Low angst, check
Second chance romance, check
Contemporary romance, check
Couples that overcome their trauma together, stick together. Isn't that how the saying goes. I love Lizzie. This book is so beautifully written.

I really liked this story. I love these characters. I ache for this story, and I kind of really love this cover. A real page turner that keeps you captive until the very end!

This was a beautiful read. I loved the connection that Cora and Dean shared. This is a single mom read too and I love those. Coras daughter was great and stole my heart. This is a book I see my self reading again and again.

Another heart breaking story!

Dean was on the ferry that fateful day it exploded ... he survived, but his right arm isn't the only thing he lost. When he was in the hospital recovering he developed a crush on his nurse only to find out that she was already married. For the next three years, Dean just existed. Then one day he went to the clinic on the island where he lived ... only to come face to face with the nurse he hasn't forgotten. Cora has finally escaped the abusive marriage she was trying to hide from her friends and family. She remembered the island that a patient talked so fondly about ... and she remembered the patient!. She takes a job at the small clinic on the island so she can get away from her ex and his family. When she comes face to face with Dean, she can no longer deny the sparks that she feels when he's around.

Both Dean and Cora are badly broken and my heart just broke for them. I couldn't help but root for them to overcome their fears so that they could have a happily-ever-after. Dean was afraid to go back on the water and Cora was afraid to trust her own judgement on picking the right guy. I love books with kids in them ... and I just loved Lizzie ... what a cutie! She made me laugh ... she is this 5 year old genius who would spout off all kinds of facts that she read in a book or on the internet ... when most kids her age were just learning how to read. This is a great series and shouldn't be missed!

I received a copy courtesy of Kobo Writing Life through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

The Scars I Bare is an interconnected standalone in the By the Bay series. This is a beautiful story about two deeply scarred and flawed people — my fave! They need to learn how to heal themselves so that they can bare their scars and find their HEA. I loved seeing Dean struggle to find his "new normal" after the accident. This was just so real to me — and as I can attest to, not always an easy process. And I have to mention Cora's daughter!!! I adore when we get to see children in a book, they bring such a different dynamic to stories, and show a lot about the characters they interact with. And Lizzie was an AMAZING child character, her parts were just a delight to read.

This was a great, sweet, low angst second chance contemporary romance. This was a well written story that never bogged down. Filled with exemplary secondary characters, angst from mostly inner turmoil, a smattering of humor, a slow burn relationship and the most perfect HEA, this is definitely worth checking out.

I am a really big fan of this author and this story really reminded me why I love this author writing. The amount of emotions that are written in this authors stories is amazing. Readers can really connect with the story and the characters written within the story. This was an amazingly beautiful love story that I could not stop reading.

I really liked the format this book uses, a series of blog posts and journal entries to share one side of each character. There’s also a central story, the book isn’t just entries and posts, and I liked getting to know the characters on a deeper level. It was interesting how the journal entries shared a deeper connection with Dean while the blog posts show a unique side of Cora.

I think this was a fast favorite because I enjoy medical romances and there’s an element of that here. Cora is a nurse and Dean is recovering from his injury which is a story I enjoy. I also loved getting to go back to the island and enjoying some summer while I’m stuck in the winter.

I do have to say that some plot twists were a little predictable for me but I still really enjoyed the story from beginning to end. I could see things coming but other twists were a complete surprise. I really liked how the romance was slow and there was clear character development and building of trust. I appreciated the emphasis on romance over sex and how the characters navigated their feelings, the situation, and their futures.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is a romance fan. If you’re looking for new adult aged characters without all the erotic elements of a lot of new adult titles, this series is great. There’s steam and swoon in a story with pace, conflict, and just maybe a happily ever after.

Dean, Dean, Dean!!!

It hurts to have waited for your story. I know it was my fault but I was so worried I wouldn't get what I wanted. I'm sorry. I should have known better. J.L. Berg clearly wasn't going to leave me hanging. I just didn't trust myself to be happy with what came after.

So Dean, accept my apology and let me tell everyone about you!

The Scars I Bare can be read as a standalone but please, please, PLEASE...don't. The relationships, the timeline, and the entire feel of the characters, setting, and situation are best understood with a firm knowledge of all the shit that goes down. So please!!!!!!! Please, read them in order!!

You learn all about the wonderful, gorgeous, and unlucky Dean Sutherland in The Choices I've Made but Dean's time to shine is now!! His romance is definitely worth the wait and true to Dean's nature! He will steal your heart. The silent, slightly damaged fisherman will catch you off guard. He will warm your heart and melt your soul one smile at a time.

A brilliant read with a brilliant storyline and characters and I will look forward to reading more from you from this author thank you for my arc

Dean had a life as a fisherman until a tragic accident caused him to lose his arm. Cora is a nurse and helps Dean while he is healing. Three years later, Dean is getting his life together. Cora has a secret pain too. A good read.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved all the angst and the suspense in this wonderful second chance Romance. This is book 2 in the series. Dean and Cora’s story. Dean is Mollie and Jake’s best friend who is struggling after the accident that took his arm. In the 3 years since they met in the hospital, cora has gotten divorced and has taken a job as Jakes nurse on the tiny island they all live on. Cora is afraid to have another relationship but then she and Dean just work together to fight their demons and fall in love. Cora’s daughter Lizzie is a child prodigy at 5 years old and she adores Dean too. It is a wonderful love story with some suspenseful moments when the ex husband appears. Definitely a 5 Star book.

