Monday, November 10, 2014

December Road by Brenda Ashworth Barry







 RATED 4.5 STARS












Beth Ann and Kaylob’s story continues in December Road.  Kaylob is in the hospital due to the injuries he endured in the Vietnamese prison camp.  He is suffering from physical and emotional scars that will take a long time to heal.  He has nightmares that become violent and he thrashes out at whoever is near, including his beloved Beth Ann.
Beth Ann never gives up on Kaylob though.  She is determined to stay and love him through thick and thin even though she is still officially engaged to Blake.  She wants to break it off with him but there never seems to be an opportunity as he dodges her calls and refuses to hear what she says when she gets the chance. 
Finally, as Kaylob heals, they begin to plan for their long awaited wedding with the blessings of both their families and their friends.  As their plans progress, a trip to visit Beth Ann’s grandmother reveals a long held secret that the couple decides to reveal and a nagging suspicion on Beth Ann’s part that someone may be following her.
The day finally arrives for the wedding and Beth Ann and Kaylob can now live happily ever after, right?

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Beth Ann and Kaylob are a perfect match and the relationship was much more realistic in this story.  Not everything went  perfectly for them.  They have loved each other since childhood so I really wanted them to work things out through the whole story.  Each one of them had some issues that they had to work through to get to their wedding day and they solved them in a believable manner.  I had to keep reminding myself that this story was not based in the present as some of Kaylob’s attitudes are really from the sixties and seventies and some of the time I felt he really expected Beth Ann to do his bidding in spite of what she may have felt.
Beth Ann was a lot more womanly in this story than the first one and she sure had her ups and downs but I liked that she was feisty and a little pushy.  It made me like her so much more.  I loved the relationship she had with her Grandma especially.  Her idea to play matchmaker was really cute and fun.
Blake is becoming obsessive about Beth Ann and that made for some tension that I appreciated.  It’s always good to have some conflict in a story and Barry handled it  well.  I was impressed by her grasp of his pain and how believable he was in his obsession.
Even though this is part two of a series, you could read this as a stand alone.  It was an enjoyable story with a cliffhanger ending.  Can’t wait for the next book!!
You can find December Road here:Amazon


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