especially a good looking guy like Jonah.

Jonah is a former Navy Seal and eats at the diner where Ally works. He can tell Ally is skittish and Jonah is understanding and patient with Ally but he finally decides to make his move. He is protective by nature and his instincts tell him Ally needs his help. Jonah wants to get to know Ally and once he does, he will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. Jonah Is a good guy and he always does the right thing and puts Ally first.

Jonah tries to get to know Ally but he makes her nervous and she tries to keep her distance from him because the last thing Ally needs, is another man ruining her life again. Ally spends all her time working and taking care of her son and she is content with her safe, uncomplicated life. She feels lucky she doesn't live in fear anymore.

Jonah is a good guy, he knows Ally is nervous and he takes it slow with her. The problem I had with Jonah is he acted more like a teenager than a man in his thirties when he is around Ally. Ally is sweet and unassuming and has no idea how attractive she is and although she is attracted to Jonah, she is afraid to take a chance on him.

Ally is on the run from her past and she doesn't trust anyone she meets until Jonah. This story was full of suspense, drama and love. Great read. I loved the connection that Jonah and Ally have. He pursued her even when she couldn't let herself trust anyone. Good book.

So....my mistake on this one. Labeled as romantic suspense (which I didn't notice until after I had requested it) but involves a SEAL helping out a woman on the run? I thought it would be my kind of story. But...maybe because the dialogue didn't have a natural flow (it felt stilted to me) I just couldn't get into the story. It was almost like a distraction while I was reading it.

And the storyline - Just too predictable for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review. Sorry this one just didn't work for me.

Ally “Freckles” Black has had a hard life. Her now ex-husband was violent and got arrested for drugs and guns possession. But since he used to be a policeman and kept lots of contacts in the police department, she changed her and her son’s identities and ran.
Years later, Ally works as a waitress in a dinner and that’s where she met Jonah “Mr Dreamy Eyes” Bradford.
Indeed, she looked at him, dropped some stuff and told him “Can I keep you forever?” and the dude fell for him immediately.
Yep. Immediately.
After that humiliating moment, she avoids him for three years whenever he shows up the dinner but he still think of her as his and is very sure they’re meant to be. (I’m gonna go puke and I’ll be right back.)
So, Mr Dreamy Eyes is an ex Navy Seal and now works in a security firm and after he has two conversations with Ally, when she stops avoiding him, he is very sure she is hiding something and starts investigating behind her back. Cause that’s healthy…

So the book is mainly about how the men protect Ally without her knowledge and how the women take care of her son, Samuel.

I didn’t like the writing at all. Beside the fact that the book was filled with so many clichés I couldn’t even list them and that it seemed deeply unrealistic, fake and annoyed me to no end, the writing itself felt childish to me. It drove me insane. I also feel like it was filled with sexism.
They were lots of things like “my woman” or “I would not let you push me away.” Do I need to explain why it’s not ok?
Their first kiss also happened while she was unconscious, on the side of the road, with a concussion, a sprained ankle, very close to hypothermia and a huge cut in her hand. Kissing people while they’re unconscious shouldn't be romanticized, there’s this thing called consent and this thing called assault……….

I’m just gonna add a couple quotes that infuriated me :

“A boy needed his father.”

“Damn, she colored her hair? Why? Red hair on her would look fucking amazing. I mentally shrugged thinking of how often my baby sister had changed her hair color over the years. It had to be just a woman thing.”

I was just mad through it all.

This was a new to me author. I picked up the book based on the synopsis. I love a single parent trope every time. This is romantic suspense, though, so I knew I needed to prepare for a bit of the creepies.

Ally is a woman of many secrets. Most of all she does everything in her power to protect her young son. But Jonah is determined to find out everything he can about her and hopefully steal her heart in the process.

I like Jonah a lot in this story. Great alpha male but also so understanding and careful with Ally. He was the make or break with the story and he ended up shining through everything.

Jonah's brother intrigues me as well. Hopefully we will get to see him in action soon.

loved it

This novel involves the familiar plot device of an abused wife fleeing her former spouse, accompanied by an adorable kid, to try and rebuild her life in a small town somewhere. IN this case, the heroine, Ally Black, ends up in a small Illinois town where she attracts the attention of sexy retired Navy Seal Jonah Bradford who habituates the diner where she’s found a job as a waitress. He’s been attracted to her from the very beginning, but senses that she is afraid of something.

Eventually, Ally agrees to go out with Jonah and starts to wonder if he’s the “true hero” that she’s been telling her son will one day come to help them. She’s encouraged by her new friends, stand-in grandparents figures: Frannie, her neighbor and co-worker and surprise shooting ace, and Frank, the former Army Ranger Frank who owns the diner. They both love Ally and would do anything to help her.

So with these three protectors in her corner, Ally will have to face the inevitable return of her evil ex-husband. How he finds her when she’s been hiding out without using anything to tip off anyone to her prior identity is just assumed. I’d have liked some explanation of that.

This is a familiar plot, but I still enjoyed it. Besides having made bad choices in her life to marry this guy and then stay with him when he abused her and threatened their son, Ally has found inner reserves of courage and love. By the end of the book, we find out who the “true hero” really is.

I was given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. Way to much interior monologue going on. I didn't get that far, but everything I knew I was told, instead of shown. Writing was choppy, and what little dialogue there was stilted.

**I received a copy of True Hero from Net Galley in exchange for a voluntary and honest review**

True Hero by Susan Owensby is the authors first novel and I think she could become an excellent author as time goes on so for her first book she did really well. Just some minor proof reading, less exclamation points and spelling errors but all and all I'd give it 4.6 stars.

