Easy by Tammara Webber

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Rescued by a stranger.

Haunted by a secret.

Sometimes, love isn’t easy…

He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior…

The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.

I cannot express enough how hard I have fallen for this book, so much so that I couldn't bear to tear myself away from it at any time.  And while I have the eBook, I need to own a hard copy because there are some pages I just want to read over and over again.

Easy starts off with Jacqueline a bit lost after being dumped by her boyfriend she’s known since high school.  Realizing how much her social circle depended on him and that she gave up a part of herself to be with him when she followed him to college, she's just a bit bitter, confused and depressed. Who wouldn't be? Two weeks after the break up, as she's leaving a frat party, she is assaulted by a mutual friend. Thankfully, someone comes along and saves her before things go too far. Turns out her rescuer is Lucas who so happens to be in one of the classes she's been avoiding for the past two weeks since her breakup.

Encouraged by her friends to think of Lucas as the perfect rebound material, Jacqueline decides to pursue him. As she finds herself opening up to him, she gets curious about his past and the secrets he's keeping.

Here are the many things I loved about Easy:  I felt that the fallout from Jacqueline’s assault was natural. The fear and guilt she carried with her, her roommate's reaction when she finally told her and how Jacqueline was choosing to deal with it were all valid. Nothing felt out of step that I couldn’t believe in how things were moving along. Webber also set a lovely pace for Jacqueline’s and Lucas’ relationship to develop. They have this quiet, intense chemistry between them. Honestly, some of the passages are so steamy, I was blushing! It's impossible to not fall for Lucas. Even though there was a heavy undercurrent, somehow as these two people were falling in love, earning each other's trust and learning to deal with the traumatic events in their lives, they still managed to have hope.

Perhaps what’s most endearing about Easy is that as the hero, Lucas isn’t content with just being Jacqueline’s savior and protector. He’s determined that she learn to empower herself and face her fear head on. There’s something so sweet about how Lucas treats Jacqueline and how she responds to him. Just look at the cover that so perfectly embodies how he sees her. He never treats her as incompetent or incapable. It's a change of pace from the guy/hero treating the girl as simply inept at fully grasping the complexity of a given situation thereby giving her as little information as possible and getting annoyed with her because she doesn't get the big picture.

Kudos to Tammara Webber for creating this gorgeous piece of work that just effortlessly grabbed me and gave me warm fuzzies. When I finished it, my reaction was much like how I felt about last year's Saving June by Hannah Harrington.  Easy left a glowing smile on my face because out of something so nightmarish, something incredibly beautiful came along.

~ Bel