Another installment from Blessings, Georgia, and it was fabulous! Jake is a wounded returning soldier who has PTSD. Laurel is a single mom who lost her soldier husband to PTSD. This is a charming story about love and second chances.

I love Sharon Sala’s Blessings, GA stories. We are taken to a place where love is true and villains get their due.
Jake has been to war in Afghanistan and returned home injured, scarred, suffering from PTSD, and alone. His Purple Heart is more of an insult than an award to him. His scars are something to hide. He has returned to his father’s home after burying his dad, but doesn’t really plan to stay there, at least initially. Then he reintroduces himself to the town and neighbors he has always known and his plans change. When Jake was a teenager he witnessed a crime and testified in court, sending the town bully to prison. This man has harbored hatred and vowed revenge, but Jake is not the same man he was before he became a Marine.
Laurel is a widow with a young daughter Bonnie (who threatens to steal the show throughout the book). Her husband committed suicide, an event that was gruesome in a way that Laurel seldom speaks of and caused his family to blame her and sever ties with Laurel and Bonnie. Laurel is also Jake’s neighbor. The three of them gradually form a bond that becomes more than friendship and neighborliness. When Laurel’s former in-laws come calling it is not with good intentions and can only be resolved with Laurel’s independent and outspoken efforts.
A good man and a good woman plus a sweet child make a love story that moves from strangers to friends to lovers in a slow paced novel. I just ate it up like a bowl of homemade ice cream. I do adore Sharon Sala’s style of writing and the characters that come to life at her calling. She also creates an environment that is lush and flourishes with secondary characters who support the story, even the villains. I treasure each and every opportunity to visit Blessings, GA, and get to know more residents. This is a book worth reading and keeping to reread just for the good feelings that develops as the pages turn. A wonderful story I highly recommend.

There are many stories about our wounded Soldiers suffering from PTSD due to the horrors of war. What often is forgotten are the families of these suffering heroes who are affected as well. What this story has done was taken both one returning hero and a woman and her daughter who were left behind when a husband/father couldn't take the memories of war any longer. The author has done a remarkable job of bringing to life how a small town can envelope its emotionally hurt and suffering people to help them heal.

The characters were so well written that they made you feel...the tears broke free so many times because of Jake's suffering...not just for himself, but his lost brothers in arms. Just how much the people of Blessings suffered themselves for Jake, Laurel and Bonnie was heart aching. The care that was taken to create a perfect counterpoint to Jake's suffering with Laurel and Bonnie who needed healing as well, came through in the tender moments shared between Jake and Bonnie (nothing compared to Jake giving Brave Bear to Bonnie). How they helped each other heal was one of the most beautifully written parts of the story. The small town aspects, as well as the suspenseful elements all played together to create a very memorable story.

This book was provided by the Publisher and Netgalley, I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

Never finished, can't give a solid review as it could not hold my interest

Jacob Lorde has come home to Blessing Georgia to try to heal himself. After he went back to the Marines after coming home to bury his father his squad ran over an IED some are gone others are hurt like him, and have trouble sleeping at night. Everyone in town is glad he is home except the one man who he testified against when he was 17 and he ended up in prison, and now he is out. One person who is happy but also scared is his neighbor Laurel Payne, who also has a 6 year old daughter and is raising on her own because her husband who also was a veteran committed suicide. Now her daughter and little things keep putting her and Jacob together and though both are scared this is what they both need. This is a very emotional book dealing with many different subjects but the author does with grace to move you the reader along and when you feel too emotional she will bring in the man who is trying to get back at Jacob for putting him in prison. His predicaments are funny and keep the story moving along. Especially when he has a run in with a nest of squirrels. This is a very good book with powerful characters, and a nice love story. A very good read.

Even though the story of a wounded returning war vet and a grieving war widow has been told many times, I still found this story compelling. I liked that it was told from many points of view and I liked that the small town was practically a character itself. The story was well written, the characters complex and believable, and the conclusion was satisfying. This is the first book by Sharon Sala that I have read, but I plan to go back and read the first two books in this series. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book.