February TBR Challenge: Along Came a Husband

This month's TBR challenge was supposed to have an ugly duckling theme and no lie I have over 200 books in the TBR pile, but I have no idea if any of them feature a less then perfect looking hero or heroine and I wasn't about to go through them to find out. Soooooo I just picked another category romance this month. Hey those themes are just guidelines - the whole idea is to reduce the TBR pile by a book - which I accomplished.

Making the Grade: B

For My Thoughts

This is the second book by Helen Brenna that I’ve read and I must say I am thoroughly enjoying the Mirabelle Island series with it’s idyllic island setting and it’s cast of small town characters with big town problems.

Missy Charms escapes to Mirabelle island to try and recover from the horrific news about the death of her FBI husband Jonas and the weight of expectations from her wealthy family. Mirabelle is the perfect refuge once Missy tweaks her real name and it becomes an island where no one knows her “name”.

Now four years later, Missy considers Mirabelle home and the last thing she expected to see on a dark and stormy night on the other side of her cottage door was a man...looking like a sleazy drug dealer, scruffy, unkempt, long dirty hair, shot and bleeding like a stuck pig all over her front stoop...what????...it can‘t be her husband...he’s supposed to be dead! Surprise!

Jonas Abel’s been undercover for four long years and now that his cover’s been blown he turns to the one and only person he can count on in his life - his wife Missy and her perfect island hide-away Mirabelle Island. He knows she’s going to be shocked and mad to “see” him but he needs somewhere to lie low, recuperate and figure how his last mission went FUBAR and killed his partner and almost killed him. Jonas has kept track of Missy over the years even though she’s changed her name and location numerous times to escape her family’s money and influence (her father is a US State Senator) but she’s never been off Jonas’s radar.

Missy and Jonas love each other no doubt about it and their relationship burned bright and hot when they first met, but Missy grew tired of always feeling like she was playing second fiddle to Jonas‘s job and had been in the process of filing for divorce when Jonas “died“. The last thing she wants now is to rekindle the love she had for her husband and get her heart broken again when he deserts her for his next big assignment. She’ll let him stay and recover, but refuses to even introduce him to her friends and new “family” on Mirabelle instead pretending that he ain’t heavy..err husband…he’s her brother. Ya that ruse didn’t last long, not with the smouldering looks these two were giving each other.

Along Came a Husband is a love story about second chances. The elements of suspense and danger involving Jonas and his FBI case really enhanced but didn’t overpower the story since it was used mainly as a vehicle to bring Jonas back into Missy’s life. I really enjoyed the emotional journey as Missy and Jonas found their way back to one another.

I have the next book by Helen Brenna in the series The Moon That Night on the TBR pile and I wish I’d had time to read it for this month’s challenge as well.

From the Author's Website
Along Came a Husband (Mirabelle Island,#4 Harlequin Superromance, #1640)

Missy Charms just got the shock of her life. The man she thought was dead has turned up on her doorstep.

Her ex-husband—Jonas Abel.

Four years ago, Missy Charms fell hard for Jonas. But his FBI job always came first. Missy only wanted—still wants—a home and family. Jonas isn't husband material, not even close. And now his latest undercover mission has trailed him to Mirabelle Island. With both their lives on the line, Missy knows she's been fooling herself. She loves Jonas as much as she ever did—maybe more. His return also means finally admitting the truth: she can't lose him again….