No One but You

When Sly, an angry, powerful, and controlling police officer goes after his soon-to-be ex-wife, Sadie, the situation is frightening, to say the least. They have a vulnerable five-year-old son, Jayden, who in a position to receive any backlash from Sly’s vindictive behavior. Sly refuses to move on and will do anything to get Sadie back. His jealously over Sadie’s new employer, Dawson, who was found innocent of murdering his parents, creates a rage that builds and becomes practically impossible to control. This second book in the Silver Spring series is intense. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for someone to be on Sadie and Dawson’s side. The characters were realistic and the action never ending. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one in this well-written, poignant series.

Sadie Harris is struggling to make it on her own after she served her husband Sly divorce papers but she has had enough of the way he treats their 5 year old son, Jayden. Unfortunately, Sly is a cop in their small town of Silver Springs and he has blocked every attempt she has made at trying to better herself. With no other choice, Sadie decides to answer a newspaper ad placed by Dawson Reed. Dawson needs someone to help take care of his mentally challenged sister, Angela. Dawson also was just recently released from jail. He was charged with the brutal murder of his adoptive parents, but was ultimately found not guilty. Of course, most people in town still think he really is guilty.

Sadie quickly realizes that Dawson is not at all what she expected him to be. He is actually very nice, sweet and caring. Dawson needs Sadie's help so he can bring his sister home from facility she has been in for the past year and Sadie is grateful for the job. Of course, Sly tries to stop her from working there. Sly always likes to have total control over Sadie and he is having a hard time dealing with the fact that she wants a divorce. Dawson quickly comes to Sadie's defense which irritates Sly even more.

Between the town treating Dawson poorly and Sly trying to make life miserable for Sadie, they bond quickly as "the outsiders" of the town. Dawson and Sadie quickly form a great relationship. They both are attracted to each other, but neither one of them will act on it. Just when their lives are starting to move forward, disaster happens and Dawson and Sadie rely on each other more for emotional support. I loved how these two got together over similar problems and ended up helping each other and ultimately finding love in the process. I really enjoyed the suspenseful part of this story....it really kept me reading to see what was going to happen next. I also really enjoyed the part of the story about who really killed Dawson's adoptive parents....it was a great tie-in! Overall another really great story in the Silver Springs series by Brenda Novak.

Being such a big fan of Brenda Novak's it pains me to give one of her books such a low rating. I really think this one didn't work for me mostly because of the issues addressed. The writing as expected was stellar, the characters well developed, and the story moved along nicely. What I didn't like was the abusive ex husband Sadie has to deal with. I wanted her to stand up to him so she really frustrated me. Dawson was just as frustrating to me. Why did he want to stay in a small-minded town that hated him so much? Being frustrated with the two main characters just made me angry rather than the relaxing escape I usually find while reading.