Review: The Hidden Love

The Hidden Love by R.J. Gray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Note: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: ptsd, domestic violence (not by MCs), drunk driving death, depression, infidelity (maybe?)

So we have a grieving friend who's suddenly a guardian of a secret her dead friend gave her in clause to her death. Who now has to report back to the dead friend's ex, because the secret is closely connected to the ex.

The ex..meanwhile is living his grit and hard life in the military battling wars, and combat zones (By the way I didn't enjoy the mention of my home country PAK in such a negative context...we've already got problems..don't need more by this publicising), and well lost in the memories of his ex. But when he gets a phone call about the secret...everything changes.

Sparks later fly, after much much dancing around emotions (the headaches I endured while it all happened), but complications arise. But they all battle through it well..and with a lot of confessions and honest discussions. And we get a HEA, yay.

I honestly enjoyed this story a lot. Truly. After the winedown, I didn't think I'd have a very touching book to look to. But here I have, The Hidden Love.

It touched on so many important themes of family, betrayal, ptsd, domestic violence, coming together after grief, and dealing with a child who's having difficulty dealing with death.

And the fun fact - he is getting treatment for his PTSD, so even if it is a part of him, he does know how to deal with it better.

For all these reasons and more - such as superb writing, well developed and likeable characters (even with a bit of whinnying from the FMC), the romance and chemistry playing well, as the meet cute book club girls (gah I loved seeing Brandi - my first favorite girl), it was all done so well, damn.

I'm in honest to god love, and can't think of anything else, but to tell you, to read it, READ IT, READ IT NOW!

That's all.

Until the next read,

-JB

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