Back to Haven Georgia with Be with Me by Jules Bennett. This is book 2 of the series. Melanie Ramsey gives support to her two best friends even though she is not originally from Haven. For her it is a new start in life. She is rebuilding her self-esteem as well as her life after a disastrous marriage and difficult divorce. An unplanned pregnancy follows a one night stand. While I liked the characters, this is one of my least favorite tropes.

It seemed to me that Melanie and Tanner were not in the place of their lives to be ready for this event. Both had major baggage that still needed to be dealt with before a child would enter the picture. However, since it did, they managed to work through much of it. Because it is believable that it all worked out is a credit to the author’s wonderful sense of developing the story-line. If only it could work that well in real life.

An ARC of the book was given to me by the publisher through Net Galley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Be with Me by Jules Bennett is my first book hers. There are other books that take place in Haven GA and this book stands alone. In this series the friends are helping revamp a small town airport. Melanie has left her husband and her job as a lawyer to start over. She now runs a motivational blog and the author would start each chapter with a quote from Mel’s Motivation Blog. She had a very abusive husband and is trying to understand all men are not like him. We find out she had a wild one night stand before the book begins. The beginning of the book is her finding out she is pregnant.

Her one night stand was with Tanner who is a police officer and is in their group of friends. He was an amazing character. Loved him!! He has his own past to deal with and handled it much better than she did. Also because of his work he was able to understand her reactions to her troubled past. I enjoyed how the author didn’t have issues remain hidden with a bunch of misunderstandings. They worked through them.

Sometimes I was frustrated with Mel but she quickly recognized that she was acting out of past hurts so as to not make him responsible for her past hurts.
I enjoyed the friendships between the men and women. They would come at a moment’s notice to help each other out and just to be with them.
I enjoyed this book and will definitely look for Cash and Jade’s book next.
Sexual content - there was some physical scenes; not a lot of details, some mention of the previous encounter also.
Violence - Mel had been in an abusive relationship and there is some mention of it; and Tanner rescues women from abusive situations
Language - I dont recall any words that stood out.
Drinking -some casual drinking

I received this book from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review.
You can see my full review at More Than a Review dot com where I rate the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use in books.

This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

Tanner and Melanie's one night stand was only supposed to be one time but when Mel finds out she is pregnant, things change.

When you factor in that Tanner's fiance died of pregnancy complications and Mel left an abusive marriage, you know things are not going to be easy! It is sometimes hard to watch as Mel just can't seem to trust that Tanner is not a controlling person like her ex, but as they take one day at a time, they grow closer.

I can't wait for the next book in this series as I want to see what happens with Cash and Jade, and if Mel and Tanner have a girl or a boy! I have not read the first book so I will have to get that as Olivia and Jax sounds like a fun read.

That was another great story from Jules Bennett. In this one, get Melanie & Tanner's story. Melanie had been in an abusive relationship, got out of it a few years ago & started a successful blog to help other women. She went to Haven to help some of her closest friends where she meets Tanner. Tanner is a police officer who helps victims of domestic abuse. Both have things they have to work through & neither wanted a relationship but sometimes you have to go with your feelings.

4 1/2 STARS!

Strong characters, deep connections and a boat load of good times! With an ever-popular visit back to Haven, Georgia, we get to reconnect with the small airport project that we fell in love with during Jax and Livie’s story in Book 1 and we also get to see a bit of the brother’s we adored in the original Monroes series. Melanie and Tanner have a strong connection, but each have their own past that keeps them weighted down with fear. The baby on the way makes them have to move out of their comfort zone and actually try to reconnect with parts of them that they have hidden away for years now … and the magic of watching them come back to life is super special! Great characters, a very relatable plot and lots of happily ever after feels!

Melanie Ramsey moved to Haven to be close to her friends and simply because it came at a time when she was ready to take charge of her life and a new town was paramount. She never expected to find herself unexpectedly pregnant at this point, and even though it scares her, she can’t regret it for a single minute. Tanner is a complication she’s not sure how to handle right now, but she’s well on her way to making the life she’s always dreamed of, and she won’t be backing down lightly.

