Holding Out for a Hero by Codi Gray
Series: Men in Uniform, #3
Contemporary Romance
Released: November 8, 2016
Avon

Reviewed by Sheena

Two years after the death of his wife, Sergeant Blake Kline is still hurting. He isn’t ready to date, but whenever he stops by his local diner and sees the friendly smile of his favorite waitress, he feels a spark of true happiness again. And when her life is unexpectedly threatened, Blake discovers his feelings for her might not be as platonic as he thought.

When their blossoming relationship takes a complicated turn, Blake will have to face his past… or risk losing Hannah forever.

Favorite Quote: “A Loving Scoundrel.” He glanced over the candy-ass looking dude on the cover and snorted.  It’s good.  Reading improves your vocabulary, your imagination, your-”

“I think they are talking about reading literature, not smut.”

The series title sold this for me.  I am all about men in uniform.  First Responder romance is hawt!

Dead wife trope, not so much.  I like my hero totally focused on my heroine, sans any old ex wife/dead wife memories clanking about.  And I don’t feel bad about it either. It’s escapist romance for goodness sake-and widowers bring me down.   So I was all set to pass but for the fact that this widower is a military man and has a whole lot of sexy going on.

Blake is a young widower, who is allowing life to pass him by after the brutal murder of his pregnant wife, Jenny, two years prior.  He is active military, stationed in California and spends his days working for a program, Alpha Dog, that trains at risk youth to work with and understand rescue dogs. It is a noble and interesting program and I loved reading about the work the guys (and gals) did with Alpha Dog.   One bright spot in his dreary, monotonous routine, is Hannah, the waitress at the local diner who stirs feelings within him that Blake is totally unprepared to feel, let alone act upon.  And so begins the push and pull that is the basis for their relationship.

The only thing that eased the loneliness over the last year had been the guys and Hannah…he could finally acknowledge that she’d made him feel something…even if he couldn’t admit it to himself before. Walking in and seeing that shy, sunny smile had warmed him to his core, and he started craving it.

She’d been the thing that had helped pull him out of the dark, and he was afraid that if he took that step, if he took things to the next level with her – and ruined it- he’d lose that light.

Hannah and Blake made interested, googly eyes at one another for a year but things do not really kick-start in their relationship until the day he saves her life from an armed assailant, earning his hero status and the adoration of their local town.  Hannah was already full on crushing on Blake, now her interest level was off the scale and no longer repressed and Blake was scared shitless.

This is my first Codi Gray novel and I think she did a lot of things right.  The after-effects of a violently lost love, the guilt and shame and emotional wreckage was well done.  At one point after showing signs of an unraveling temper and bouts of depression, Blake is ushered into therapy.  These scenes were pivotal for his development and written especially well.  There were important truths that the therapist allowed Blake to see, strides that would have been near impossible for any other character to inspire in Blake.  Jenny was a presence but her ghost did not encroach upon the relationship.  I never felt like there was some weird, uncomfortable trifecta going on where Jenny was elbowing her way into the budding romance.  It consistently felt like Hannah and Blake and their obstacles with their emotions.  In many instances, I balked at Hannah’s penchant for a silly snit.  In contrast, I think Blake was very authentic and exactly what one could reasonably expect from a grieving man.  Aware of his limitations and honest with his struggles with moving on, he was a very sympathetic character and I rooted for his healing.

Speaking of Blake’s struggles, I was annoyed that his friends were as pushy as they were and as sensitive as they behaved in regards to Blake’s emotional recovery.  For all intents and purposes, he only knew his Alpha Dog co-workers for a little over a year after his wife’s traumatic demise.  I am all about tough love, but their expectations for him were sometimes unreasonable and if he reacted to their nosey and pushy antics, they freaked out on him, like they were some how victimized by his pain.  I dd not enjoy that aspect at all and I was doubly annoyed when Hannah would get in on the act and last out at Blake for being unsure and taking things slow.  Sure, he was a little hot-cold, but not to the degree where she could reasonably assert that he was doing damage to her psyche.  I had a basket of chill pills that I wanted to hand out to Hannah and Blake’s friends. A basket.

On the whole, Holding Out For a Hero was touching and funny.  Somber but the novel felt hopeful and it was interesting at every turn.  Predictable, sure, but the little unexpected character action kept me engaged and even guessing a little.  I especially appreciated that even when Blake was at his most lost and vulnerable, he rebounded and was genuine in his desire to do the right thing.  His ability to love, free of the bondage that guilt and mourning held over his heart and emotions was the real crux of the story.

Hannah had told him he loved him, clear as day.  And he hadn’t known what in the hell to say back.  It wasn’t that he didn’t have strong feelings for her, he did.  He just wasn’t sure he could love again, let alone if he wanted to.  Love had almost broken him once.  Twice?   He didn’t think he’d make it through.

Only when he was able to truly honor and set Jenny’s memory free, could he be ready for the road that lie ahead…a road where Hannah waiting with open arms to walk along side him.  It was all very beautiful, my ire not raised until I noticed that I was 90% in and the plot was about to take a dramatic shift.  A sharp left turn in the last 10% of a novel is never a good idea and as a result, the ending felt rushed and not as poetic as it had earned the right to be.  The epilogue is totally one of my fav kitschy-cutesy endings- but there was work to be done before making such a twist work and the author missed the boat here and lost points in cohesion rushing the ending this way.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the read and would recommend for some lazy weekend or beach reading.  I am flirting with reading the first two novels in the series, one of which, Kini reviewed, here,  but it’s not really a priority.

Grade: C+

Previous Author Reviews:
One Lucky Hero
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