Loving Ellie
by Lindsey Brookes
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: February 10, 2014
Ellie Sanders is pregnant and alone. Carrying a child she’d conceived the one and only time she’d lain with her closest friend, Jarrett Tanner. A man she’d agreed to marry for the sake of their child. A man she’d loved, but not as he’d deserved. And now he was gone.
Lucas Tanner returns home to settle his younger brother Jarrett’s estate only to discover his brother left behind a very pregnant fiancée. Having lost his own wife and their baby she’d been carrying years before, he’s bound and determined to stick around and make sure Ellie’s child makes it safely into the world. Even if it means facing the ghosts of his past.
Struggling financially and emotionally, Ellie is torn between keeping her baby and giving it up for adoption. She wants to give her child the chance she never had - to be raised by two loving parents. If only she could make Lucas understand. And, if only she wasn't falling for a man with no heart left to give.
Lucas finds himself wanting more. Wanting Ellie. But what if he gives in to his deepening feelings and loses her, too?
One fears abandonment. The other fears loss. Can Ellie and Lucas put their painful pasts behind them and finally find true happiness? Or are the emotional walls they've built up around their hearts too strong to tear down?
Ellie reminded him of a winter woodland nymph with those big green eyes and hair dusted a shimmery white.
“I see the snow hasn't stopped.” He reached out to brush several glistening flakes from her hair.
“Not completely,” she said softly.
A horse whinnied somewhere in the barn.
The intimacy of what he was doing hit him and he jerked his hand away.
Ellie took a step back. “What are you doing out here?”
“Would you believe I have a thing for sleeping on straw-covered floors?”
“As opposed to a warm bed?”
Reaching out, he took the broom from her hands. “I’ll see to the floors.”
“Like you saw to more firewood?”
His dark brow quirked. “It’s on the porch. I couldn't get back into the house last night. The door was locked.”
A frown pulled at her lips. “It wasn't locked. The latch sticks sometimes. You have to use your shoe to whack it loose.”
“I’m moving that to the top of my things-to-do list.”
“Why didn't you knock? I could've let you in through the back door?”
“By the time I’d looked in on the animals and gathered up the firewood, your bedroom light was out. As tired as you were earlier, I wasn't about to wake you up when I had a perfectly good barn to sleep in.”
“You could have frozen to death out here.”
He stood looking down at her, suddenly aware of how petite she really was. She couldn't stand much more than five foot one or two in her stocking feet. He supposed her stubbornness and determination made up for her size, but she was still a woman alone. One who was biting off more than she could chew.
The concern in her eyes had him offering a reassuring smile. “I’d like to think I’m a little tougher than that.”
“You’re also human,” she reminded him with a frown. “People die.” Turning, she walked out of the small storage room.
That was one thing he didn't need reminded of.
*** I Love Story Time was gifted an ARC in exchange for an honest review ***
3.5 Stars!
Ellie has not had the easiest life growing up. Everyone that should have loved her, left her feeling all alone. Because of this, Ellie has always felt like she would never be able to truly love anyone. Ellie is pregnant and trying to move on after the loss of her fiance, Jarrett.
Lucas has just found out that his brother Jarrett has passed away and now has to return to the one place he has been trying to stay away from. Since the loss of his own wife, Lucas has not been to his home town for years. Lucas knows that being back will just bring back all the memories that he has been working so hard to keep locked away.
When Lucas gets to Jarrett's ranch, the last thing he expected was to find out that his brother was engaged with a baby on the way. At this point, Lucas realizes that while he was busy keeping his past away, he missed so much of the present. From that moment, Lucas tells himself that he can't keep on living the way he has been and promises his brother that he will do everything he can to help raise his son.
Ellie and Lucas were cute together. Ellie always has her walls up and Lucas does everything he can to break them down. Their relationship starts as friends but eventually their feelings start to change. Although Ellie is really stubborn, Lucas can't seem to be without her. I really liked Lucas. His personality was cute and the way he talked about Ellie was cute. One of my favorite parts that shows Lucas' personality is when Ellie is asking him how much he weighed when he was born.....
"Just over ten."
"Ten pounds!" she gasped. " "That's like giving birth to a boulder."
"Guess that's why I grew up to be so rock hard."
Lucas has some great one liners throughout this story! I really enjoyed seeing him come around finding happiness again. I did like this story but I felt like I also needed more from both characters. I would have liked to have had a better connection with them as well. Sometimes when stories are narrated, I feel like I'm not able to connect with the characters as much as I would have if the stories are told in the characters P.O.V. However, I felt that this was a good story about loss, trust and moving on.
~Juls
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