Fighting Redemption by Kate McCarthy

Beautifully written and utterly engaging though I blame the Prologue for being such a knock to the chest you really don't know what to expect this story to be and then the impatience of getting there. I can't remember a book I was THAT impatient with yet couldn't put down. Mostly books who make me impatient are annoying, or I'm not sure I'm going to like where they are going. With this one, I didn't know where it was going, yet I couldn't wait to FINALLY get to the end and REALLY understanding what the Prologue was ACTUALLY about because I knew it has to be some sort of a "twist" there, something in the way the story was played, I knew it's going to be much more than the obvious. I'm rambling aren't I? well, only shows how affected I was by this heartbreaking beautiful story. 


It's the love story between Fin and Ryan, yet it's also about the friendship between him and Fin's older brother - Jake who became his best friend since almost the moment they met. Ryan wasn't looking for a new friend, he wasn't looking for a new family to embrace him (unlike his own), he didn't expect to find Fin to be the girl who will catch his heart and never let go and he sure didn't expect to be able to act upon his feelings. He couldn't or rather wouldn't do that. There is too much heart ache and no real future for him, there is the world for smart ambitious Fin. He would do anything and everything to ensure that she got whatever it is she wishes for in life. But as someone states the obvious for him - what if what she wants is him? The one thing he can't or rather won't give her.

Ryan knew from a small age he wanted to be SAS - special forces soldier. For him that was the one thing he was looking forward to and he brought his best friend Jake with him. Life couldn't be better if you don't mention the fact that he left Fin behind and wouldn't speak or write to her now that he is over the sea and far away. But when he returns home and sees her 6 years later it's obvious to him that he was fooling himself that he could really leave her behind yet even with her, both of them know how temporary it is. Ryan is going back to Afghanistan and he isn't willing to commit to a relationship with her that would keep her from pursuing her academic goals in life. Yet when he returns a few months later after a tragedy strikes his team he is unable to NOT act on his feelings and hope tries to lift it's head in Fin's heart yet the hope dies eventually. Ryan isn't staying. He isn't committing, again, especially as he learns of a great opportunity she has in her future. 

You know the phrase "man builds plans while god laughs?" (maybe you know it a bit differently, I'm freely translating the phrase from my mother tongue..) both Fin and Ryan's plans change as life bangs them a little bit more. The question is will it end in tragedy or in happily ever after? I'm not saying anything more. I'm letting you read this one and enjoying it as much as I did. With the heart ache and the tears and the hopes that keep crushing down. With a love so huge and amazing you can't possible believe whenever it falls apart. Yet life is never what you want it to be, it just is. 

Highly Recommended! 

Additional Details: Kindle Ebook, 348 pages, 16-17 January 2015 / On GoodReads