Reviewer: Connie Payne
Title: Where He Belongs
Author: Gail Barrett
Publisher: Silhouette
E-ISBN: 0-373-24722-2
Release Date: November 2005
Genre/Sub-genre: Series Romance
Year/Setting: Present Day - Maryland
Overall rating: 4.25
Sexual content rating: Subtle/Sensual
Gail's Website: www.gailbarrett.com
Smokejumper Wade Winslow rides back into Millstown on his Harley after an absence of 12 years. He doesn't intend to stay any longer than necessary. But Max, his foster/adopted father is dying. A man who took him in and saved him from the pain, physically and mentally, inflicted by his father. A man who believed in him when the rest of the town didn't. When the rest of the town blamed him for his father's sins.
But there was someone else who believed in him. Erin McCuen. She'd been in love with Wade since their school days. She'd understood him because they had similar, yet different, history. She saw underneath his gruff and nonchalant exterior to the scared and caring boy he was. Just as she see's the compassionate but strong man he's become.
It's not long before Wade discovers his plans to hightail it out of town in a hurry are changed. He's executor of Max's estate, which keeps him in town, renting a room from Erin at the deathbed request of Max.
Erin desperately needs the income renting the room will provide--she's caring for an invalid Grandmother, the house that's been in the family for ten generations is all but falling apart around her, she's in debt up to her eyeballs--but she's never gotten over Wade, and she knows he'll never stay.
Before long, Wade is given the opportunity of helping a young teen, Sean, the way Max helped him. He loves the challenge of reaching Sean, but he's scared of the responsibility. He's afraid of the feelings growing for Erin, for Sean and for the other boys who need his help, who gravitate toward him. As these feelings and responsibilities pile up the urge to run grows stronger.
Erin won't let herself rely on Wade because she can see it in his eyes...he's planning on leaving again. But in spite of that she takes what she can get from him because she's afraid it'll have to last a lifetime.
What's it going to take for Wade to realize he's not the loser the town made him feel like? What's it going to take for Wade to see he can have it all with Erin?
It was nice to be privvy to Wade's insecurities practically from the beginning. His anxieties and fears being out in the open for the reader made him more endearing, made it much easier to root for him than if he was aloof to Erin.
Erin's pride and desperate need to be accepted and liked by the town was almost her downfall. I kept mentally urging her on, coaxing her right along with Wade.
Though the beginning seemed to be a bit slow and in places stilted that soon passed. I found as I read Where He Belongs there was something about it...it wasn't an all-consuming page-turner, but I did feel a bit of a sense of urgency as I read it. I was caught up in the lives and inner workings of the two main characters, with the metamorphis of both Erin and Wade. Gail has a way of placing the reader in the scene without them realizing she's done so.
Gail Barrett's debut novel taps right into many of the emotions and feelings we've all experienced. Where He Belongs proves that opposites don't always attract, that sometimes those with similar experiences and feelings can fall in love and be all the stronger for it.
It appears Gail has found her niche with Silhouette Special Editions. I don't imagine it will take her too long to hit her stride and then some. She's definitely on her way!
Oh, and did we get a teaser at the end of who Gail's next book might be about? I hope so.
Connie
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