Love Me Gently by Stacey Lynn

Book Review #StaceyLynn #FirstLove #LawEnforcement #SingleDad #SlowBurn #valentineprlm @valentine_pr_

This novel reads like a new chapter and exploration in Stacey Lynn’s writing journey. Love Me Gently is the first novel in the Deer Creek series and it takes a very gentle and head first approach to a second chance romance between a woman, who has been physically abused and emotionally manipulated by men who held power over her in her career and marriage, and her small town high school sweetheart, who is a divorced father and police officer. Lynn approaches this novel with a beautiful care around the domestic violence, bringing this story to life with the understand and truth it needs in order to be told.

This novel is one that will tug at your heart strings, it will make you contemplate what you would do for your dreams, and it will make you believe in the inner strength we all have inside ourselves. This novel, while a romance, is truly the journey of a woman breaking out of a cycle of abuse, learning to love herself again, learning to forgive herself, and fighting for a future that she could not imagine. In the sidelines is our hero, who is kind and gentle and only wants what is best for the heroine. This novel is about the everyday moments, the quiet in between as we grow. This novel is truly about understanding and a rebuilding of trust, it is about the emotional care and strength, so this novel does not have a physical expression of love which I found to be the right choice in light of where our heroine is throughout and at the end of this story.

This novel will not be for everyone, but if you are looking for a journey of strength and breaking out of a cycle of abuse, then I would recommend giving this novel a chance. Stacey Lynn’s writing is clear and full of understanding, she lays out the situations in a manner that the reader absorb in a safe and open way that keeps us from judging the situation but getting an idea of how it came to be and why it continues. Lynn also shows the reader that the inner strength of someone is resilient and beautiful and finding the help you need through friends, family and therapy is a level of bravery that should be celebrated.

Thank you to Valentine PR for an eARC, all thoughts and opinions are my own.