Right Where We Belong

Silver Springs #4

by Brenda Novak

New York Times bestselling author Brenda Novak returns to Silver Springs with a moving story about rebuilding your life when you’ve got nothing left to lose

Savanna Gray needs a do-over. Her “perfect” life unraveled when, to her absolute shock, her husband was arrested for attacking three women. With her divorce settled, she takes her two children home to Silver Springs to seek refuge between the walls of the farmhouse where she was born. It needs a little TLC, but she’s eager to take control of something.

Gavin Turner understands the struggle of starting over. Abandoned at a gas station when he was five, it wasn’t until he landed at New Horizons Boys Ranch as a teen that he finally found some peace. He steps up when Savanna needs help fixing things—even when those things go beyond the farmhouse.

Despite an escalating attraction to Gavin, Savanna resolves to keep her distance. She trusted her ex, who had a similarly tragic background, and is unwilling to repeat her past mistakes. But it’s hard to resist a man whose heart is as capable as his hands.

Savannah’s life is horrible in the aftermath of her husband’s arrest.  She doesn’t feel like she can even leave her house because of the way she’s viewed by her neighbors – even though she didn’t even know that her husband was doing horrible things she’s been painted by his actions anyway.  So she decides to move … but she can’t leave her life completely behind.  She has to deal with contact from both her husband and his mother trying to get her to help him.  And the cops are convinced that she can help them.  It’s stressful and intense and gets even more so when new information comes to light.  Throw in an undeniable attraction to her neighbor and there’s a lot on her plate.

Gavin has complications of his own (which I won’t get into because it’s kind of a spoiler) but it is made even more difficult by the growing attraction to his neighbor.  He does what he can to help support her as she deals with her own troubles, not just with her family but with the falling down farmhouse she’s inherited.  Time spent together might not make things easier but it definitely shows both of them that their feelings aren’t going to go away.

I saw in another review where someone mentioned that it seemed like the main romance suffered a bit with the complications of other relationships for the two main characters and I kinda have to agree.  While the story is very well written (I wouldn’t expect less from Novak) and the suspense element with Savanna’s husband is definitely gripping, there wasn’t as much time spent with the two main characters together as I expected.   There is a HEA (as you’d expect), detailed characters, and a page-turner of a story … I just have a little trouble categorizing it as a true romance (it’s more of a woman’s fiction piece) so keep that in mind when you make your reading choices 🙂