Review

Sigh. How do I put into words how much I loved Within Reach? I’m not sure I can without constantly repeating myself. However, for the sake of this review I will try.

When Billie dies she leaves behind Michael, her grieving husband, her two children and her best friend, Angie. Their combined grief, as you can imagine, is immeasurable.

Ten months after his wife’s death, Michael is barely coping. In his own words, he says he and his kids are getting by. Angie, although still struggling with her best friend’s death, has been there for them and intends to be there for them throughout. Billie’s family is like her family and they see her in the same light. That is until she starts seeing Michael in a very different light. As a man. A very handsome and virile man.

To make matters even more complicated, Michael begins to see Angie as a beautiful, desirable woman who is there urging him, pushing him to reconnect with life, with his children’s lives.

They need you to be a fully functioning human being first and foremost, Michael.   

But this attraction between them only brings forth feelings of guilt and a sense that they’re somehow betraying Billie’s memory, so they do their best to suppress, ignore it, survive it until they can get back to seeing each other as they always did before: Billie’s husband and Billie’s best friend.

Of course that doesn’t work and the attraction between them continues to build until they finally act on it—and then suffer the nine agonies of regret.

Sarah Mayberry, who is admittedly one of my all-time favourite authors, is a master at crafting an emotional romance that doesn’t just tug but rips the heartstrings. The sexual tension between Angie and Michael is taut and hot. Everything that leads up to the first love scene is just incredible. I felt every single emotion right alongside both characters.

Michael is an incredible hero. Love him, love him, LOVE HIM. He really does fight his attraction to Angie hard. And I mean hard. He’s angry with himself and tortured for these new feelings he has for Angie, and during one memorable scene when he comes upon her in the kitchen barely dressed, takes his anger out on her.

With Angie, you can clearly see why Michael is so attracted to her. She’s wonderful. So caring and loving with his children. She’s their rock, preparing meals, picking up the kids from school and a wonderful adult companion to him. Someone who knows what he’s going through because his loss is also her loss. And how she loves him. Sigh. Honestly, Michael would be an idiot to let her go. Michael is, of course, not an idiot.

This love story is not only gut-clenching in its poignancy but hot. And I do mean hot. Ms. Mayberry brings some of the heat—okay maybe more than some—you see in her Blaze novels, to this Super Romance. Yes, there is this wonderful build-up to the first love scene and the payoff is just as terrific. Grab a fan because this book is packing some serious heat. And for me, there’s nothing better than getting this kind of heart-wrenching romance with some major heat.

I’ll wrap up this review by saying don’t let the very tame cover fool you. This is a must read not only for Sarah Mayberry fans, but for lovers of emotional, gripping and sexy romances. Any book I can devour multiple times in the span of a couple weeks is definitely worthy of the Chart Topper rating. It’s gold for a reason. Romance books simply don’t get better than this.

Reviewed by Beverley