CookiesRating: 3.25 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Amir is back from Afghanistan, minus the leg he lost in an explosion. His friend saved his life but the internal and external scars remain. Although Amir lives with PTSD, he has gotten his life together and owns a successful bakery. When the bakery closes for the day, he stays busy at the veterans center assisting his close friend and ex-boyfriend who runs the center. Amir’s life is stable and comfortable, but he is starting to feel that something is missing.

Amir can’t seem to get close enough to anyone to let them in and, while he has many friends, his love life isn’t exactly thriving. Until he sees beautiful Jay in line at the bakery. Amir wants everything with Jay but he’s afraid of letting Jay see the part of him that is scarred and the part that is scared. But in order to move forward, Amir may just have to trust his heart.

I have read many of Teodora Kostova’s books and the characters in her West End series are favorites. While I do recommend that series, this book really didn’t appeal to me at all. Mostly because it came off as bland and between the storyline and the characters, there wasn’t much that held my attention.

As the book starts there are many characters. Amir has a lot of friends at the center and Jay has roommates and the book wasn’t overly focused on whose story it was. There were several storylines all competing right upfront all at the time. Amir has been back from war for some time and he’s fairly recovered. This book was intended to deal with what happens after the initial recovery.

Kostova writes about love at first sight and this book is no different. There is an initial spark between the guys and the intimate scenes were heated and well written, but it wasn’t enough to pull this book together for me. There was little conflict and the story mostly revolved around Amir feeling comfortable enough to expose himself to Jay.

Jay is a sweet guy that just falls for Amir and Amir becomes possessive and protective quickly. They both have family issues to deal with and the veterans center plays into the storyline. When there is drama to further push Amir through his fears it felt contrived, it came a little too late in the story for me to have any real impact, and I just wasn’t interested in their lives.

There is a sighting of two favorite MCs from a previous and unrelated book, and while it should have offered major bonus points for a cameo appearance, even that was lackluster within the confines of this book, which was completely deflating.

I’m not comfortable recommending this book as it stayed flat for the most part with nothing to really draw me in. I would recommend this author for her other work if you haven’t sampled any of it yet.

michelle signature