I think...I read a previous book in this series recently. Also think I liked it about as well.

The h - a member of the nobility in some country made up for the series - is in a plane crash and after 2 months in the hospital (really? - she has a badly burned hand and a broken ankle), goes into hiding. Supposed to be at the ranch of the previous couple, but due to the press, she ends up with the H. She has an assortment of issue and self doubts due to her injuries and scarring. And...someone may be after her.

The H - bazillionaire cattle baron-cum-horse breeder - is part of a group of men who for reasons dabble in the politics of a foreign country or two smaller than one of their ranches. Also apparently act as body guards though I'm a bit hazy on their point and purpose really. He's also, when you think of it, either dumber than a box of hammers or a real ass. He decides to friendzone her even though he really wants to bone her. Then, after she has a meltdown on him for baiting her about her problems, he caves and bones her. Oh, but they're just friends. Uh Huh. And he has every intention of sending her away. After 3 weeks. Unless he had a case of rubbers delivered... I mean; there was a stack of them beside the bed for round one. And he's sure she loves him, or at least thinks she does. It never crosses his mind that she might construe all his attention as an act of pity. She's worrying about her scars and not being beautiful and how that seems to be the only thing she is, so he helpfully nails her a few dozen times. I guess the flip side wouldn't be much of an improvement - the feeling that he didn't want her - but... Yeah; I don't think he really thought that through.

And at the end, nothing is really resolved about the bad guys because there's another book (different author). But the H finally decides he wants her to stay so tells her to marry him.

Heroine is older than hero by 8 years. She's a widow, and still hung up on her husband. She buys a vet practice in bumblefart nowhere both to get away from the identity of being someone's widow and because her late husband had wanted to move to the country.

Hero is a veteran and I'm somewhat baffled about his past... a Marine shrink told him he had PTSD, he had Navy buddies...but supposedly he was army. Ok, he was a medic so maybe a field hospital would put him in a position to be around all branches. Still... he wouldn't need to hide his issues from fellow medics, but he'd never told his Navy buddies what he'd seen. Seems more like a slip up there. In any case, his way of dealing with life now is not let anyone close. So he's apparently the local playboy. In a small town. Wouldn't that get awkward after a bit?

He starts hitting on the h practically the minute he sees her. The book starts a month after she moves. I wouldn't think she'd been around long enough to really establish herself. He has the somewhat belated thought that he needed to be careful not to screw up her reputation. In a small town? That would mean keeping your hands to yourself and your zipper zipped - which seems to be beyond him. He pursues her until she caves, and well, in a small town, someone is going to notice who is parked in front of whose house. Townsfolk seem more curious than anything.

Eventually, he finds out she's widowed, and runs. Sulks really. She finally goes and confronts him about it, then suggests he get another vet.

My issues - she said no, let it go man. Small town + reformed player = she's going to be meeting a lot of women who know him biblically. Sooner or later, she's going to run into someone who didn't like being cast aside.

So 4 years ago, the princess of some fictional country ran away, met some marine, had a fling that bore fruit, and left him 4 days later to go back to her duties. Now she's called upon him to save her, her kid, and her late sister's twins from a creep who is trying to force her to marry him.

Long separation - check
Hidden baby - check

Hero tries to keep her at arms' length. Fails. She tells him the kid is his, and goes home. He gets over his rage and comes after her. Yep; bout sums it up. Oh, there were paparazzi thrown in to force him to face her in the first place, and there was his mother who figured out instantly what he was oblivious to (the kid's paternity). And there were her parents - a princess forced to marry out of duty, and the asshole she was stuck with. The h called forth a meeting of sorts and forced her father to step down. I am trying to imagine the first two floors of Buckingham palace turned into a casino to finance the country. Can't do it.

A Dangerous Attraction...

Abbie Hughes no longer trusts men, but despite her cool indifference, her long legs and showgirl face still draw plenty of attention. Between working as a blackjack dealer, going to school, and keeping an eye on her younger brother, Cory, there's no time for romantic adventures -- until the night a sexy, mysterious stranger places a wager at her table.

Spurred by revenge...

Sam Lang left Black Ops, Inc. when tragedy struck his family. Although he's determined to retire his M-16 rifle to lead a quiet life on his ranch, a vengeful quest will send him on a manhunt for the ruthless multimillionaire who murdered his sister.

...Reveals a savage threat they can't ignore.

