Shock Advised by Lani Lynn Vale

Lani Lynn Vale is one of the very few, and I do mean very few authors that I will break a golden rule for, I don’t care what I am reading if a book of hers hits my kindle while I am mid read I will stop…I know so… out of order but I know that I won’t settle reading anything else while I have one of Lani’s books just waiting for me, so it is a case of being fair, I do go back and finish the book I was reading honest, but I have to read this authors work immediately its almost addictive!

I have as you would expect read every word this woman has written and while some have completely blown me away I am big enough to say that not all of the books have hit the dizzying 5 stars with me but I am undeterred and when I got the heads up that this was a new series, well life was rosy once again, I couldn’t wait!

Lani switched things up a bit in this book, not adverse to tackling difficult subjects, in this book she took every parent’s worst nightmare and gave it a chance to breath, to explain and explore she didn’t shy away from showing through Mia the absolute devastation that loss she was experiencing had on her, she didn’t hide the fact that it was difficult to function, to open your eyes each morning, to put one foot on the floor and to just exist because that is all she could do… exist.

Mia’s life as she knew it was over and while her heart felt that it might never have the opportunity to truly beat again, my heart broke for her, I found what she had been through terrifying.

Tai, oh boy have I been waiting to get my hands on this guy, he has popped up in another series, he is Jack’s brother but this deliciously sexy firefighter/paramedic has been on my radar for a while, I wondered what sort of woman he would fall for, when it came to Mia though he didn’t just fall, he plummeted, he had been through so much himself, carried so much unwarranted guilt that when her life unravelled he tried, he really did to be there for her to help and support her to lift some of the burden but her despair was too deep and he was never going to be able to get through to her until she was ready.

It takes time but eventually when she can see that she needs to make a change and start to take control, to almost live again, she knows that she owes Tai and apology. He was there for her and she pushed him away.

But this wouldn’t be a Lani Lynn Vale book without our hero having to face adversity and in this case it is the fact that Tai had to learn to not only comfort Mia as she handles her pain but he had to learn to deal with his own demons, because without doing that he will be of no use to the woman that his heart has sets its stall out for. The pain he feels towards the death of his sister, the responsibility of it is eating away at him, but how can he help Mia face her painful future if he cannot draw a line under his.

When they finally begin to get their act together it was what I would have hoped, it was sizzlingly sexy and beautifully intense. They could set the page alight!

I like the fact that that there are often life lessons in Lani’s books, in this  I thought she took a much deeper look at something so intrinsically painful and showed that out of despair can come peace and love.

But I did have a gripe, I know …shut up but I have to be honest and it was the timeline. I think I would have liked a little bit more of the in between bits, you know, the probably not such exciting stuff but the real life stuff that the two of them would have had to go through to move on together, I missed a reality chunk and that threw me a little

But overall it was a sensitively written story with its cornerstone deeply imbedded in grief but with sprinkle of magic that brought a new series to life and I can’t wait to read the next book ( no change there then!)