Review of ‘Guarding Hearts’ by Jaycie Morrison

This was another good installment in the Love and Courage series. My first thought after reading book 2 was that I figured it should be the end of the series, that a third book wasn’t really needed. I have to admit I was wrong. I enjoyed this book 3 and felt comfortable reading it. I was happy to revisit characters that feel like old friends and now I don’t want this series to end. I don’t know how many more stories about the Women’s Army Corps Morrison has left in her head, but I will miss these characters if this is the end.

The way the first two books are written, part of the timeline overlaps but is seen through different characters in each book. Because of that, I thought you really could read either of the two books in any order. After reading this book, now order really does matter. Not only characters but multiple storylines ran into this book from the previous books. I think if you start reading here you will be a bit confused and might not enjoy the series as much as you could. So again, I’m taking back what I said during my last Morrison review and highly recommending that you read this series in order.

This series is historic-romance, but it is also a little soap-opera-like. There is a lot of drama that goes on so that this feels like a more modern series. I sometimes even forget that this is taking place in the 1940s. I don’t mean that as a knock on Morrison because she clearly transports you to a different time, it’s just that I get so wrapped up in these characters that I feel like I could run into them on the street.

While there are plenty of small plot lines that keep things moving, this really is a character-driven series -which may be why I find it very comfortable-. The characters of Rain and Bett, who are in all three books, are the stars of this series. I knew from a Zoom reading with Morrison that she was going to challenge them, which brought some new drama to keep things interesting. Rain and Bett have slowly been making their way up on my list of favorite couples. After all the growth they have had over three books, and Rain being totally crush-on-able, this couple has made their mark on my heart.

I have to be honest that these books are not perfect. There are times I feel Morrison starts something but then forgets about it and it leaves me scratching my head. Like what was the big gift Rain bought? And there are also times I feel the villains of the books are a bit too mustache-twirling for my tastes, but I still like this series bumps and all. This series has really grown on me and I can’t seem to shake it. If this is the end of the series I will miss it, if not, I will read the next. I would suggest this to historical-romance and military romance fans, especially if you like character-driven, with some drama, stories. 3.50 Stars.

An ARC was given to me for an honest review.