Though Sam suspects Abbie is in on a lucrative gem-smuggling deal her brother made with the enemy, their attraction is undeniable. Now Cory is missing, and together they search the wild Honduras backcountry to find him. With danger on their trail, they must trust each other completely or face certain death alone....

Killed in Action—the most dreaded words imaginable for a soldier’s wife. Jess Albert has been living with them for four years, since the death of her husband in Afghanistan. Finding blessed numbness in routine, she doesn’t dare to look ahead, any more than she can bear to look back. Then Tyler Brown, a former special-ops warrior, shows up at her small general store in Minnesota North Woods, jarring her back to life. Jess knows better than to fall in love with another man who places duty to his country before love of his wife—but there’s no denying the longing and the hope for a future that Ty makes her feel. A world away, a lost American soldier clings to life and sanity in a lantern-lit cave. At his side is a dark-haired and dark-eyed woman whose touch is caring, despite the resentment he hears in her voice and sees on her face. But is it honor igniting her compassion for her enemy, or is it something more? A heartwarming, richly emotional, action-packed story about homecomings, The Way Home follows two women on opposite sides of the world. While they both walk a dangerous path between betrayal and honor, they each must find for themselves where to draw the line between duty and love.

Amazon.com

Jess Albert has spent the last four years believing her husband was killed in action in Afghanistan. She's since buried herself in work as the owner and operator of a small general store in Lake Kabetogama, Minnesota. Just as she feels like she's starting to settle halfway comfortably into widowhood, back into her life walks someone else from her past -- Tyler Brown, a former special ops officer who met Jess when she assisted with a mission some years ago. Tyler was quite taken with her then, promised to look her up one day but never came back... until now. While Jess does feel an intense pull toward Tyler, she still has some unresolved feelings about her husband. Tyler approaches the tricky situation with patience and gentleness, eventually getting Jess to warm up to him. It then doesn't take too long for things between them to progress significantly, and just when they start throwing around the idea of marriage, that's just when news arrives that Jess's husband might not be dead after all.

The novel for the most part is split in two parts. That of Jess trying to re-start her life in MN, soon getting involved with Tyler, and then the story of Jess's husband, J.R., in Afghanistan. The US military officially but mistakenly declared J.R. dead. In fact, he was still very much alive, taken as a POW but finding enough strength to escape captivity. But now he finds himself falling in and out of consciousness, being nursed back to health by a Muslim woman, Rabia, and her father, who have been hiding J.R. in a cave. As J.R.'s basic health starts to return to him, he finds he has no memory of anything prior to his mission in Afghanistan -- no memories of Jess, his childhood, nothing. What he clings to is the affection that he starts to feel for the quiet, mysterious Rabia, whom he realizes has risked her life and the life of her father to keep J.R. safe. But why, he wonders?

To be honest, I was pulled into this book mostly by the cover, thinking it'd be a heartwarming story about a military man making it home for the holidays. Turns out this is actually Book 2 in Cindy Gerard's One-Eyed Jack series and the holiday season, while present at one point, actually doesn't play a big role in the plot here.

I haven't read anything else in the One-Eyed Jack series but had no issues enjoying this book as a standalone work.  I've seen a mountain of 4 and 5 star reviews for this book, so I guess I'm going to have to be in the minority but I just found it a decent 3 star read. It had its moments I liked but mostly I found the writing to be largely generic in terms of romance, underdeveloped plot and over-the-top characters who were laughably superhero level perfect. Except that I will give props to Gerard for actually writing a romance around a guy that's not necessarily built like a super huge linebacker! While there are plenty of passages describing how hot Tyler is, I did catch something that puts his height in the 5'8-5'9 range. Me personally, I'm one of those ones who likes trees to climb, but I liked that the under 6ft boys got some representation :-) 

I also liked the comedic lightness Jess's friend / employee Kayla brought to the plot, even if she sometimes made me cringe-laugh with her cutesy nicknames she would use to reference Tyler, like "Commando Cutie".

I think I would have gotten bored with the Jess / Tyler story pretty quickly had it not been for Gerard mixing things up and periodically taking the reader over to Afghanistan to look in on J.R. and Rabia. While I wasn't all that impressed with J.R. as a character (particularly after some of his backstory gets revealed), I did find Rabia's story as a whole having its compelling moments, I was just bummed she was not given more time in the plot. Getting to know her world a bit better could've led to opportunity for a pretty moving reading experience, but most of her screen time seemed to be dedicated to stripping down under the stars with J.R. Once or twice, okay, but over and over and over again with nearly the same conversation afterward each time? Yawn.