Ally Black aka Sarah Lane is on the run from a very abusive husband who could literally outdo Satan for being mean and sadistic to both her and almost five years old son Sam/Jacob. But since he used to be a cop she doesn't trust anyone as he has friends all over. But her first problem is she ran to what I think would be the first place I'd check which is where she grew up in. Flash forward 3 years and she's working as a server in a diner run by a ex-Army Ranger, Frank, and her friend, Frannie both are loyal and of the charts completely badass. I loved both of them as they helped protect her and Sam. They very protective and loyal to both her and Sam but she's getting that feeling of perhaps she's stayed to long in one place. Little does she know that the town has a running bet of when the ex-Navy SEAL, Jonah Bradford, will ask her out. Which townsfolk will win?

Jonah Bradford traded his 20 years as a SEAL in to run his family's security business after his father's near fatal heart attack. He's turned the business into a profitable company with the help of his little brother Shane. But he knows that there is a little bit more to the story as to why Ally won't go on a date with him. But finally she agrees but things have a way of going bad so throw in a tornado and scuzzy minons of her ex husband who's out of jail due to a technical error and in town. She willingly to with him due to threats against everything she holds dear and again he's severely abusing her. When her friends gather together to rescue her from her ex will they be in time? The most touching moment of the book is when Sam tells his mom that Frank, Frannie, Jonah, Shane, Michelle and even Brent have been sent to them as their heroes and they'll do anything to protect Ally and Sam.
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I'm not rating this book since it was a DNF for me and this is why.

I liked the cover, the blurb and the reviews so I went ahead and requested this.
It's a story that's been done time and time again but then how many books are truly original so it all comes down to the characters and how the story is told.

Ally is a klutz, unfortunately that's not something I'm particularly fond of for example the first time she meets Jonah....

"Hi! Welcome… my name is Ally. Can I have you forever?” ..........
It’s my karma. Karma hates me! I cleared my throat and tried one of my, I totally said that on purpose smiles and said, “May I take your order?” 
For the love of God, he was still laughing! Talk about humiliated, I swore he was laughing so hard he snorted. Yes, actually snorted. ........
Just about then one of the other waitresses came up to me and whispered loudly to me, “Your skirt is sticking out of your undies, hon. This is a family place so go put your tushy back where it belongs.”
I was mortified. I just stood there in shock. No, no, no, no, that couldn’t be happening, but it was.......
I backed right into a waitress carrying one of those huge trays full of food and drinks. I was bathed in scrambled eggs, hash browns, and several cups of milk. The entire diner was staring at the commotion ......

I just found it embarrassing and I started cringing, now I know not everyone will feel the same way about this but it's not for me, unfortunately that wasn't my main problem.
My main issue.
The conversations, any time any of the characters interacted with each other it felt stilted and false to the point where I started skimming the conversations to try and get through the book. Which I realised was just crazy, so I tried again and hit the same problem and decided I just had to quit.

The reviews are fabulous so I'm assuming this is a case of its me not the book.

I voluntarily read a review copy kindly provided by NetGalley.

Wow, what a ride! This book has perfect romance with a hint of suspense. I was at the edge of my seat waiting to see what was going to happen!
I loved everything and everyone in this book. Ally was a very strong woman and Sam was an awesome kid now let's talk about Jonah, he was perfect I mean can this man do anything wrong? No, His love for Ally and how protective he became of her and her son was pretty awesome to read. Also frank and frannie what a beautiful people.
If the author decides to write about Shane I'll be happy to read it!! <3

True Hero is a beautiful, emotional story. Ally has had a shitty life up to this point. She married young, to an older man, who ended up abusing her so badly that she finally went on the run, fearing for her and her son, Sam's life. 3 years later, she's settled in Wordly, a small town that she has come to call home. She and her son have made themselves a family with Frannie, Frank, Bella, and soon, Jonah and his family and friends involved with his security company.

Jonah is a retired Navy SEAL who has had his eye on Ally for 3 years, since she moved to Wordly. But, ever since an embarrassing incident when they first met at the diner she works at, she won't give him the time of day. Jonah is determined to get to know Ally, though. He knows she's scared of something, and he's bound and determined to figure out what it is, and protect her and Sam. As they ease into a relationship, Ally finally opens up to him and allows him to be the hero she and Sam have been praying for.

But, what I love is that while Jonah may truly be a hero, he is a SEAL after all, Ally is the true hero. She saved herself and wouldn't give up, even when she felt as if she couldn't go on. She knew she had a whole family of people waiting on her who loved her and would be absolutely devastated if she gave up on herself. She showed strength that not many people would have.

Kudos to Susan Owensby on her debut novel. I am looking forward to more from her, perhaps Shane (Jonah's brother) and Michelle? Now that would be a match!

Ooookay....the good thing is that I really liked the story and the characters. Unfortunately the interaction between the characters and every direct speech, actually, were to stilted, somewhat awkward even when it was not part of the situation and everything sounded a bit forced.

If the dialogues had been more natural and would have sounded more fluent, more flowing, the book would have been great.
Unfortunately this is not the case and I must admit that at the end when things got really tough, well, let's just say that some parts made me question if it was really three already weak stars and not rather two. I mean, experiences like that, sure, strange things may happen and you may "meet" people that you are fond of and that are not around anymore but -both of them? I mean - Ally and Jonah?

The story itself was nice and captivating but I'm pretty sure that I won't read this book again or even another one by the author.