*I received a free copy of No One But You from via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *
No One But You Series: Silver Springs #2on 1 June 2017
Pages: 448
Struggling to make ends meet after a messy divorce, Sadie Harris is at the end of her tether. Her waitressing gig isn't enough to pay the bills let alone secure primary custody of her son, Jayden, a battle she refuses to lose. Desperate, she accepts a position assisting Dawson Reed the same Dawson Reed who recently stood trial for the murder of his adoptive parents. Joining him at his isolated farm seems risky, but Sadie is out of options.
Dawson has given small town Silver Springs plenty of reasons to be wary, but he's innocent of the charges against him. He wants to leave his painful past behind and fix up the family farm so he can finally bring his dependent sister home where she belongs.
As Sadie and Dawson's professional relationship grows into something undeniably personal, Sadie realizes there's more to Dawson than the bad boy everyone else see she has a good heart, one that might even be worth fighting for
No One But You had all the romance, the suspense and the strong characters I’ve come to know and love when I pick up a Novak novel.
Jayden and Dawson weren’t very likely to become romantically involved, and that just made their romance better in my opinion! No One But You showed that the one person who may seem respectable on the outside may be far from it, while the one other people think badly on have mostly good qualities and can be both loyal and trustworthy. Dawson had been through more than just a rough patch, accused of killing his adoptive parents, he was finally judged not guilty by a court and the jury, however, his townspeople weren’t so sure about him being innocent.
No One But You also showed how difficult life had been for Jayden, but for completely different reasons than the difficulties Dawson had faced. A cop with anger issues, and who didn’t take no for an answer, Jayden’s soon-to-be ex-husband was not only scary, he also had the police force behind him to back him up – even when he treated Jayden and his son horribly.
The character development in No One But You was tremendous, both Dawson and Jayden grew a lot during the span of the story, and I enjoyed how they managed to be open-minded even when the odds were thoroughly against them. They both had a lot to lose, but they still fought for love and what they felt was right.
Written in third person point of view, past tense, the story was nicely paced, not too fast, but not slow either. The suspense was well done and kept me wondering. There were some sightings of characters from Finding Our Forever, and I enjoyed both Silver Spring and the characters that inhabit it. While No One But You is the second book in a series, it can be read as a stand alone.
The prospect of maintaining her freedom brought such relief, such exhilaration. Finally she had something to be happy about. She’d struck a deal with Dawson in spite of Sly. That single act of defiance felt good, as if she was taking another leap forward in regaining control of her life.
But what did she know? She’d barely met him. Maybe she was letting his gorgeous face and jawdropping body get in the way of her good judgement.
Why wouldn’t he let her go? What good was having her come back if she didn’t love him? And how could he even pretend ot love her? A man didn’t treat a woman he cared about the way Sly treated her.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
You make me want to give this a try. Sounds so good, exactly what I’m in the mood for in this moment. I always love a story about struggling single moms. Thanks for recommending this. Awesome review. ???
It really was good, Geybie! And Novak really made both the story itself, the small town and the characters entice me from start to finish 🙂
I am so happy that you liked this one as much as I did. The ex-husband was beyond scary and I wanted him gone! Great review Lexxie.
I agree, the ex-husband was so bad, and he was even more dangerous because of his job!
I’d love to read this. I really enjoy character driven stories, especially when they’re flawed and have baggage. Such a great cover for this one too. Loved your review:)
Character-driven stories are the best, I totally agree. This one was so well done, too. I read it a while back, and I just loved it!
I really like the sound of this book. I’m glad the character development was was tremendous. That’s important in a book, I think.
I agree, Stephanie. This series is really good 🙂
I love books about unlikely characters falling in love. I’ve read one or two books by this author, and I like her writing. I’ll add this to my library-haul tbr! 🙂
Me, too! And here, the unlikeliness of that happening made me giddy!
Brenda Novak is an author that I really want to read more of. I have only read a couple of her books but really enjoyed them. This sounds like a book that I would enjoy.
I really enjoy her small-town romances, Carole. And in this series, there is a little more backstory to some of the characters, as they grew up under circumstances that weren’t ideal.
I love a book with interesting character development and I know this is one I’d like to read someday.
I hope you’ll be able to get your hands on it, Trish 🙂 It was good!
I like the unexpected relationship ones, and this sounds like a good one.
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