Review: The Scars I Bare by J.L. Berg (By the Bay #2)
Note: This ARC was provided by the author via Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest review.
After everything that happened to Dean Sutherland in The Choices I've Made, I was anxious to find out if the guy would get the happily-ever-after that he deserved. Second in the J.L. Berg-penned By the Bay series, we meet Dean again at the age of thirty-six, so about three years since the ferry ride that saw loss to the town of Ocracoke Island in North Carolina and changed Dean's life forever. Having lost a limb but gaining a new cache of fears and issues, he's been feeling rudderless, adrift in a life that's headed in no particular direction in the three years since what happened. And then the nurse he started falling for while he was still in the hospital makes her way from Virginia Beach to Ocracoke. Thirty-three-year-old Cora Carpenter needs a fresh start--one away from the life she shared with her ex-husband. While she misses the family she left behind, her main priority now is her five-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. She's afraid of making the same mistakes as before--of trusting a man who will end up hurting her, but from the moment he sees her again, Dean knows his life was meant to have Cora and Lizzie in it...forever.
I wasn't a huge fan of the first book, and a lot of that had to do with the main characters and how the flubbed their way through the forging of a romantic relationship. But I knew--I just KNEW--that Dean would make the return to the series worthwhile. I loved his story and that of Cora's. They were two damaged souls, but they weren't broken beyond repair. All they really needed was that one person who would love and accept them wholeheartedly and make them want to push past their fears in order to truly embrace life and a shot at a future together. The entries Dean wrote in his recovery journal and Cora in her blog give a clearer picture of exactly what they were dealing with before their paths crossed once again. I wasn't entirely sure about Lizzie in the beginning because that email she wrote seemed quite advanced for her age. But then I remembered some of the students I had while I was still teaching preschool, and realized that it was indeed possible for her to simply be that intelligent. Overall, I have next to nothing to consider a negative about the The Scars I Bare, which I'm giving 4.5 stars to. On to the next one! ♥
I wasn't a huge fan of the first book, and a lot of that had to do with the main characters and how the flubbed their way through the forging of a romantic relationship. But I knew--I just KNEW--that Dean would make the return to the series worthwhile. I loved his story and that of Cora's. They were two damaged souls, but they weren't broken beyond repair. All they really needed was that one person who would love and accept them wholeheartedly and make them want to push past their fears in order to truly embrace life and a shot at a future together. The entries Dean wrote in his recovery journal and Cora in her blog give a clearer picture of exactly what they were dealing with before their paths crossed once again. I wasn't entirely sure about Lizzie in the beginning because that email she wrote seemed quite advanced for her age. But then I remembered some of the students I had while I was still teaching preschool, and realized that it was indeed possible for her to simply be that intelligent. Overall, I have next to nothing to consider a negative about the The Scars I Bare, which I'm giving 4.5 stars to. On to the next one! ♥
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Read my reviews for the By the Bay series:
The Choices I've Made (book one) - three stars - My Review
The Scars I Bare (book two) - 4.5 stars - My Review (posted above)
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Release Date: 12 March 2018
Date Read: 12 March 2018
Learn more about J.L. Berg.
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