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4.5 Stars This is the kind of book that lingers with you long after you have put it down.

It starts with seemingly trite themes that one might find in an old Mills and Boon: a much older man (a grieving widower) and a his new personal assistant (naive and convent raised).

Then, the layers build. We are in Ohio. She is black and he is white. She is a Catholic and devout and he is non religious He drinks from grief. She has PTSD. She survived the Rwandan genocide as a young child and witnessed its horrors.

It is a powerful book and a powerful romance where they don't heal each other but themselves.

The heroine isn't perfect. She is young and struggles to find her full and complex self. She resilient and kind.

The hero too falters and errs and then becomes more.

There are no cookie cutter characters here and nothing is simple. The heroine is smart and so is the hero in terms of common sense, knowledge of profession, and emotionial intelligence. Its glorious.

Racism and sexism are a large part of this tale.

I wish the sexism of the law firm and the hero's privilege in it (he is never the issue but while he takes on a role protector and punisher, he doesn't attack the issue at the systematic level that would be much more satisfying) had been more closely examined.

This romance is moving and a wonderful piece of writing as usual from Pepper Pace.

What can I say? To date, this is the longest book that I've read by Ms. Pace It's also the one that has the most realistic & gripping plot and journey. And that's saying a lot because a lot of Ms. Pace's stories are based on very realistic characters & circumstances. What makes this one even more heart wrenching is that it is based on true events. Events to this day, that I still can't believe actually happened in the early to mid 90's. So this is what immediately drew me into this story & the lead heroine's voice, Martier. A beautiful young woman with a spirit & mind & determination, to match that beauty.

Our Hero, Tim is a force in his own right. And his circumstances & journey isn't any less heartbreaking or beautiful.

As individuals, I love these two. They kept me engaged and beyond curious for most of this story. And of course the colorful secondary characters, and their lives make for a well rounded, interesting & sometimes shocking story. And I love how this one ends. I love how things come full circle for both of the main characters. Concerning their growth & self discovery with & without one another.

What I didn't like about this one, was around the 60% mark, things started to move a bit slowly. And this was mainly due to the fact that the story had started to become something more of a materialistic & shallow read. There was way too much talk about money & what this or that cost. And how many expensive shops they were going to. It just became saturated with this type of vibe. And this is what lost a bit of my interest & began to bore me a bit. Cos it shifted into a completely different domain than what you had gotten in the story up to this point. You're already set clear on the fact early on, that Martier is in a world now where there is money, prestige, privilege of any kind available. So this point didn't need to be driven home the way that it was, once you are well past the half way mark. And I felt because it was, it lost out on a bit of that tangible, organic vibe, between the two main characters. And the intensity that you witnessed early on, was missed because of it.

Also, I'm getting bored & mildly irritated with seeing this trend with authors, in any book/genre, when they are writing about a female who swears up & down that she doesn't want to spend her man's money. *rolls eyes* I mean to me, more often than not, this type of tactic in a book to show or try to endear the female to you, just comes off as unrealistic & often times even more contrived than anything. Especially when the female tries to make a huge deal about her man wanting to treat her to nice things and spend money on her. And this usually comes when you are already shown in the story that's she's not about the money. When we are shown that their connection is deeper than that. When you know that her man knows this, and all he wants to do is treat her like the Queen that she is. And you see and know this, just as she does, that he's treating her like a Queen not just with his wallet, but where it matters most; his heart. His mind & emotions. So I think this tactic is a waste of ink, a waste of paper & a waste of real story telling time, when they make a big deal about the female trying to be difficult about the fact that her man is spending money on her, or giving her money to spend to treat herself. It's just pointless to go there because we ALL know that although all of us are not hung up on the money factor, it still feels more than great to not only have a great guy to treat you the way you deserve, but to also be able to give you nice things as well.

But gladly once you get to the 85% mark, things get back on track and the intensity, purpose, questions, all of it, is brought to light. And brought to a more than remarkable close. Concerning the story, plot, MC's & even the secondary plots. Nothing is left in the wayside. And nothing feels rushed. So I love that.

This one definitely brings on the tears a bit. It brings on a little bit of the sexy as well. But mostly it gives you a great sense of completeness & understanding. Very fulfilling.

I would HIGHLY recommend this read.

I read somewhere that Pepper Pace thinks this may be the best book she's written. Maybe...but one thing I know for sure is that it's one of the best books I've read this year and it's likely to stay at the top of my list well after the year is over. I read my first Pepper Pace book back in December and wow, I am just a fan. Her character development and storytelling skills are captivating and nuanced. This book touched on so much: love, death, romance, racism, religion, poetry, classism, genocide, loneliness, abandonment, independence, adultery,...and all that happens in between. Yet it's never TOO much. The book never seemed overwrought or overwhelmed by its story. As with most of Ms. Pace's books I loved the main heroine and her hero for their conflicts and differences. Best of all neither character ever comes close to being cut from the same one dimensional cloth that most romance novels are. Truth is Ms. Pace it's hard to see how you might improve on your skills as an author in another book but I sure wouldn't bet against you.

This is not my first Pepper Pace book, but it is the first one I have read by her that I had a strong enough reaction to, that made me want to leave a review for it. I don't generally like stories with much older men and younger women, but this book touched on some of the reasons I don't like these romances, in a well thought out and realistic way, addressing some of the issues head on...enough so that I didn't bristle and put the book down. The unlikely romance between Tim and Martier came off as so real, with Martier's inexperienced, young, girlish crush, to Tim's rusty, kind of out of practice, wounded older man. I completely bought into this romance, and the difficulties that it presented. Pepper Pace did such a good job of drawing out some of the sticky, intricate, and complicated pieces of the world that Tim and Martier had to navigate. From the law firm and the upper class neighborhood Tim was from, to the sheltered convent and the genocide ravaged villages of Rwanda, that Martier was from. This was a good read, and the only thing I could find that rubbed wrong was the way the last third of the book was handled. Up until this point I felt like the author did a great job of not injecting a preachy or heavy handed approach to their relationship, but towards the end I began to feel as though the book was headed in a direction that I didn't entirely like. Though to be honest, it was probably a realistic portrayal in some aspects. But, the way the Rwanda piece was handled was very good, and quite emotional. Overall, a good read, well done!