{Release Day Review} Her Lifeline by L.A. Casey (@AuthorLACasey @AmazonPub)

From New York Times bestselling author L.A. Casey comes an irresistible tale of first love and second chances.

Erin has had a crush on her brother’s best friend Ward for as long as she can remember. But eleven years ago he disappeared from their lives – breaking Erin’s trust, and her heart.

When the person they both love most – Erin’s brother Tommy – is nearly killed in a terrible crash, she and Ward are thrown back together for the first time. Their lives couldn’t be further apart. Erin still lives at home, working two jobs and dealing with a series of family disasters. Ward, now a multimillionaire entrepreneur and a household name, seems determined to make amends – but it may be just too little too late. And while Erin can’t deny feeling a spark at the sight of Ward, is it a spark of love or burning resentment?

At odds with one another but forced to share their heartache, have Erin and Ward really drifted apart forever, or have they finally found the anchor they both so desperately need?

​Erin Saunders was only eleven years old when her world came crashing down. On the same day that her father dies, Ward Buckley packs up and leaves town.  
He’s the center of her world.  And then he was just gone.
 
As the years pass, everything the Erin works for seems to be for naught. Her only light appears when she’s with her brother, Tommy and his young son.   But when a tragic accident has Tommy clinging to life, Ward rushes to her side.  He’s still the only man who could either utterly destroy her or be her salvation.  She’s not going to give him a chance to decide which one it’s going to be.

It was foolish to assume she’d have remained that cute kid who used to giggle whenever I was in her presence. She wasn’t a young girl with shoulder-length white-blonde hair and the most adorable smile I’d ever seen. She was a twenty-two-year-old woman with a face so beautiful it was hard not to stare. Her thick, white-as-snow wavy hair hung to her waist, and she was couple of inches taller than five foot, if that. Though her crumpled clothing covered her well, it did nothing to hide the swell of her breasts, the dip of her small waist and the delicious flare of her curved hips.
 
Erin had grown up, and I found myself taking notice of it. 

Dafty. 

I shook my head, scowling at myself for thinking such things when Tommy was in a critical condition on an operating table. Not to mention, the woman clearly fucking hated me and I didn’t have a clue how to go about dealing with it. The last time a person had looked at me with that much hate, I was hurt. Physically. Over and over again. I’d run away from that situation, but I couldn’t run away from Erin.
​ 
I’d already done that to her before, and I refused to do it again.

​Ward Buckley had been planning the escape from his nightmare for so long.  He and Tommy were going to finally be free to seek their fame and fortune in London.  But his best friend chooses to stay behind with his family in their time of need.
​ 
Ward stayed the course and worked tirelessly to bring their idea to fruition. Now he has more money and success than he ever dreamed of.  And the only thing that he really wants is something that even his vast wealth cannot buy – Erin.
 
Now that he’s back, he’s going to prove to her that she can trust him with her heart.  He will be her pillar of strength and her shelter from the storm.  If only she will let him.

​She walked over to her books and plucked one off the shelf. She opened it, and in the centre was a perfectly pressed yellow rose. The pigment of the petals was faded, but its beauty was not lessened. 

“You gave me this on Valentine’s Day… the day my dad died.”

I looked at Erin’s face, and blinked. 

“I remember.” I cleared my throat. “Why have you kept it?” 

I tried my hardest to remain cool and collected, but my heart was beating a mile a minute. She’d kept my rose. All I could think of was that she couldn’t truly hate me if she’d kept something from such a long time ago. Especially from a day that had brought her so much heartache. Hope surged through me. 

“I’ve been askin’ myself that for years…” 

“And what did you come up with?” 
​
“It was the last thing you ever gave me before you left and everythin’ changed. I guess… I guess I wanted to keep somethin’ from when you were still mine.”

​I have been a huge fan of L.A. Casey’s books since reading the amazing Until Harry. It immediately shot to the top of my “Best of 2016” list and I couldn’t wait to devour more of her work. 

​Her Lifeline certainly lives up to its promise!
 
L.A. Casey creates a very special kind of unrequited love that feels like an arrow shot right through your heart.  It’s that magic that makes Erin and Ward’s story nothing short of an emotional hurricane. 
 
At times, I wondered how they could ever find their way to the other side – but the ending was as sweet as it was poignant.  And it reminded me of how it really feels to smile through tears…

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