The Way Home by Cindy Gerard

Romantic, passionate, and heartwarming!

The Way Home is the second book in Cindy Gerard's One-Eyed Jacks series, but don't let the cover fool you! Yeah, this is a romantic tale filled with the kind of joy the holidays deliver, but it's also one exciting, heartbreaking, uplifting, steamy, and hope inspiring love story.

The Story

Four years ago Jess got the news every Army wife dreads - her husband has been killed in action and won't be returning home to her. She had struggled with Jeff's Special Forces 'here today, gone tomorrow' assignments, and they'd even fought about it before his last deployment, but his death left a gaping, empty place inside her, one she tried to fill - or mask - by throwing herself into work. But Tyler Brown, ex-military hero and all around sexy, alpha male, has Jess realizing that maybe it's time to stop merely existing, and time to start living again. And maybe even love again. Wedding plans are set and these two wonderful people who have both known great loss are looking forward to a future filled with the kind of love they never thought they'd find again, when word comes down that Jeff's been found alive - though not necessarily well - and a team is being sent to Afghanistan to rescue him and bring him home.

My Thoughts

This type of storyline is tough to write and even tougher to write well, but Cindy Gerard has pulled it off with flying colors! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I should have known better than to doubt Ms. Gerard's ability to tell a story that would draw me in and touch me deeply.

Tyler Brown, younger brother to Killing Time's Mike Brown, is such an amazing guy. He's not your typical action romance novel hero, but he's a hero, nonetheless. Caring, compassionate, sexy-as-sin, and patient yet determined to get what he wants - he's got what it takes to get my *swoon-worthy* stamp of approval.

Jess turned out to be every bit as amazing as Ty. She's also compassionate and caring, but I respected her for her loyalty to Jeff and her honesty with Ty and Jeff, both. She's strong and independent, but she's got an ability to love and nurture that made me admire and care about her and her happiness.

I'll admit that the happily ever afters fell into place a bit quicker and more conveniently than is realistic or likely to happen, but as I said, this is one of those special love stories, the kind that we hope for, the kind that happens through the magic of Christmas.

My sincerest thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for providing me with a copy of this wonderful story!   

Killing Time by Cindy Gerard

Fast paced, action packed and very sexy, Killing Time is the perfect start to Cindy Gerard’s new One Eyed Jacks series! This spinoff of the Black Ops Inc. series opens with Mike “Primetime” Brown’s anxiously awaited story.

Still tortured by the deaths of his team members during a mission dubbed Operation Slam Dunk - a mission gone horribly wrong - Mike is physically scarred and mentally tormented. The memories of that clusterfuck, and his guilt over the decisions he made, haunt Mike every day of his life, but the anniversary of the horrific event is the worse, one, even eight years later, Mike spends trying to drink away the memories.

CIA Attorney Eva Salinas lost her husband in Afghanistan, a casualty of that same OSD clusterfuck. The military trial ended before it even got started when one of the surviving team members accepted full responsibility. Eva has tried to put it all behind her, but after receiving a file from an anonymous source, Eva is wondering if justice has truly been served. Armed with this new information, she is more determined than ever to find out what really happened, and what better place to start than with Mike Brown, the man thought to be responsible for her husband's death?

Though some of their questions are answered, more are being raised, and Mike and Eva find they have a common enemy. With their passion for one another growing, they work together to bring down the bad guys and avenge the men who died in the crossfire of arrogance, greed and ambition.

The bottom line: Time and time again Cindy Gerard delivers romantic suspense the way it should be written - with the perfect balance of action, excitement, romance and steamy goodness! Her characters are people we can't help but connect with and care about, and their happily ever afters are sweet, satisfying and well deserved! Killing Time truly is a great start to this new series, one I'll definitely be following, start to finish!

5 stars!

My thanks to Pocket Books, a division of Simon Schuster Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. It was such a pleasure!