The Marine Makes Amends by Victoria Pade

Posted January 27, 2021 by Marsha in Contemporary Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Special Edition, Owned or Purchased, Series / 0 Comments

Micah Camden ruined Lexie Parker’s life.

That might have been years ago, but now that she’s back in Merritt to care for her grandmother—who was hurt due to Micah’s oversight—she has no plans to forgive him.

But the former marine knows that he made mistakes back then and hopes to make amends with Lexie, if only so they can both move on from the past.

Everyone says Micah’s changed, but it’s going to take more than someone’s word to convince her…

Titles in The Camdens of Montana series include –  The Marine Makes Amends –  The Marine’s Baby Blues (May 2021)

Title:  The Marine Makes Amends
Series:  The Camdens of Montana #1
Author:  Victoria Pade
Romance Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Publication Date:  January 1, 2021
Rating:  4.5 stars

Sometimes my thoughts on a story are character-driven, I love who they turn out to be (at least by the ending).  And other times, it’s the story that pushes me to talk about a book – even when I wasn’t totally in love with some of the main characters.  That’s where I am with The Marine Makes Amends.  It is a heartbreaking story of a changed attitude, of growing up and taking responsibility for the past, and of becoming a better person because of the work done on themselves, even when it’s hard, even when trust has disappeared.

Lexie and Micah were part of a group of friends who had known each other from young childhood and together had gone through most of the stages of growing into their teen years.  All of that uniqueness of their group changed with one action (or inaction) of Micah’s.  By not speaking up to correct a wrong impression Lexie’s reputation was in tatters, she was sent to a boarding school far from home for her senior year of high school, and she was never able to reconcile with her father before his (and her mother’s) tragic deaths in a car accident.  For all of this, even a decade-plus years later, Lexie has never forgiven Micah and never intends to either.

Unfortunately, life didn’t turn out quite as Lexie expected.  She’d married her childhood sweetheart, moved away from her hometown that held such painful memories especially after her parents’ deaths, and recently is facing the disappointment of divorce.  Her beloved grandmother has taken a bad fall and Lexie is dashing to get home from Alaska – the last person she expected to see at the airport to pick her up was her worst enemy, Micah.

To go any further into the story would involve major spoilers.  The Marine Makes Amends is an emotional story on several levels.  It is the story of Lexie and Micah that drew me in and kept me emotionally engaged in their story.  Yet.  I could not have any empathy for Lexie until about 2/3 way through the story.  I was annoyed with the past Micah, but today he is a far different man than the young boy he was back then.  I believe it was Lexie’s stubborn need to hold onto her resentment, her anger even when faced with the reality that others forgave Micah, he was a good man, but she refused to see any of that and only continued to feed her anger with every encounter.  And, in fact, it was Lexie’s own actions that brought about some of the issues with her father – but, again, she couldn’t or wouldn’t see that.

Now, to be clear, I’m quite capable of loving a story when not liking all of the characters – so when I say that I loved, completely enjoyed the story of The Marine Makes Amends you can count on that opinion.  I adored Lexie’s grandmother, Micah’s grandfather, and definitely want to know more about Micah’s just returned home brother’s situation.  I’m now fully engaged in these families, this series… and eventually, Lexie grew on me as I started to understand her, but it took a while.  That happens sometimes.

I own a Kindle edition of this title.

Available in paperback and for your favorite e-reader, mine is the Kindle.

Divider

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.