I really liked and enjoyed this one. was hooked right from the start. wonderful characters with great chemistry cant wait to read more.

I love JL Berg. Her stories are sweet yet emotional, deep yet low angst. She’s an author you can count on for solid, alphahole-less romance. The Scars I Bare represents everything I’ve come to expect from this talented lady.

First of all, if you haven’t read the first book in the series, The Choices I’ve Made, you can jump right into this book without feeling lost. Although, I have no idea why you wouldn’t read The Choices I’ve Made. Haven’t I mentioned that this author is delightful? ​

Second of all, Dean is a shining star among book boyfriends. He’s strong and protective without being an alphahole, which I love. He’s also a survivor who is a little emotionally and physically broken, but not beaten. He could’ve used his injuries as an excuse to wallow in self-pity, but he doesn’t. He has some self-doubts, but he doesn’t let them hold him back from going after what he wants—and what he wants is Cora and her daughter, Lizzie. (Dean is all kinds of cute with Lizzie, too. I’d read a whole book of nothing but those two going to lunch together and talking about weird random facts.)

I had a little harder time warming up to Cora. Sure, she’s smart and beautiful and has all the other requisite romance heroine traits. But I didn’t like how she lied to her parents for so long (for no reason, really), or how she felt the need to point out a difference between a husband who “beats” his wife versus “slapping her around.” (There’s no difference in my humble opinion. A weak-ass douchebag who would raise his hands in anger against a woman is a wife beater, plain and simple.)

But overall, this was a sweet, emotional, sometimes sexy tale of a GREAT guy finding the HEA he deserves. It’s highly 1-clickable.
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Full disclosure: We received an ARC from NetGalley, free of charge.

I met Dean in The Choices I've Made, and fell in love with him from the start. I couldn't wait to dive into his book.

I'm a sucker for a wounded hero, and Dean did not disappoint. Cora is a wounded soul too, just in a different way.

Their journey to heal, love and overcome kept me captivated and wondering how long it would take them to give in to each other.

The situation at the end of the book with Cora's ex-husband is a testament of how love can give you the strength to do things you didn't think were possible, and inadvertently show even the slightest bit of compassion whether deserved or not, to keep someone you deeply love from being hurt.

All in all a great read, and definitely a series I will be continuing.

I loved this book! Much more than Jake and Molly though they're pretty sweet together and just meant to be... Dean is much more interesting because of what he had to go through: the loss of his right arm. We meet Dean and Cora again 3 yrs from the accident. Dean hasn't quite healed yet and Cora has divorced her husband and moved to Ocracoke for her and her daughter to start again. They both slowly acknowledge the attraction they had for each other before but it took time and patience and healing in each of them to finally settle as a couple, a family again.

Yes, this is a slow burn book. Because both Dean and Cora had to heal. And you don't heal overnight. I'm glad the author took the time to show that.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the chance to read this book.

Somehow I managed to read this book first and then the first one afterwards. While it can be read as a stand alone, if you're going to read both make sure to do them in order LOL. I learned so much about Jake and even more about Dean in the first book.

This is an amazing story in which you watch as one man struggles with his new reality following the loss of his arm in a tragic ferry accident. Even though it's been three years since the accident, you'll read his journal entries from the early days following the accident in which Dean struggles to accept his new life. We learn about what it's like for a former fisherman to now be scared of the water that he once loved.

We are also then introduced (or reintroduced if you read the first book) to Cora who was Dean's nurse after the accident. She has her own struggles that she's dealing with that have also left her scared, just much differently than Dean. We also meet her daughter who is just absolutely adorable.

LOVED LOVED LOVED this book!! The emotions were so real; the author spared no expense in helping us believe what Dean was struggling with.

This is the second book in the By the Bay series and after meeting Dean in the first book (The Choices I've Made) While the book title seems to refer to the physical scars that Dean bears after the ferry accident that he was involved in, more importantly, are his mental scars. Since the accident, he hasn't worked, has been single and hasn't been able to move on. Cora is also mentally scarred. He marriage fell apart after her husband became abusive and now she is reluctant to trust.

Cora and Dean are both likeable characters and although they have problems to work through, it's clear that they belong together. I did like the way that they dealt with their problems. In too many similar books, the hero and heroine have something happen that throws them apart. This wasn't smooth sailing to a happily ever after, but it didn't feel forced or that the things that were stopping them from being happy were unnatural.

I really enjoyed this book and will be looking out for book 3 so that I can find out more about the characters that live on Ocracoke Island.

A story about healing, trust, and two broken people learning to love again.

I liked the first book in the series with Molly and Jake, but Dean and Cora's story is definitely my favorite. I especially loved Cora's daughter Lizzie. The precocious young girl made me laugh many times. She was also a reminder of how much children see and understand even when we don't realize they do.

I hope that we do get a book with Dean's brother Taylor as well!

I must be sincere, this book has some hard limits for me, but in a general sense it was a good book



I love books in male pov. So, thats a pro.



And Lizzie is perfect, full of life and questions.