restless 's review for:

Chasing a Brighter Blue by Gerri Hill
3.0

7/10, sorry book - it's me, not you.

What it's about: this is a soft hurt/comfort romance between an heiress and a war photographer.

Shelby and her sister Stephanie are the only children of a hotel mogul. When Stephanie decides to have a Christmas wedding, their mother takes it upon herself (and everyone in range) to turn a one-hour ceremony into a 2-week event.

As if this weren't stressful enough, Stephanie's future-sister-in-law (Reagan) turns up unexpectedly early.. and she's not herself.

With everyone in a tizzy over last-minute bridal arrangements, Shelby's drafted in to look after Reagan. After all, they're both gay, so they'll definitely get along - right?

What I thought: this is probably one of the better H/C romances I've come across. Shelby"s interactions with Reagan never feel intrusive and Reagan's trauma was well thought out.

What I particularly appreciated were the ways in which Reagan takes responsibility for her own recovery & the way her family is there to support her. Too many H/C romances seem to develop a slightly codependent (toxic) element but that really wasn't the case here.

Why 3 stars? H/C really isn't my ship. As a feature, it tends to leave me either neutral or annoyed, which means this book wasn't as memorable for me as it could have been.

(for a spicy H/C romance that didn't annoy me, check out Battle Scars, by Meghan O'Brien)