A Reason to Live (Reason, #3)

by Cp Smith

[stacey_is_sassy]

If they’d only listened to Maxine from the beginning…

I really enjoyed A Reason to Live. This series has a serious undertone, but the most memorable parts are the laugh out loud, crazy antics of the women and their dealings with the Queen of Trail Bend, Maxine. We’re meeting a hero that is dealing with guilt, PTSD and self-loathing, and a heroine who is recovering from the death of a loved one, childhood mental and physical abuse and her own guilt. But when it came to writing this review, all I could think about is Maxine and her glow in the dark dildos, cookies and cream cock-a-late suckers and her ability to trick three grown men into finding and believing in love. I suppose she’s just reinforcing a fact that I have learnt and acknowledged myself (way too many years too late mind you), MUM KNOWS BEST. I think that now I’m a mum myself, and my mum’s little bits of wisdom and advice are starting to pop out of my own mouth, that it’s finally sinking in. Let's hope my kids learn from my wisdom (wink, wink).

In A Reason to Live, we are introduced to Shane who is finishing up his stint in the army where he is serving in Afghanistan. With days left on his tour, a very bad bombing sees his own team lose lives. As the team leader, he wears their deaths on his very broad shoulders. He returns home burdened with the knowledge that his dreams of setting up his house, meeting, falling in love and living happily ever after with kids, maybe not be in his future if he can’t get past the guilt. To distract himself from his thoughts and nightmares, he works himself to exhaustion helping the people of his town and taking very little payment. He gives the outward appearance of a happy go lucky man, but only the ones who look deep in his eyes can see his true pain. At this stage, he’s just breathing…not living.

Sage’s life is under threat. She works for Child Protective Services and deals with children who are living less than ideal lives. Sage suspects that one of the parents is disgruntled with their child being taken from them and is trying to get back at her for it. She’s received threatening gifts and letters for six months but with no physical attack, the police are unable to do anything about it. Feeling helpless, she turns to the man her sister claimed to be the bravest man she knows. Shane Sherman.

Sage’s and Shane’s first meeting does not go well. Shane looks at Sage and feels guilt and sadness for a life that should have been lived but taken too early. Sage looks at Shane and sees that he is living with guilt and anguish that should not be his burden. They are both really, really attracted to each other, but Shane pushes Sage away again and again. She is determined to see him get past his guilt. With a wee bit of help from Maxine, Mia and a few of the Trails Bend locals, they all push Shane to see Sage as more than just the sister of someone he should have saved, but didn’t.

I laughed, cried and blushed in A Reason to Live. The story sucked me in and held my attention from beginning to end. Shane is a strong man who realises that the love of his woman will help him come to terms with his grief and guilt. Sage is a determined woman who hates to see suffering and takes on the burden of seeing them through to a better place. With such heavy burdens, it was interesting to see Sage come to terms with the fact that she needs Shane’s bossiness and commanding personality to relax and feel secure.

There were times in the story where I wanted to wallop Shane for being so stubborn and flick Sage in the ear for being too understanding. I’m not sure I would have put up with his moodiness and hot and cold attitude. I felt that it was a little too corny and the love a little too sudden, but what’s a good romance without a little make believe. The mystery surrounding Sage's threats, kept the story interesting and I was surprised at the turn of events.

In the Reason series, we see three very strong and determined men find their reason to breathe, kill and live. Jack learns to breathe with the help of Jenn, Max had to kill to keep Mia safe and Shane found a reason to live when he finally accepted Sage into his life. I’m a fan of this author and sad to see this series coming to an end. I can’t wait to see what comes next…

I received a complementary ARC of A Reason to Live via the author for an honest review.

To pre-order your copy of A Reason to Live from Amazon - http://amzn.to/1LurhQE

I’m an Aussie chick who loves to read and review romance, drink coffee, be a Style Setter and stalk David Gandy. To see more of my reviews, fashion, food and pervathons -