Hail Mary by Julianna Marley

These are characters that you will want to get to know and once you have you won’t want to let go of.

We first caught sight of Shay and Whitney in the first book of the series and until now they haven’t really had the opportunity to fill us in on their own story, now, this is that chance, that opportunity to let us see what make them tick or not, as the case maybe.

There getting together was probably as far from “on the cards” as you could have ever imagined, destitute almost, pregnant and abandoned by the man she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with, when the moment arrived where she needed someone the most, it was the most reluctant candidate that she found herself thrown together with because being in labour with no-one but Shay to help her bring her baby into the world was never part of the script.

Everything about this situation would or should have had Shay heading for the hills, he was not looking for a happy ever after, heck he was doing just fine with his happy right now’s and boy did he had plenty of them to warm his bed, he didn’t see any version of “happy families” playing much of a role in his future but when he is the only person around when Whitney goes into labour, his time of reckoning just might have arrived.

The birth of her daughter was a fresh start for Whitney but would it be a fresh start with her reluctant hero by her side?

There was something there between the two of them, something more than the event they had shared together although I think especially for Shay that was almost a game changer, it brought emotions from him that I don’t think he had ever considered. Could these not broken but maybe ever so slightly cracked individuals find their way to a happy ever after that they didn’t see coming, could their destiny be found in the tiny hands that brought them together as they brought her into the world …I certainly hoped so.

Could Whitney see her way to the real Shay, could she get by the bluff and bravado and see straight into the heart of a man that wanted her to trust him, to let him be her everything. Their connection might have been instant but their relationship was going to take work, more than they probably thought but not enough to make it impossible, they had the bare bones, they just had to flesh it out.

I thought the author presented the pair of them with an air of honesty around them, their situation was exceptional but that wasn’t the only thing, they were fabulous characters who through a series of circumstances found themselves together and the crux of the tale was the opportunity to watch them try to work out what they wanted to do with that connection, although not theirs together by conception ,they brought a child into the world together and I think through that they were almost fused emotionally.

The author gave us an entire stadium of secondary characters, creating a larger than life “family” around them both, everyone had their place and much like Shay and Whitney had found their happy place…I think I did too.