She survived an abduction. Now she’s trying to get on with her life. But it’s not easy being a university student with a challenging mental health condition. The “mean girl” voice in her head just won’t leave her alone. To complicate matters, she’s an heiress worth a not-so-small fortune. Enter her sexy new bodyguard, a former paramedic trained to deal with medically fragile clients. He’s determined to help her live a normal life and do all the things she yearns to do. He just never counted on falling in love with her. He’s honor-bound to keep things strictly professional between them, but that’s hard to do when one look from her is enough to send him to his knees.
Jason and Layla pulled me into this story immediately. He was just instantly likeable and she’s a complex but fascinating character. This isn’t my usual fare because there wasn’t a ton of action and it’s very slow burn but the characters are so good, that I loved every minute of it. Their angst felt genuine and relevant so it was a focus of the story instead of a distraction from it. Layla is in a very unique situation with her health and the things she’s survived, so Jason going out of his way to be careful with her and not jump into a physical relationship shows how much he cares.
The simplicity of their joy in one another is almost palpable and it’s made so much sweeter by Layla’s suffering. I just wanted her to find someone worthy so she could be a typical college kid and be happy. Jason exceeded my expectations in every way. He’s so devoted from the beginning and his love for her never wavers. He debuted pretty high on the book boyfriend scale because he wants to take care of her and he’s great at it.
This story wasn’t what I expected but that was a wonderful surprise because I loved every moment of it. And I know I always want more about the characters I really like but in this case, follow-up is justified because Layla is so different from most characters that there will still be trials in her future but now she has Jason to lean on. This is an awesome beginning to a new series and I can’t wait to continue it.
