ARC REVIEW The Military Wife by Laura Trentham

A Heart of a Hero #1, Laura Trentham is wonderful when it comes to small town romance, with this new series it's  more Women's Fiction with a romance. What I loved about this book was the alternating of past and present it was a nice touch you get to see all the best and the worst memories Harper and Bennett had with Noah at the same time you get to see Harper and Bennett fall in love and Harper finally finds what she was meant to do with her life. Told in the third person but switches perspective between Harper and Bennett.

We also meet Allison and Darren. Darren is an officer and Allison is his wife, mother of three, and Harper's best friend. Darren is feeling the effects of PTSD but too ashamed to admit he needs help doesn't feel like he deserves the help. Harper can tell Allison needs someone to really talk to and goes to visit her on that visit she attends one of the group meetings for the wives and hears the same stuff she heard when she was in their shoes so she comes up with a plan to help out military wives who feel like they need to do more than just fill the time. Harper has the start up money she was given a large sum when Noah died. But when Allison tells her one of the guys on the team gave her that money and not the NAVY Harper tracks down Bennett Caldwell to return the money.

Bennett meet Noah in BUDs and they formed a fast friendship, they became brother's in every way except blood. When Noah found out Harper was pregnant he had Bennett promise him if anything should happen he would take care of Harper and the baby. The entire friendship Bennett avoided meeting Harper, through all the emails and letter that Noah shared Bennett had fallen in love with her. He left the SEALs after Noah died and thought that giving Harper all that money would be enough to take care of the baby and herself. He never expected to see her again after handing over the money but here she is five years later trying to give it back.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was such an emotional journey not just for Harper and Bennett but for Allison and Darren too. This book made me cry and laugh and cry. This was a wonderful second chance romance and a wonderful story of a woman helping other women and finally getting on with her life and moving on. A lot of lessons in this too, like learning how to accept help and learning to let go of guilt.