Title: Middle of Knight (Jack & Jill #2)
Author: Jewel E. Ann @JewelE_Ann
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 322 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
The living seek forgiveness. The dead seek revenge.
A first love.
A last breath.
A haunting past.
Armed with a sinful past and an equally sinful body, Jackson Knight absolves his vow of celibacy to pursue Sergeant Monaghan’s unsuspecting—older—housekeeper.
Ryn Middleton, on the cusp of turning forty with a snarky daughter, a killer dog, and an abusive ex-husband, finds Jackson’s advances humorous and unbelievable. After intense negotiations including Vera Wang, Ed Sheeran, and sex four times a day, Ryn accepts Jackson’s marriage proposal on their first date.
What could possibly go wrong?
While struggling to lay claim to the woman of the dreams he never had, Jackson is forced to deal with a grief-stricken Jillian trying to hold on to her past without letting go of her future—the doctor who took her heart and the Sergeant who gave her a new one.
Beyond the hope for light, lies the middle of darkness, the illusion of truth, and a haunting past.
If you read the optional cliffhanger in book 1, then you have a sense of what you are getting into with this story. If you didn’t read it, then hang on for an emotional ride.
I had a lot of questions after the last book, and I felt like we got some answers in this installment.
Like the first book, this book flashed from Knight to Day, Present to Past. I’m am still completely torn with who was the right man for Jillian/Jessica. At the end of this, I found myself loving both AJ and Luke, and thinking they were both right for her, for different reasons. I could understand her struggle with understanding her own feelings, and my heart broke for her.
As Jackson points out, she has incredible stregth with everything that has been thrown her way. If are familiar the author’s previous work, you know she likes to put her heroines threw the ringer, and this series is no exception. As we know from the last book, she has lost her best friend, her parents, and Luke. What more could she lose? Yeah, not going there.
“Your compassion equals your strenght, and you’re the storngest person I know.”
While Jillian/Jessica’s side of the story is very emotional, we get some levity in the book, care of her twin brother, Jackson. We didn’t get his story in the last book, but we do now, and he is awesome! What makes him special? His love for older women, with a new interest in his maid, Ryn. My memory isn’t great, but I think this is the first book I’ve read where a younger man is chasing an older woman. And I loved it! Sure, Jackson has to do a whole lot of chasing. As I could relate to, she has a lot of insecurities given the age difference. She was a bit maddening at times, but Jackson always found a way to make her feel special. The whole chase was entertaining, and the author brought her trademark cooky sense of humor at times.
“. . . this is the reason I used to get laid and then moved on. I don’t speak ‘woman.'”
As Jillian’s world began to spiral out of control, Jackson struggled at times with his relationship to Ryn, given he has no idea how to do the relationship dance.
“Apprehension? We’ve known each other for two seconds!”
“True.” He nodded. “But they’ve been the best two seconds of my life.”
*swoon*
Where Jackson and Ryn head from here, is anyone’s guess. I’m very worried with her abusive ex still lurking in the picture. And Jackson is not the type of guy to stand down from a threat.
This series began with Jessica and Jude taking on new lives and personalities, as Jillian and Jackson. They each try to move on, but the past still haunts them.
I enjoyed this second installment a lot, as is very unpredictable. Even though I sensed one event might occur, which is did, how things progressed throughout left me guessing. And given the turn of events at the end of this book, I have no idea what we have in store for the last book in the series. But I’m praying for Jillian/Jessica to finally find some peace. Cut the girl some slack Jewel!
– Grace
*An ARC was received from the author for an honest review.
Click on the image below to purchase book 1:
Book 1 review => http://afterdarkbooklovers.com/2015/08/19/blog-tour-book-review-end-of-day-by-jewel-e-ann/
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