Deputy Tanner Roark has a past that led him to live only for the moment and not plan on having that perfect happily ever after that everyone dreams about. He’s just fine being a friend, a son, and a temporary lover … until Melanie comes into his life. He was more moved by their one night together than he ever expected and the fact that she’s been ignoring him since is getting on his nerves … but when she comes bearing the news that they’ve having a baby, he sets out to convince her that they can have a life together … even if it sends him into a panic!

This is the second book in the “Return to Haven” series which is a spinoff of the “The Monroe’s”. I have read and reviewed all these books so this book is a feeling “like Coming Home”. I love the little town of Haven, Ga.This spinoff revolves around a small airport reconstruction with 3 male cousins and 3 best friends (female)! This story revolves around Tanner, a policeman and one of the cousins, all of whom served in the Air Force and learned to fly, and Melanie, a lawyer, recent divorcee of the Mayor of Atlanta, and who was a “one night stand of Tanner’s”. However, as any good romance reader knows, one night stands tend to get complicated and this one results in a pregnancy. I enjoyed watching the journey of these two try to reconcile a one night stand becoming a relationship and all that entailed. I do love small town romances, and this one hit all my buttons. Fun characters with issues, but believable issues that were resolved in a timely matter with just a taste of angst! So much fun!

Good book. Melanie came to Haven with her two best friends, Olivia and Jade. She has been putting her life back together after escaping from an abusive marriage. She now has a successful motivational blog where she helps other women and is settling comfortably in Haven. Determined to avoid putting herself in that position ever again, Melanie has pretty much cut men out of her life.

Tanner is a police officer in Haven and very protective of the town and its people. Besides his work as a cop, he is also part of a group that helps rescue abused women. He likes women but avoids relationships having lost his fiancée and baby years earlier.

I loved the development of the relationship between Tanner and Melanie. It didn't start well, as Tanner gave Melanie a speeding ticket when she first came to town (Stay With Me), something she still hasn't forgiven him for. In the seven months since then, they have seen each other often and continue to bicker and argue. One night, while out with their friends, all those sparks take a different direction and they have a steamy, intense encounter. Six weeks later, Melanie discovers that she's pregnant. She knows she needs to tell him, but she's been so shaken by the feelings he stirred up that she has been avoiding him. Meanwhile, Tanner hasn't been able to forget that night either, something that has never happened to him before. To say that he is stunned by her news would be putting it mildly, but he immediately makes it clear that he will be involved in the baby's life.

I loved seeing Melanie and Tanner's determination to give their baby a good life. Tanner is quick to realize that he wants Melanie in his life permanently, but also smart enough to see that it's going to take some convincing. I loved his sensitivity to her past, knowing that it's going to take some time and effort to get her to trust him. Tanner also has to fight his own fears for her and the baby's safety. It was sweet to see all the little things that Tanner did to show Melanie that he was nothing like her ex. I especially loved the scene where he went to the doctor's appointment with her. Melanie was a harder nut to crack. She was certainly attracted to him, but trusting him is another matter entirely, especially with her ex making a nuisance of himself. I wanted to shake her a few times for not telling Tanner about Neville's actions. In spite of the progress she has made in regaining her strength of will, she did a couple of pretty stupid things at the end. I really liked Tanner's reaction and the steps he took to protect her. I liked their big moment at the end - it was fun, sweet, and romantic.

I loved this one! Tanner and Melanie seem so real and interesting, I was hooked right from the start. Both these characters have baggage. Melanie doesn't feel she can ever really trust again and Tanner is determined to protect his heart. Yet all it takes is one night for these two to be forever bound. It may take a little time and huge leaps of faith by both of them but if these two want it they could find the happiness they have always wanted.

This book is very well written and the story just flows. I definitely recommend it to everyone.

Be With Me by Jules Bennett

Contemporary romance. Surprise baby storyline. 2nd in the Return to Haven series but can be read as a standalone.

Mel is recovering from emotional domestic abuse. Because of her past, she holds herself back from trusting Tanner.
Tanner is strong in his convictions and a protector. Significant to the storyline, he works with a team helping women and children escape from abuse situations.
As they get to know each other, the histories of both intrude. They must overcome their current obstacles and well as the past.
Family and friendship play key roles.

