All through this series, I knew Gus would break my heart. I was right. He’s a character you want to take back to childhood and give him love and affection and, most of all, protection. Being the oldest in an abusive home turned Gus into a fierce protector from an early age. When their mom left, it put an even great burden on the child to be the first line of defense. But who was protecting Gus?

Alaina is one of those people Gus has put under his protective umbrella. He likes to act as though he only cares about his brothers and his land, but Gus cares deeply about a lot. Such as his neighbor Alaina. There’s a bit of an age gap between Alaina and Gus, but she always struck him as a firecracker ready to explode. He didn’t ever want to tamp down that flame, but still always felt led to keep her safe. Until one day he looked up and realized she was no longer a child, but a woman. He still tried to protect her by shoving his new feelings way down, never allowing anyone to even suspect his desires because Gus feels he is not worthy. He does not feel lovable or important enough to ever deserve someone so alive and wonderful.

I have my issues with parts of Alaina’s story. I definitely look at surprise pregnancy stories differently than I did 10 or even 5 years ago. There are parts of this particular story that are beautiful when it comes to how Gus is all in on being the father and his feelings toward this as yet unborn baby are never questioned. But this isn’t Gus’s biological baby, he steps in to marry Alaina to help her to save face when she gets pregnant from a one-night stand. That’s fine. I have no problems with that either. In fact, I appreciate the thoughts and feelings Alaina has about that incident. It’s more so that there’s never really any discussion about options. That made the beginning of this story, until I settled into the feelings between Gus and Alaina and that part of the story, a bit hard for me to swallow.

That all being said, this is an amazing story. I love the connection Alaina and Gus have and have always had. I’m glad Alaina was able to speak up for her wants and needs and demand what she deserves. This book started with the possibility of falling into a rut of a young woman needing a man to make her way in life and to deal with her troubles, instead, it turned into a woman demanding equal footing both physically and emotionally.

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**

You can find more of my reviews at All In Good Time.