REVIEW: Exposed by J.C. Harroway

Exposed by J.C. Harroway: After Captain Eden Archer gets severely injured working abroad for the United Nations, her only goal is to get back in shape and move on with her work. Joining the Ruby Challenge, a four-day hike in the Nevada Ruby Mountains for others injured like her.

One of the challenge doctors is Dan Barbour, a widower who hasn’t felt a spark of attraction for someone until Eden. Eden feels the same spark, but she’s terrified to go deep or let him see her injuries.

But what starts out as her pushing him away develops into a bond stronger than the both of them as they undergo the Ruby Challenge together.

I’m in general just left annoyed by this story. Starting with the challenge idea, it was barely mentioned or brought up in the story. I’m generally a fan of the focus being more on the couple, but the challenge barely felt like background setting – so definitely don’t expect a hiking or wilderness romance!

The worst bit though was Eden. She was just plain unlikable. While I get bitterness and her pain, she had no interesting spark or moment where I could enjoy her and see why Dan was falling for her. Instead, she constantly pushed him away, going back and forth between wanting a relationship and not, and I ended up just feeling bad for Dan.

Overall, this romance just left me with a bad aftertaste. I wanted to like them and their romance because both were interesting characters. But in the end I felt let down by his weakness and her anger.
 

Book Info:

Publication: October 4, 2017 | Escape Publishing |

Before you can heal, you must accept that you’ve been broken…

When an accident leaves her with severe burns, Captain Eden Archer has one goal — to get back to full fitness and her duties at her United Nations job. Eden is not a joiner, but the Ruby Challenge — a four-day hike across Nevada’s Ruby Mountains — seems like a great way to boost her rehabilitation, and to prove herself ready and able to move on. She just has to get through the pre-challenge medical.

As a doctor in Accident and Emergency, Dan Barbour is used to dealing with people in pain, people in denial, and people who don’t much like doctors, but the prickly servicewoman who dismisses his medical skills awakens an interest that has long been dormant.

The Ruby Mountain hike is as much about the emotional challenge as the physical, and as Eden and Dan find themselves getting closer and closer, they both face enormous obstacles. Eden protects her heart with distance and reserve; Dan keeps everyone at bay by being wholly unavailable. But if they stay true to their old course, they will lose the one chance at a real connection, the one chance to really find someone to love.

A broken-hearted doctor and a reluctant patient should be a match made in heaven, but are Eden and Dan strong enough to find courage outside of their respective battlefields and expose their hearts?