Hero by Lauren Rowe | Review

Publisher: self-published
Release Date: March 12, 2018 (out now!)
Source of my copy: author
Series: Morgan Brothers #3/standalone
My rating:

Synopsis
The first time I laid eyes on Lydia Decker, I couldn’t speak. Or breathe. Or string two coherent thoughts together.

And I don’t mean any of that figuratively.

I’m not talking about a guy being floored by the sight of a gorgeous woman—although, of course, Lydia is gorgeous beyond words.

No, when I first laid eyes on Lydia Decker—my physical therapist—I was lying flat on my back in the ICU, high as a kite on painkillers, breathing on a ventilator, my bones as broken and splintered as my spirit.

When I first laid eyes on Lydia Decker, she was a ray of light in the dark. Hope for the hopeless. A salve for my singed and battered soul.

She said she’d been assigned to fix me. That she was there to bring me back to life. She said helping me was her calling.

And then she touched me. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. She healed me.

And I fell in love.

But what I didn’t know... what I couldn’t possibly know... was that Lydia Decker needed fixing far more than I ever did.

I'm part of Lauren's Review Team on Facebook and we're required to keep the plot details in our review very vague as not to spoil anything. If it's not revealed in the synopsis, I'm not going to say it so with that in mind...

I'm going to come right out the bat saying Hero was ultimately a beautiful read about love and second chances after a tragedy and family, but if I'd known what type of second chance romance it was (which wasn't revealed in the synopsis) I wouldn't have picked it up. Hero's type of one-sided second chance romance in which there is competition and comparison between the past and the present is not my cup of tea. I personally don't gravitate towards it and I've always skipped out on books with this trope. After learning about this detail in the first chapter, I kind of dragged myself in reading the rest of Colby and Lydia's love story little by little in over a week's period.

But, because it's a Lauren Rowe book and I'm in love with her writing and the Morgan family, I ultimately enjoyed Hero and in the end I can appreciate the arc of Colby and Lydia's love story.

Things I love about Hero...

Lauren Rowe's writing. Like I said I love Lauren's writing. She writes love stories that are a perfect mix of humor, drama, her signature steam, swoon-y moments, heroes you wish are real and heroines you want to be best friends with, and it's no different in Hero.

The Morgan family. I love the Morgans and I've been following them since being introduced to them in Ball Peen Hammer (Colby's brother Keane's book) a couple of years ago. I wish I was part of the crazy but lovable Morgan family. I've just fallen in love with them all. My favorite parts in Hero were the scenes between Colby and his siblings just talking and teasing each other. As a reader, you can feel the love and strong bond between the Morgans radiate out of the pages of each of the books in the series and you become immersed in their family with each book, especially since Hero, Captain (Colby's brother Ryan's book), and the last three books in The Club series (which features Colby's sister Kat--I haven't read the series but I'm DYING to) are happening at the same time. Seeing some of the same big Morgan family events through different characters' eyes is a unique reading experience and I love putting together the pieces from each character to form a bigger picture.

Colby. He isn't my favorite Morgan brother. Keane is still my favorite, but while Keane is my book boyfriend, Colby is my book husband. His siblings have commented that he's their rock and it was great seeing him in action in this book. He had so many heart-melting moments in Hero that it's hard not to fall in love with Colby. 

Lydia. Like the synopsis said, Colby might be broken physically, but Lydia was broken at a deeper level and it was lovely to see her grow with Colby. 

Theo, Izzy, and Bea. These three were the most precious things ever. I'm not going to say who they are because of spoilers. But, they touched my heart and I love their scenes with Colby.

Like I said, on a personal standpoint I wouldn't have picked up Hero on my own if I'd known about more about the plot, but ultimately I did enjoy Colby and Lydia's story, and I LOVED spending more time with the Morgans--my absolute favorite fictional family. I can't wait to get my hands on Dax Morgan's book and I am counting down the days until I can get back to the Morgans.