Here with Me by Heidi McLaughlin

Authors and Books come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes you find a book that is just great by an author you haven’t heard of before and other times you will find a book by one of your favourite author that leaves you a little cold but this time…well Heidi McLaughlin has created the perfect storm – because Here with Me is simply superb.

We all know that shit happens for no good reason and sometimes good people get caught up in a bad situation.

This situation was beyond bad and for that reason the story was absorbing.

I have been wringing my hands for days trying to find the words to do the book justice because I have to say I found the book very emotional, exposing a situation that made me gasp, it was quite simply staggering.

I didn’t know what I expected but as I have come to expect with Heidi’s novels the quality and strength of the writing meant that unwittingly the characters nipped away at the corner of my heart and burrowed their way in.

It was impossible not to be moved by the intrinsic dilemma facing Ryley and Evan, they are both victims in their own way of the most appalling circumstance.

Child of a military family, Ryley knew that giving her heart to Evan was a risk but this Navy Seal was everything she wanted. But life is what happens when you least expect it and in the brink of an eye, one fateful day her world fell apart.

Her reason for being was gone.. Evan was gone and he would never be coming back. Or so she thought!

Evan Archer walks back into what can only he described as hell on earth, having been gone for six years, his life as he knew it is gone ( mind you, six years, what the hell!!)

Everyone thought he was dead and Ryley is with someone else, and to heap further pain on the situation her new guy is none other, than his brother Nate. Well this just got interesting!!!

But when he discovers that his brother is to marry Ryley and his son calls Nate, Daddy, this Seal all but declares war.

His brother does not get to have his life no matter how much he wants it and Evan is about to make sure he gets his family back at all cost.

I loved Evan, he was so strong in every way, the sort of attitude that only someone with nothing to lose and everything to gain has, the I don’t give a damn mind set and good on him for it!

I couldn’t for one second imagine what he was going through but I found that the book and more importantly Evan absorbed me. He welcomed me in on his journey and I was cheering him on from the side lines.

 I found the sub plot intriguing, I don’t for one minute believe that the military made a mistake when they informed everyone that Evan was dead, they lied to so many people and for so many years that the underlying cause has to be epic!!

You will cry at numerous points in this book and good on you for letting the tears flow, but you will really cry when you get to the end because the ending is definitely a “what the hell” moment and while it is slightly frustrating in some cases, for me I was delighted because it reaffirmed that I have more of this delicious series to come- Yeh!!!

Heidi McLaughlin knows how to write a “super” hero but not in the conventional sense, much like Harrison in the Beaumont series, Evan is just a good guy and it is impossible not to love him.

This book will take you on an emotional journey through one man’s fight to get his girl and through one woman’s fight back from despair to normal to then have her reality torn from her again.

This book will break your heart early on but will piece by piece start to put you back together….. But not quite!!!!

A fabulous read from a fabulous author that has left me with a warm feeling of contentment and the positive knowledge that there is so much more to come.