A heartwarming, feel-good romance.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

Excerpt:
“His hands covered her stomach as he placed another kiss on her. “I know this wasn’t planned, but I’m not even going to pretend I’m sorry. I can’t wait to meet our baby.”
Melanie’s heart tumbled. They were most definitely not in the right place to have a child together. They knew little about each other, but she wasn’t sorry, either. If she was honest with herself, she’d much rather have Tanner as the father of her child than any other man she’d ever known. Each day she felt she uncovered another layer of what made up this remarkable man.”
Excerpt from Be With Me by Jules Bennett

This is the second book in this series and I missed the first one but I will be going back to read it for sure after liking this one so much. I really like Melanie and Tanner and the supporting characters from the series as well. I also love the small town romance trope and Haven is perfectly small. Despite their difficult pasts, Tanner & Melanie give into their attraction and hook-up one night. They have serious chemistry. They've both had it rough and a relationship was not what they were looking for.
After something more permanent comes out of what was supposed to be just one night, things do get a bit complicated. I love the way this couple supports each other and helps each other in the present for their future by dealing with their pasts. That's a relationship!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

3.5 stars - I enjoyed this read. If you read the prior book, you saw the writing on the wall for Melanie and Tanner from the moment he pulled her over for speeding.

The only thing I didn’t like was how Melanie was still cowering when dealing with her ex. Why she would listen to anything he says, let alone allow it to influence her actions, I'll never know. The author has her saying one thing with her words (he’s a liar who can't be trusted), but doing something very different with her actions (meeting him in secret, getting in the car with him, believing he wouldn't instruct his driver to drive off). She talks a good game, but when the rubber meets the road, she doesn't back it up. She even tried to push the hero away to "save" him from her ex. If you can get past this flaw, I think you'll enjoy the read.

I’m looking forward to reading how Chase finally gets Jade to fall.

I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for a fair and honest review

Enjoyable second chance at love romance featuring Tanner and Melanie. Both have overcome tragic pasts and are working together to change that. Sweet love story.

This romance had several common romance tropes. We have the heroine who has escaped an abusive first marriage to move to a small town and made close, BFFs who will do anything for her. And we have the surprise pregnancy with one of the guys in their group of friends. I enjoy those tropes and enjoyed them in this book.

Sometimes, it seemed a bit rushed. There would be build-up to a scene and then the next thing we read is after that scene with some flashbacks rather than having the whole scene provided. And it all gets wrapped up pretty quickly.

I did find the heroine’s fear of the power that her ex-husband, the mayor of Atlanta, might have to ruin the career of her new boyfriend, Tanner, a small-town policeman. She seems to think that he has contacts throughout the state and could reach out to ruin Tanner’s life even though she has photos of her abuse at that husband’s hands while they were married to blackmail him with. What kind of power does she think a mayor running for senator has? In this day and age, she could ruin him with one message on Instagram. And is it really believable that the ex-husband, a white guy, would be mayor of Atlanta which hasn’t had a white mayor since the 1970s? I just found the whole fear of the ex-husband to be too exaggerated to be believable. Politicians might be dirty and soulless hypocrites as this guy is portrayed, but they’re not omnipotent and one running for office today is actually vulnerable to an ex-wife’s truth-telling.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

3 - "Just us..." Stars.

We Return to Haven for the second book in the series. Be With Me gives us Tanner and Melanie’s story, both of them not looking for love or commitment due to factors from their pasts, thrust together by one of my favourite tropes… unplanned pregnancy.

"Don’t push me away… You don’t have to do this alone."

Easily likeable characters, you get the inside track on why the both of them are resistant to relationships now. If you have read the first book of the series, you know Mel’s ex-husband is of the douche variety but Tanner plays all of his cards a bit closer to his chest, as you would expect, more is revealed as their relationship develops (along with the pregnancy).

"I’m not settling down again until I find someone I want to be with forever…"

I seem to be having a run of reads that I like but don’t love at the moment and this one firmly falls into that category, in fact I would go as far as to say it fell into the dislike category for the last 30% of the story. Main reasons being, and one of my huge bug-bears; an intelligent woman acting stupid, and repetitively so in Mel’s case. I won’t give spoilers, but you can kind of see it coming a mile off but it didn’t lessen my annoyance at her doing it. I also found her constant comparing Tanner to her ex and knee jerk judgements of some of his actions went on for too long as well.

