Storm Front

GIVEAWAY

WARREN, SUSAN MAY
STORM FRONT

Life and love hang in the balance during a deadly summer of storms.

A tornado has destroyed a small Minnesota community and among the missing are not only a group of students but also PEAK Rescue team leader Chet King. Ty Remington will stop at nothing to rescue his mentor, not even when the girl he loved -- and lost -- walks back into his life. But Brette needs his help more than he knows, despite her stubborn determination to push him away. And when he gets a second chance, loving her just might cost him more than he can imagine.

A blogger for Vortex Storm Chasters, Brette Arnold didn't expect her adventures to land her in the same place as Ty, the guy who she walked -- no, ran -- from over a year ago. She had her reasons -- good ones. The kind that tell her that falling for him again would only lead to heartache. But Ty isn't the kind of man to give up -- not on the missing students or on her.

My Review:

Internal dialogue between Heart and Mind before I begin reading Storm Front.

Mind: Ohhhh...Susan May Warren. We love this author!
Heart: Sniffle
Mind: And it's the Montana Rescue series. Maybe we'll get to finally find out what happens with Jess and Pete.
Heart: (moaning over the faint skippity-skip beat of palpitations) Noooooooo. I'm still bruised from the last time.
Mind: But we have to keep up with the PEAK Rescue gang...
Heart: (skipping a beat and lurching into an unsteady thump..thumpity...thump) My wounds haven't healed from the last book we read. I'm scarred for life after all the shenanigans in Troubled Waters.
Mind: Exactly why we need to read this one. To put you at ease.
Heart: I don't think Susan May Warren is concerned with easing heartbreak. She's more about diabolically skewering the most tender organ in the body and letting us bleed out in a writhing mass of agonizing angst.
Mind: Ouch. That's harsh.
Heart: But true.
Mind: Okay, so maybe you've got a point, but we're going to read Storm Front anyway, right?
Heart: (whimpering) Easy for you to say, you're not the one who has to feel your way through a story. You just have to process information. You've got no heart, Mind!
Mind: Which is why I have you. We're a team and speaking of which, it's time for us to team up with our favourite team...
Heart: (groaning) You don't have to sound so cheerful about gutting me.
Mind: (wheedling) There'll be kissing scenes.
Heart: (blood pumping in a rush as she perks up) Oooohhh...well, maybe it won't be as traumatic this time...but you have to promise that we'll stop if it gets too heart bludgeoning.
Mind: Absolutely! I've got your back, Heart. (she says with her fingers crossed)

"God doesn't promise to keep the storms away, but he says he'll be with me through it. My faith won't protect me from the loss, but it will carry me and keep me from despair." (p 195)

What a tumultuous tempest of a read!  The parallels between real storms and the internal ones the characters wrestle with made a huge impact. Strips away the false facades to reveal the truth in all it's raw and wonderful glory.

Ty and Brette's love story might just be my favourite of the series (and not just because it looks like they actually get their HEA!) I think it comes from the brokenness in Brette and the way Ty doesn't run from it. They reconnect after she's come through a horrible ordeal and she doesn't know if it's finally over. She's survived by building walls around herself and the idea of knocking them down and allowing herself to be vulnerable is beyond her comprehension. Even if it's Ty on the other side of the wall.

Brette's battle within herself is so moving. As Kacey tells her at one point: "You have to stop seeing yourself through the eyes of your disaster and start seeing the woman you've become." (p 150) But Brette is grieving the loss of the pre-disaster woman and can't see the beauty in the one looking her in the mirror.

And Ty...Hero qualities galore. He's not perfect and he puts his foot in his mouth more than once when he tries to breach that wall around Brette. But he's steadfast. Unmoving. A prayer warrior. "And his heart said that someday, Brette would stop running. And when she did, he'd be standing there, waiting." (p 145)

But, oh mercy, is there angst and fear and danger and confusion! And heart palpitating kisses!!! Fainting couches and chocolate will be a necessity for this read. And you might want to grab some baby aspirin for your heart -- just in case -- because another pair of characters gave me conniptions -- I was like "Seriously, we're here again? Have you two learned nothing the past oh...what three years or so? " I almost washed my hands of them for once and for all. But then he...and she...and they...and, sigh, I melted like butter on a hot griddle. Again.

So I've made it nearly to the end of Storm Front and think I might just exit with my heart intact and then the cliffhanger ending happens! Noooo, seriously, Susan May Warren, you're just going to leave it there? I'm in such a tizzy now. I'd be really steamed except book 6, Wait for Me comes out in November. Phew! I think I can hang on that long. Maybe. With some intensive bibliotherapy sessions to help me make it through the next few months.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like a chance to win a copy of Storm Front, leave a comment below or email me at kavuvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add your email to a comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If  you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it's easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday September 2 018. Offer open to International Readers. Good luck!