Wow! This book was simply amazing! Filled with everything you could want in a romantic suspense with the perfect balance between the two. It's been way too long since I've found one that checked all my boxes as this one did!
Marya and Dylan are both single parents. They know each other from common friends but have never really interacted. When one of Marya's sons joins the same soccer team as Dylan's, the opportunity finally presents itself and Dylan eagerly takes it. When a young boy is found dead and another goes missing, all the clues lead to something that is too close to home for both of them.
I'm all about the hero but I've gotta say that Marya was exceptional! As a more mature heroine she had her head on straight and she was tough in a way that only a mother raising three boys alone can be. Although she had a moment or two of insecurity when it came to Dylan, it never consumed her and she allowed herself to open up to him. When her past comes back to torment her and her children she played it smart and worked through the problem with Dylan rather than trying to handle it all on her own.
Dylan was absolute perfection! He was completely enamored of Marya and the more time he spent with her the harder he fell.
”Okay, you need to stop being perfect. My heart can't handle it.”
“How's that?” he asks, clearly amused.
“You've already filled it to the brim. It'll burst.”
“It'll stretch,” he says, his tone gentle.
My eyes stare unseeing as I focus on the sound of his voice. “What if it can't?”
“It will. Mine does every time I get to hear your voice.”
As an FBI agent, his instincts are to protect and he protected not only Marya but her boys as well in such a way that I couldn't help but love him. And when Marya was at the end of her rope, he was there to step in without being overbearing and domineering. I love watching a hero fall in love with the heroine's children and watching Dylan with the boys was one of the highlights of this story.
The book had so many layers involving the case that Dylan is working on that I was never able to predict where it was going or who the villain was going to be. It deals with a very serious and heavy subject matter but never in a gratuitous manner. There were some intense moments that left me biting my nails but only served to make the rest of the story shine brighter against those flashes of darkness. The ending gives us a wonderful epilogue that had me both tearing up and sighing with happiness which is exactly how I like it.
