I am such a fan of this series, but I have to admit even the best of fans can have off days. I jumped at the chance to read this book and part way into it I found myself saying “When did they get married? I don’t remember Colin and Josh getting married, what the hell?” and today my mystery got solved when I realized that I’d somehow managed to miss a book…seriously I missed reading a whole book here and it was the one wherein Colin and Josh got married…have no fear it’s on my e-reader and I will be remedying this unfortunate event at my earliest opportunity.

Now you’re probably thinking what the hell, Karen? Seriously who cares if you missed a book. That’s your problem and has nothing to do with me or this book. Well you’re right but it does concern the accuracy of what I’m about to say which is that while you can read “Love’s Lawyer” without having read the previous books and probably without an over abundance of confusion…I strongly recommend at least reading books 2 & 3 in the authors series ‘Revolutionary Heart’ although to be honest reading all of the stories in this series is no hardship. I realize I’m biased because as I said earlier…I am such a fan of this series.

I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb here and say that while “Love’s Lawyer” is listed as the first book in what is a spin-off series to ‘Revolutionary Heart’ it could also easily be considered the next book in the series ‘Revolutionary Heart’ because I’m fairly sure that things pick-up for Colin and Josh if not where they leave off in ‘Love’s Glory’ very shortly after that point, since there doesn’t seem to be a huge time gap between where one story ends and the next one begins.

Events that started in ‘Love’s Trials’ and carried through ‘Love’s Glory’ as well as the fallout from them continue here in ‘Love’s Lawyer’. Colin and Josh have survived everything that’s happened so far and Colin’s strong and determined and pretty damned fearless…but neither of them are truly prepared for the demands of law school and the Colin’s unrealistic expectations that he places upon himself and in spite of all of his own training, knowledge and experience as a psychologist Josh’s belief in Colin’s strength blinds him to what’s happening right in front of his eyes.

I’m honestly not even sure where to begin with this story. Colin and Josh are a relationship that we don’t get to see in a lot of stories. They have their ups and downs, they fight, they make up sometimes…even though we all know it’s one of the worst things a couple can do…they even go to bed angry with each other in other words they feel real, their relationship feels real.  

These things happen, I can personally attest to this as someone who’s been married for 31 years to the same person. Sometimes, pride and frustration and just the heat of the moment keeps people from thinking clearly and seeing what’s truly important but at the end of the day they also remember how important their marriage and their love for each other is and that nothing really matters more.

It’s not just their relationship that gives me such a strong feeling of connection to these two men.  The situation that they’re in with Colin returning to schools for me is also a very relatable situation, since I found myself similar circumstances when I returned to school following an accident that like what happened to Colin, forced me to re-evaluate my career goals. Thankfully unlike Colin law school was not a career goal for me, so my foray into the world of academia while demanding was no where near as intense as Colin’s.

Sometimes it’s nice to read books that aren’t all sunshine and lollipops and sometimes being able to read a book with characters that I could so easily imagine being neighbors or even friends with makes the connection that I’m looking for.

Without fail no matter what my mood these Ms Jarrell’s characters and their stories find their way into my heart to share their story with me and leave me feeling like I’ve just spent time with some dear friends and I’m left looking forward to their next visit.

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An ARC of “Love’s Lawyer” was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.