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Trusting a Warrior (Loving a Warrior #3)
Trusting a Warrior (Loving a Warrior #3)
Melanie Hansen | 2020 | Contemporary, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Hansen can grab you, by the heart strings, and drag you kicking and screaming through every single emotion known to man
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 3 in the Loving A Warrior, and I STRONGLY suggest you read both books one, Loving A Warrior, and book 2, Keeping A Warrior, before you read this one. There is much referenced here that is not fully recapped. And you know, cos I said so! Both are 5 star reads.

As is this one!

Lani meets Geo on possibly the worst day of her life. Geo's ain't much better. Together they begin to navigate a relationship, while dealing with a huge amount of grief at the death of their loved ones.

Hansen has a knack of roping you in, pulling you close, and not letting you go. She can grab you, by the heart strings, and drag you kicking and screaming through every single emotion known to man, and then expect you to write a coherent review after!

I mean, I loved this book, I really did. It carries some difficult story lines, but again, Ms Hansen delivers them in a way that you cannot fault. Grief is a fickle thing, and everyone deals with that differently. I know, my sister and I dealt with my mother and father's death very different, but there is no right or wrong way. Here, Lani's grief is a decade old, but she still suffers. Geo's is much fresher, and it's HIS pain that hit me the most.

I have no personal experience of war, or those who serve. I can only imagine the horrors that are presented on a daily basis. It's to be expected that some will struggle with that, but put on a "brave face" The way Hansen describes Geo's grief and his own spiral downwards is heartbreaking, it really is. Only his relationship with Lani saves him.

I loved how the others in this series; Matt and Shane and Rhys and Devon, play a huge part here. I loved that Devon and Lani become such good friends, even if Lani is Rhys' ex.

What I want to know now, Ms Hansen, is this! Will we be privvy to want happened in Keeping A Warrior, and here, to Matt and Shane?? Cos let me tell ya, I does NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED to know! We get an inkling of what Matt suffers here, but not enough. So, please, write a followup!

Love, love LOVED the epilogue! And I loved Bosch, Geo's military dog.

I can't, in any honesty, give this book any less than. . .

5 stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
Loving a Warrior
Loving a Warrior
Melanie Hansen | 2018 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
loved it!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Matt and Shane are in BUD/S training: an intense 6 months training to get them both into the Navy SEALS. They did not account for the intense chemistry between them, know that it can never happen while they are training, if they end up in the same unit. But neither can stay away from the other and anything worth fighting for is never going to be easy.

After all, the only easy day was yesterday.

This is only the second book of Ms Hansen I've read. Unquiet broke me, and I approached this one with kid gloves, because, I mean, she BROKE me before! And while THIS book isn't quite as emotionally devastating as Unquiet, it's still a very good read.

Matt joined the BUD/S training to follow in his beloved uncle's footsteps. Shane joins after spending time in the Marines, but his REAL reason doesn't come clear til much later. Neither wanted a relationship, and after graduation they were gonna get this. . . . whatever it is between them. . . out their system. But emotions have a way of coming out of left field, and Shane admits he wants MORE.

This book is quite heavy on the physical and emotional aspect of this kind of training. And at first, I didn't like it too much. BUT as the book moved along with Shane and Matt's relationship, I found myself thinking that aspect is really rather needed. It goes deeper than running the fastest mile, or swimming the longest, or finishing that O course in the quickest time. It goes deep within Matt and Shane, and how far they have to dig to get what they.

To get WHO they want.

It's told well, from both men's point of view, and I wasn't sure that would be the case at first, so when Shane gets his voice, I was happy. Ya'll KNOW how happy I am when everyone important gets a voice!

I didn't find it overly explicit, but it wasn't needed here. It's well over half way before Matt and Shane get to the main event, but the build up to that was great reading. It pitters and patters along, a little more here and there, til they finally decide to let their feelings run free. And it was glorious!

Some secrets revealed that I saw coming, and some not.

There is a second book, Keeping A Warrior in this series, and at first I thought it a follow on to this but it's not. It's about a character who pops up here, and I would like to read it. Especially after what happens to him here, and reading the blurb of THAT book, it ain't gonna end well!

A solid . . .

4 star star read

P.s That tag line " The only easy day was yesterday"?? Gonna stick with me a while!

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
Keeping a Warrior (Loving a Warrior #2)
Keeping a Warrior (Loving a Warrior #2)
Melanie Hansen | 2019 | Contemporary, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
stunning foloow up!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 2 in the Loving a Warrior series, but you don’t NEED to have read book one, Loving a Warrior, for this to make sense. But personally, I would recommend you do. Cos I loved that book, and Matt and Shane play a huge part here.

Devon is trailing a path through a man’s world, a path she will not be veered from. But meeting Rhys, and how she connects with him on a very primal level, scares her a bit. When Devon’s full history comes clear, and Rhys’ too, their relationship takes the next step. Temporary, but NOT casual, right?

I loved this book, but equally I struggled with it. I shall attempt to voice why!

At times, I wanted to slap Rhys, I really did! He KNEW he was stringing his ex along, deep down he knew it, but he did nothing to stop it. He answered her calls, her messages, her crying down the phone, and pulled the string along a bit more. He KNEW he had to let her go. But then Devon comes into his life again. They met some 4 years before during an op. And here they are, working together again. And he doesn’t shut Lani down IMMEDIATELY! And I wanted to slap him some more.

He DOES care for Devon, right from the start though, and that makes him really question what he had been doing.

Devon’s trauma doesn’t come clear immediately, it kinda creeps out along the way. And it’s shocking, the level of betrayal she suffered, and it appears MANY women in the armed forces suffer. And I think this is what I found most difficult to deal with. How high up the food chain the covering up goes.

Oh, no, this bit, THIS is what I struggled with the most! Matt and Shane play a HUGE part here. Granted, they spend most of the book either fighting or ignoring each other, trying to find what they really feel for each other but failing miserably. Matt, apparently, said something to Shane. WHAT was said was never explained, and I’ve been trying to recall if this happened in their book, but short of going back to reread (I don’t, nor do I have the time!) I will never know, and I wanted to!

I loved the way Hanssen melds Loving a Warrior into Keeping a Warrior, not just because of Shane and Matt’s part here, but because of that other thing, the thing that I did NOT see coming! Had I read the two books back to back, I might have picked it up way WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY right back at the beginning of the book, but I didn’t, and I was blown away by that little revelation!

Both Devon and Rhys have a say, in the third person. I did not see any spelling or editing to spoil my reading, and I read this book in one sitting, not an easy or short read, but I could NOT put it down!

Who is next? I dunno. Are there more in this series? I hope so! Oh please tell me there will be! It would be great if Matt, Shane, Devon and Rhys all take part too!

Ms Hansen has 9 books (according to Goodreads) and now I’ve read 3. 3 very different, but still amazing books. I want to read the rest of them. I want to start at the beginning and work my way through. I want to follow the path of this author, cos she is on my hit list now!!

5 stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**