Review and giveaway: When You're Ready by J.L Berg

Can his love mend the pieces of her grieving heart? Years after suffering the tragic loss of her husband, Ethan, which left her alone to raise their young daughter, Clare Murray still holds the last letter he wrote with the words “When You’re Ready” written in his familiar messy handwriting, unable to break its weathered seal. Ready for what? He was her entire world, and Clare had accepted a life without him, without love. Until years later, fate brings her to an emergency room, and face to face with a stormy-eyed doctor intent on changing her mind. Logan Matthews is the son of a billionaire who has spent his entire life trying to make his absent father proud. Years of living up to a man who was more ghost than father, and a publicly failed marriage has left Logan cold and emotionless until he walks into an exam room and discovers a woman who can stop his heart, make his body burn with desire and leave his entire world altered. But how far are Clare and Logan willing to go for love? When their love is tested, is Clare ready to put her whole heart on the line again? Can Logan learn the true meaning of love, even if it means sacrificing his own happiness? When a second chance at love is given, Clare and Logan learn you never know if you are truly ready until you’re ready to risk it all.

4 Star Review by Jen Hagen

I am gluten for punishment.  I knew this book would make me cry, but yet I read it during the daylight hours.  I usually save my crying for when it’s dark and the house is quiet so that the kids and husband are not aware of my secret downfall.  Even though I cried, I am still left with a warm fuzzy feeling towards the couple and for their bravery in finding love again.

 

Clare is a widowed single mother to a 4-year-old daughter, Maddie.  Her husband died 3 years ago and she has devoted her life to raising her daughter.  One evening she is finding herself in the ER covered in her daughter’s vomit when the Dr. McSteamy appears. 

 

Logan is Dr. McSteamy.  He is a billionaire’s son who is escaping the scandalous name he placed upon his family when his marriage fell apart.  He is a doctor by day, playboy by night.

 

“Yeah, well everyone has a hobby.  Some people cliff dive, others garden or practice meditation.  I just happen to excel at going to bars, drinking and picking up women.”

 

 But when he meets Clare he has a new outlook on his life and he realizes he wants his life to change.

Logan and Clare’s relationship is initially built on friendship and trust.  Logan doesn’t want to rush into anything because he wants Clare to realize that this is different from all the other women he’s been with.  He is in this for the long haul and he continually proves it to her even when she needs a shoulder to cry on when the anniversary of her husband’s death arrives. 

 

I loved how Logan became a doting father figure to Maddie.  He loved that little girl like she was his own daughter.   Logan also gave up his womanizing ways the night he met Clare.   No more going to the bars to dull the pain and no more one night stands.  But can he handle the stress of becoming an instant father and did he change his ways too fast?

 

“I thought I was ready for this.  Ready to be with one person for the rest of my life, and ready to be a father.  But I don’t think I am.”

 

Before Ethan passed away he wrote a letter to Clare and had sealed it in an envelope with the words “When You’re Ready” written on the front.  Clare has always wondered when the time would come that she would need to know what was in that envelope.  How many of us would have waited?  Not me…I would have opened that letter up immediately.  Bless Clare for having the patience of a saint to know that there would be a specific time in her life when she would need some guidance.  And that time has arrived…

 

“Now I had to decide how strong I was, how much I was willing to give up again for love.”

 

 

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