Good book. This story begins shortly before the end of the first book, Fully Dressed, so there is a little overlapping activity. At the beginning of the first book, Sonja and Henry are just hours away from their wedding. On the day of the wedding, Sonja runs, leaving Henry at the altar. This book takes on the aftermath of that action and the changes in their relationship.

As this book starts, Sonja returns to New Orleans three weeks after her non-wedding and comes face-to-face with Henry. He is understandably angry. He had no idea that Sonja had reservations about their marriage, so her desertion was a total surprise. They exchange some pretty harsh words. Sonja blames herself for the disaster, but she also holds resentment toward Henry for keeping secrets from her. Sonja doesn't have much room to complain, though, because she kept some things from him, too - not the least of which is that she is pregnant.

It is clear from their first meeting that the sparks between Sonja and Henry have not died, and neither one is happy about it. Each would like to cut ties altogether, but Fate decrees otherwise. First, they must work together to fix their flooded home before they can sell it. Because both of them invested everything in the house and the wedding, they are stuck sharing the tiny guest house on the property. Second, Sonja's pregnancy means they must find a way to co-parent their baby. This means they must face their past.

I enjoyed seeing Henry and Sonja work their way back to each other. Both had to take serious looks at their past relationship and admit to their mistakes. The biggest thing was facing the fact that their former relationship was more superficial than either wanted to admit. Everything looked great on the surface, but there were significant underlying issues that they never talked about. One of those issues was that of race. Sonja is black, and Henry is white. It makes no difference to their love for each other, but Henry's parents are not happy and make it obvious. Unfortunately, most of their attitude falls on Sonja when Henry isn't around to witness it. The last straw is their threat to disown Henry if he marries her, and she refuses to ruin his life. Sonja also worries that Henry might have similar attitudes (well-buried) thanks to his upbringing. On his side, Henry neglected to tell Sonja about his ex-fiancée's stalker tendencies, leaving Sonja blindsided when Dierdre confronted her right before the wedding. Both are left with some serious trust issues.

There were a lot of angry words and accusations thrown at each other at the beginning. Dealing with that anger forced Henry and Sonja to talk about things they had avoided before. It was a slow process, but they finally started to reach below the surface of their previous relationship and communicate. It isn't easy, and there is the occasional regression, but they do make progress. Complicating matters is the attraction that still has a tight grip on them. Giving into it adds to the pain and confusion. It takes a while for them to realize that the love they share is still there. There are some sweet scenes of them together as that love grows and matures to the point where they can admit their feelings to each other. I liked the ending as they moved toward a future together.

Review by Amber for Love Romance Books Blog

Sonja and Henry have it all. They both have great careers as lawyers, they built their dream house on the river, and they are about to get married. But then, on their wedding day, Sonja decides she can’t go through with it and makes a spur of the moment decision to flee. Henry is stunned. He thought everything was going fine, and had no idea Sonja was unhappy. Now they are faced with untangling their life together. The only thing is that is hard to do when you work at the same company and you own a house together. Not to mention, when that house needs major repairs from a flood before they can sell it. When Sonja realizes she is pregnant, things get even more complicated. How will they navigate being coworkers, parents, and ex-lovers?



I would give this book 4.5 stars. I liked it better than the first book in the series, but it works fine as a standalone book. I really liked Sonja’s and Henry’s characters, and it is a good story.


I was asked by the author for an honest review.

I was a bit disappointed in this entry in the series. The concept/plot was spot on, the execution was off. There was a lot thrown in with the racism plot, the stalker ex plot, the baby/canceled wedding plot... I wanted to love it but I just didn't.

A good read. I liked that the couple broke up because of lack of communication. Henry was basically on a love conquers all trip while Sonja was dealing with the realities of life. Henry wasn’t brushing her off on purpose, but he was extremely dismissive of her wants, needs, and concerns until the end of the story. Sonja wasn’t faultless either, she should’ve been more vocal instead of getting swept up in Henry’s wake. I really like how the author handled the racism Sonja dealt with from his parents, and Henry’s denial. He admitted that they are, but acted as if it didn’t affect Sonja, as if because he loved her she was somehow exempt from their behavior. He even believed their sudden 180, and I’m glad Sonja remained skeptical. The only thing I wished was that his ex had been more of a threat, it would’ve added some excitement and tension to the story. It’s a quick read but it wasn’t the kind of story I couldn’t put down.

