Lea Lamb and Austin Wolf...aka Little Lamb and the Big Bad Wolf, kid you not these are the nicknames they gave each other....are high school sweethearts. The plan is as soon as graduation is over they are getting married. The live in a small Alaskan village where fishing is the main employment.

As we know nothing ever goes as plan, the young lovers are torn apart by the death of Lea's father while he is out on a fishing trip. It freaks her out and convinces her that she can not stand the possibility of losing Austin that way; yet she knows this is his dream, to follow in his family's tradition and be a fisherman. So she runs.

Fifteen years, a broken marriage and a void in her soul Lea is back. Her mom is dying. Cancer. Mama doesn't want chemo or any other treatment, she wants to be able to live the last of her time in the manner she chooses. To spend time with Lea and enjoy her while she still can. But she has a secret and the guilt of it makes her feel worse than the cancer.

There is a particularly nasty incident where Austin confronts Lea and tells her that it is a small town but he'll do his best to avoid her and she can just stay the hell away from her because after all this time he finds he still hates her. Lea's mom knows she has to do something or else she die knowing Lea will never be able to find her true happiness. She confesses to Austin that she lied to both him and Lea about what was going on in their lives. That neither of them had moved on and she never told Lea that Austin had spent many years trying to get her to tell him where Lea had gone. Her own grief of losing her husband and Lea's fear of that happening to Austin just further encouraged her to keep them apart so Lea wouldn't suffer the same heartbreak.

After this talk Austin is still upset with Mrs. Lamb but realizes that he does indeed love Lea, he never stopped and if he can help it he's not going to let her get away again. So off we go into the friend zone and rebuilding on what they had and the feelings they still have for one another. We get side tracked by her supposed to be ex-husband who it turns out didn't sign the papers. I felt a little sorry for the guy when he told Austin that he never truly had Lea. That he always felt second best for he was just her way of trying to fill a gap in her soul and time and time again he would come up short against her memories and love for him. Man that's has to hurt. His best friend Ben and wife Rhonda are pregnant so there is some comic relief from them. And it's Rhonda who is a hospice nurse who helps Lea when her mama's time comes to an end.

We do eventually get our happy ending but not until we have a HUGE scare. You know it had to happen so that Lea would know just how much she loves Austin and that being without him isn't worth the safety of not having to worry about losing him. FYI if you are looking for a steamy love story this isn't it. This is more about emotional intimacy that sex. ( )

I love this book. Second chances and misunderstandings. ( )

Wonderful book. ( )

Not so hot. Normally this author writes characters and stories that really resonate with me and leave me thinking of them well after the end of the book. For some reason this one missed on both cylinders. I couldn’t connect with the characters and the story felt rushed and under written. This read felt like someone chopped 100 needed pages right the heck out. The result was not a satisfying read. If the bits left on the cutting room floor were added back in, this story COULD be great. Sadly, it feels too abridged for me to feel anything but disappointed.
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Aurora Rose Reynolds writes the best love stories. This time around the hero wasn’t a too over the top alpha and the drama was more sadness than angst. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great story because it was. Lea Lamb and Austin Wolf (love the play on the names) were childhood sweethearts torn apart by Lea’s deep grief over losing her father to the ocean and fearing the same would happen to Austin whose family business is also fishing.

Now fifteen years later she comes back to the small Alaskan town as her mother is in the final stage of cancer. Not only does she have to come back and deal with that she also just got a divorce and is scared about how the town and Austin will treat her when they know she is back after how she ran out on them years ago.

These two tried to move on from each other during those 15 years but all it takes is seeing each other again for it to become obvious that their type of love never dies.

Love everything from this woman and Fighting to Breathe was no exception..
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