Title: Explore with Me
Series: With Me: Book Two
Author: Kris Jacen
Publisher: MLR Press
Length: 127 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: This book is a wonderful, relaxing read with a great plot and a satisfying development. I’d recommend it highly as a poolside read.
Reviewed By: Taz
Blurb: The Army is the only thing that First Sergeant Danny Glenn has known in his adult life. From the age of nineteen on, he’s worn a uniform every day. He’s seen so much in his twenty years but the last deployment did something to him. Danny’s begun to wonder if he can’t do more good helping people in the US instead of other countries but to do that he’d have to get out.
Doctor Liam MacNamara is finishing up the last of his residency in Emergency Medicine. Now’s the tough part, which offer to accept. He could stay in New Orleans where shifts are never dull or choose to uproot and experience somewhere different. College followed by medical school and then residency are the only things he’s known since he was eighteen. There’s got to be more out there, right?
Can a retired first sergeant and a brand-new doctor balance each other enough to explore their options together?
Review: Anyone who knows Kris Jacen will recognize her voice and style in Explore with Me. Her characters reflect her own down-to-earth, sometimes snarky, mostly heartwarming personality. She also writes from what she knows as we join the heptad on a new romantic discovery, that of Liam Mackey and Danny Glenn. She also spears out from the known and does a bang-up job of portraying hospital life, in terms of what doctors go through.
Both Liam and Danny were well-developed characters. They had depth and personalities which were distinct and very well suited for each other. Liam is on the younger side, at the beginning of his career, and has to make a big decision about where to accept a job as attending doctor. Danny is on the other end of the spectrum. Not that he’s too much older than Liam, but that he’s been in his career for twenty years and is considering what his next move should be.
To bring levity to these very important storylines, the heptad comes in, razzing each other and doing their best to keep each other in line. The cast truly is awesome, and we get a great sense of a family of army people who have built amazing lives for themselves.
The two protagonists certainly took their time getting together, which I liked. I could really feel their attraction building and when they finally took the plunge, I shot my fists in the air. I also really liked both characters and found myself invested in them as real and believable people. Danny is a bit of an oaf when it comes to walking a mile in another person’s shoes. He’s a self-admitted control freak and is used to making decisions on his own. Liam is so immersed in his work that he hasn’t made time to build a social life or a feeling of home for himself.
As with any book which is on the shorter side, there were a few items which had me pausing as I read—when the two first get together and later, when they have their first fight. I wanted to know more about what was going on inside their heads and see how the story played out. The same could be said for the sex scenes, which were hot, but I wanted to have them a bit more out-of-their-minds crazy hot for each other.
That said, this book is a wonderful, relaxing read with a great plot and a satisfying development. I’d recommend it highly as a poolside read, perhaps on one of those hot days when you need to supervise the kids by the pool but really don’t want to have to sit there and actually watch the kids…know what I mean? Too few books are written where you can pick it up, immerse yourself, put it down, do something else, and then enjoy picking it back up again, picking back up right where you left off. This book definitely has that kind of feel to it.
You can buy Explore with Me here:
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