There is a huge level of frustration I’m having with this series and this author. In both the first book, Fully Dressed, and this book I really love the concept of the stories. The characters and their personalities are people I want to read about. But there always seems to be something missing.

Let me get into what I really like about this story. The author really tries to take bigotry head on. Henry knows his parents are racist and maybe haven’t treated Sonja as an equal, but he doesn’t know the extent of it because Sonja has kept a lot of their interactions from him. For her part, Sonja has a deep-seated fear that Henry can’t really be so far removed from his parents’ views since they did, after all, raise him. This all leads to the real root of their problem…they don’t talk to each other. At least not about things that matter. Which has led to a rather large lack of trust on both sides.

I like how Sonja and Henry’s relationship looked great to all of those on the outside. And even from the inside; if they didn’t look too deep inside themselves, the couple was able to pretend all was great. They could have lived their whole lives happily together. But happy does not necessarily equal satisfied. Although Henry and Sonja probably do belong together, they had a lot of work to do before they should have been walking down the aisle.

Of course, this brings up all my frustration. This storyline is a bit of a different angle than I’m used to reading in a love story. There was potential for so much complexity and emotion. But something gets in the way. The writing tends to be choppy and the conversations can jump around a bit which breaks up the flow of the story. There are also a lot of repetitive bits that are just downright annoying.

I also want to address the character of Deidre. I’m going to try to do this without spoilers. I think the fact that it is mentioned over and over and over that the characters in this story do not believe Deidre has a mental health issue is a great disservice to the readers. Deidre absolutely DOES have a mental condition, whether it’s by nature or nurture it does not matter. To dismiss her actions as those of someone who was “just spoiled” growing up is dangerous.

So here’s my quandary. I truly hate to keep reading this series if it forces me to give this author a bad review. She must be doing something right since I really want to learn more about Jena and possibly Jeb…which I assume will be in the next book. Reading the author’s bio I am really impressed with her and respect her. It makes me think her stories that have more to do with the military life would be a smoother read??? I’m not sure. I guess I’ll have to see where my head is at when the next one in this series comes out.

One last thing. I am not hanging all my dissatisfaction on the author here. There is a reason there are editors in the publishing world. This is not a self-published book so I’m quite confident an editor has gone over this story before it was put to print. Since the storyline and ideas are all there and my biggest issue with the story is the flow and some missing pieces, it is absolutely the editor’s job to work with the author to fix these things. Rant over.

2.5 stars

DNF at 52%

This book should have worked for me because it had all the things I love in romance: second chance trope, surprise baby, the promise of angst. Unfortunately it didn't. Halfway through and I was still bored. I wasn't connecting to the main characters Henry and Sonja, and I also wasn't very keen about the stalker ex plotline.

I like the writing though, so I might try the author's other works.

So, Ireceivzd an ARC of the book and here is my review. That was a good read. I was annoyed at first with all the crying and accusations and misunderstanding but I quite liked how the story unfolded and the way those two ended getting to actually learn about each other. I found a but weird that we were told a lot about Sonja's parent but never got to be meet them. But all in all it was a pleasant read.

Sonja is a black attorney and Henry is a white attorney, both working for Henry’s family’s law firm. They are also ex-lovers, ex-fiancés and just a few weeks past their un-wedding! The only reason that I point out race is because that is one of the story lines. I enjoyed the basic story but had a problem with the idea that racial prejudice is only in the South. As we know, the location could have been anywhere, North, South, East or West, period. The character of Deidre was ridiculous. I can’t imagine her being a physician and no one else ever seeing her bizarre and kooky behavior, including Henry’s parents. I did like the two main characters though.

Bare Devotion by Geri Krotow will be available September 11, 2018 from Kensington Books. An egalley of this book was made available by the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

A highly passionate interracial romance about how two soulmates reconnect after what is supposed to be their happy-ever-after blows up. As they rebuild their home of a flood, they rebuild an unlikely relationship and friendship through the most difficult of circumstances.