"I just wish she didn’t lump me in with that asshole she was married too."

My other issue, is the fact the book itself felt very superficial and lacking depth in its telling. The sex scenes between them would have been better off closed door for all the effort it felt like the author had put into them, and the time they actually spend together on page is massively lacking in being for anything meaningful as well.

Several pivotal points in their relationship (he takes her flying, and their first visit to the Doctors) are both end chaptered before they even take place, as well as Tanners past being pretty much discussed and moved on from in the space of a paragraph or two, which didn't leave the right impression either, and I think largely because of the lack of those important aspects of the relationship being given adequate page time, that when the declarations of love came I just didn’t buy them.

I’m genuinely not sure if I’ll continue with this series now…. That said we have a frenemies-to-lovers coming up next, so I may be persuaded nearer the time.

"I’m a little cautious when it comes to trust…"

A touching story between two people who come from battered and abused past. This is the first time I have read anything by this author. She has great style and supporting characters. My only wish is that there was more of this story to read.

This is the second book in the Return to Haven series and I think it is best read as part of the series. I say this because the book starts out just as Melanie discovers the consequences of a one night stand with local deputy, Tanner. These characters met in the previous book so some of the back story is not really a part of this book. However, readers will quickly come up to speed as Melanie and Tanner try to come to grips with life's events.

I really enjoyed this small town contemporary romance. Jules Bennett managed to deal with several difficult subjects that far too many people have to deal with, namely, physical and mental abuse. However, while these are serious and heavy issues, the story didn't dwell on the events. Instead, it dealt with how the characters were rebuilding their lives and coping with the past. Another terrific read from Jules Bennett and I'm looking forward to how she brings together Cash and Jade in the next story.

Melanie and Tanner are usually at each other’s throats, they bicker and argue and all that passion led them straight into bed. Fast-forward 2 months and a stick with blue lines, damn. Melanie has no idea what she is going to do, first step would be telling Tanner, if she was not actively avoiding him at the moment. This is going to be interesting.

Tanner is not a relationship guy, he loves women without a doubt but he was never one to get attached. Not until Melanie that is. Her fire, spunk and drive caught his eye from day one and the passion they had debating different subjects, definitely carried over to the bedroom. Now months after their one night together, he can’t get her out of his mind.

Melanie has no idea how to trust Tanner, especially with her psycho ex still bugging her every move. She has given up the ghost of ever being free of him. Tanner doesn’t seem like the type to be ready for the commitment a baby would bring to his life.

Tanner has been down this road before, no one knows that unfortunately. He will do whatever it takes to protect Melanie and their baby. He won’t lose them, he couldn’t survive if he did.

Melanie and Tanner each bring their own brand of obsessions to the relationship table. Melanie learning to trust someone else to have her back, not stab her in it. And Tanner is learning to live again after suffering such a great loss. Their love story grows, as their baby grows.

Be With Me returns to Haven in the very best way, showcasing all the wonderful friendships we’ve developed right along with the characters. I received an advance copy of this 4 ½ star read without expectation for review. Any and all opinions expressed are my own.

I love love love this series! Tanner is my new book boyfriend. The way he handles the unexpected news is a true man. They worked through it nicely and story flowed easily. Jules Bennett is quickly become one of my favorite authors!

I'm loving this series! Melanie and Tanner were so great together, even though they both had major baggage. Melanie's take charge attitude after her past relationship was inspiring, and Tanner's all around goodness shines through the whole story. I'm intrigued by Jade and Cash's clashing, so their book should be really good! Anxiously waiting...

Be with Me was such a cute book! The only bummer was that I didn't know that it was the second book in a series until I started reading. It's a series of connected standalones so that didn't make it impossible to read Be with Me, I just would have liked to have read Livvie and Jax's story first.

Mel and Tanner have a one night stand that results in a future bundle of joy. I thought that this was really well done, especially considering that they both have issues where pregnancy is concerned. They worked through them though and I could feel the strength of their relationship even though it was a short amount of time they've known each other.

I do wish that the situation with Mel wasn't wrapped up quite so fast, I felt like her jerk of an ex husband wouldn't have taken a back seat that fast, but all's well that ends well.