Content Warning: Does contain some cursing and adult situations. This reviewer recommends for readers 18 and older.April
and Hale Abercrombie’s love is tender and sweet. While he serves in Vietnam, their
marriage is marked by trust and the belief that they will grow old together
with a gaggle of grandchildren at their feet. But, their charmed marriage
changes in the face of losing their newborn daughter.
On
leave from his tour, Hale can barely wait to hold his wife and her help her
heal. When he arrives, his embrace, his touch, and his love are as perfect as
April remembered. Their reunion is passionate and their physical connection is
strong and soothing. But, April’s heartache remains.
Hale
stumbles through his attempts to prove to April that their future will be rich
and full of wonder. His good-hearted, but take-charge approach causes her to
retreat. Even in grief, April can see Hale’s earnestness, yet she finds solace
in putting space between them. With a short time before Hale must return to war
will they see that real love endures in the face of adversity, that their
marriage can be strengthened even when it looks as though all is lost?
Set on the beaches of the Outer
Banks, Return to Love is the second book in the Endless Love series. Book
one, Home Again, was named a finalist in the 2014 Next Generation
Indie Book Awards.
My Review:
I did not realize when I signed up to review this book that there are some sexual situations - thankfully not too detailed like most adult romance books, yet it is there, and some cursing at times. So I must warn readers that it is not what I consider a clean book - so definitely for adult readers only.
To continue with my review. I was blessed with a copy of the first novella as well so I thought when I started reading Return to Love I would know what has already occurred with both April and Hale, and that I would like the second book as well. I expected the same quality of writing and content that the author used with Home Again.
I was confused from the beginning because of April's erratic behavior and thoughts. I knew this story was one of heartbreak, tragedy, and loss but it starts after the loss has already occurred and did not explain it until later into the book. The main focus of the story, of loss, love and triumph over tragedy is one that I often enjoy reading, but I must say I was disappointed with this one and due to the sex and cursing and erratic behavior of the main characters through most of the book. I would not recommend it to those who prefer clean romance.
Book Excerpt:
Kill Devil Hills, North
Carolina,
Autumn 1970
Hale’s
lungs were tight as he gripped his duffel in one hand and held his uniform over
his shoulder with the other. He flew up the steps of the small fishing cottage
that his wife was renting from the Shelby
family and arrived on the wide porch. He had imagined the moment he’d see her
so many times that he felt like he was performing a play. He dropped the duffel
right there and knocked on the screen door. Why
was he knocking? She knew he was
coming. He threw the door open and walked into the small entry. It opened
into the family room. He wiped his feet while he scanned the space. “April!”
His
heart beat fast and heavy. Yes, he was home under difficult circumstances.
Hale’s wife was having difficulty coping with the stillbirth of their daughter.
He was worried for her and knew if his skipper granted hardship leave that
things must be bad. Yet he was determined, sure as he had finally arrived at
the Outer Banks, he was confident that he could make her well. He just needed
to see her, to hold her, to tell her everything was going to be okay.
The
Guess Who’s “No Sugar Tonight” was playing on the radio. The tune brought a
smile to his face. He rushed down the hallway and poked his head into two
bedrooms and a bathroom before finding the room April had been using. He tucked
his naval uniform into the closet, went back to the kitchen, and turned off the
radio, straining to hear any noise that might signal April’s location. He went
back outside, inhaling the salty air.
Where was she? He leapt off the porch and
crossed the gravelly lane called Beach
Road stepping onto the sand, craning his neck to
catch a glimpse of her. A seagull clipped Hale’s head as it landed off to the
side then flipped a whitefish into its mouth. As far as he could see, the beach
was empty, yet he thought he should walk it, search for April. He didn’t know
which direction she would have walked, but he started out anyway.
Heading
south, a flock of black birds escorted him from above. Scores of them moved
together like one great wing flapping in the wind. The whoosh of their
collective descent was punctuated by their coarse, throaty screams.
The
sand worked into Hale’s shoes, each particle stabbing at the skin below his
ankles. He pushed one shoe off and then the other, leaving them near a
smattering of driftwood that had been pushed ashore by high tide. The birds
dropped, their calls growing louder, drowning out the surf. One by one the
black skimmers rained from the sky like bombs, their red beaks bright against
the gray sky that had crept in with Hale’s arrival. Some of the birds landed in
the shoals and poked and prodded at the sand.
He
came upon the largest cluster of birds, the beige sand peeking out in small
patches among the blackness, and his eye went to a different form, a woman
sitting rod straight, motionless in the center of the black avian shroud. Her
blonde hair whipped in the wind like the sea grass at his feet. Hale stopped.
His heart thumped. April. He willed himself to breathe, to move toward her.
He’d never seen such a sight, the way she seemed partly born of the sand,
partly able to sprout wings and fly away.
“April!”
he said, waving even though her back was to him.
She
did not respond. He called again, his words turned back to him by the stiff
ocean gales. He jogged toward her, weaving in between napping skimmers, hopping
over those that were too busy eating to move out of his way.
When
he had nearly reached April, he halted again. He suddenly felt nervous about
his excitement; he felt her sadness as though they shared the same soul. He’d
never seen such a stunning sight in his life. Her elegance was apparent even
sitting on a beach, in the middle of birds. She turned her head slightly, her
profile facing him. His stomach flipped. Oh
my God, is she beautiful. The wind tossed her hair, making her appear as
though she were posing for a magazine shoot.
Even
from a distance, even from the side, he thought he could see the sparkle of her
blue eyes. The way they were set, wide on her face, made it seem as though he
saw something slightly different every time he looked at her, something more,
something alluring, hypnotizing. Those
eyes.
There
was no woman more captivating, he was sure. Or more lonely. Her sadness seemed
to leap over the sand to him, to well up from the soles of his feet, filling
him, squeezing the breath from his suddenly heavy lungs. If he felt this, then
her pain must be far greater. Her emptiness more profound. He’d helped her
create life, but he hadn’t been there when it ended.
About the Author
Amazon Top-100 Bestselling
author, Kathleen Shoop, holds a PhD in reading education and
has more than 20
years of experience in the classroom. She writes historical fiction, women’s
fiction and romance. Shoop’s novels have garnered various awards in the
Independent Publisher Book Awards, Eric Hoffer Book Awards, Indie Excellence
Awards, Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the San Francisco Book Festival.
Kathleen has been featured in
USA Todayand the
Writer’s Guide to 2013. Her work
has appeared in
The Tribune-Review,
four
Chicken Soup for the Soul books
and
Pittsburgh Parent magazine. She
lives in Oakmont, Pennsylvania with her husband and two
children.
Disclosure: I received free the item(s) mentioned in this post in exchange for my honest review. Regardless ~ All my reviews are my honest and personal opinion. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”.
After losing her husband and only child to the ravages of the Civil War, twenty-five-year-old Portia McAllister is drowning in grief. When she sees an ad for a live-in tutor in another town, she leaves everything behind in hopes of making a fresh start. But as a Confederate widow in a Union household, she is met with resentment from her new charge and her employer, war veteran Beau Stanford. 
