Book Review — Fighting For Everything by Laura Kaye

“Don’t you understand that you’re everything to me?” she asked… “No matter how fucked up you think you are, no matter what problems you’re facing, you’re already enough for me!”

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This was a beautiful, intense friends-to-lovers romance that I read in one sitting and loved! It featured a swoony, broken former Marine hero who felt lost in the world he returned home to and a strong heroine who was determined to help her best friend since childhood heal but who she never expected to fall head over heels in love with.

“You’re everything to me…”
For a moment, silence rang loudly in the room, and then Noah’s heart was thundering so hard that the beat of his pulse in his ears was all he could hear. Everything? He was everything to her? How then fuck could that be, when he felt like so much… nothing?

After being discharged from the military, Noah struggled to adjust back to civilian life. The nightmares of what he’d survived and the friends he violently lost haunted him each day, and while his body wasn’t left physically scarred, the panic attacks resulting from his traumatic brain injury still affected his every day life leaving him depressed and desperate to reclaim any sense of the normality he’d once had. It was killing him to be surrounded by people who, no matter how much they cared for him, just didn’t understand the pain he was going through.

Sometimes, he really fucking wished he’d had a limb blown off, or that the injuries to the left side of his face hadn’t healed so well. Then at least he’d have an obvious reason for struggling to readjust to civilian life. Then people would look at him and just know what his fucking problem was.

The one bright spot in his life was his best friend. Every since childhood, she’d been there for him — a true kindred spirit. But their relationship had always been platonic before now — neither one of them every really seeing the other in a romantic light. However, for both of them, that was quickly beginning to change.

The attraction between them was strong and intense and neither one of them could deny it and soon they faced the reality that one way or another, their relationship would never be the same…

Kristina started at Noah’s back and wondered what the hell just happened.
The distant, sullen man who couldn’t be bothered to be interested in or spend five minutes with her was not the Noah she’d known most of her life. Tonight wasn’t the first time since he’d come home from the Marines that he’d acted weird around her. And weirdness was something they’d never had between them, not in all the years she’d known him, not when they’d confessed things to one another they would never otherwise say…
For a long moment, she stood at the edge of the party and debated, and then she decided — she wasn’t letting it go this time.
Her gut told her Noah needed her.

I think it’s a delicate balance to be able to make the whole “we can’t be more than friends or it’ll ruin everything” deal be believable in a story, but in this case I really found it did work. I’ll admit I was a wee bit annoyed with them at times, but on the other hand I could understand where they were coming from especially given the depth of their history and how sacred their friendship was to both of them. It was understandably precious to both of them.

Kristina got him like no one else did. She knew what he needed and how to make him feel better without pressing him to talk, without worrying over him, without making him feel like he couldn’t take care of himself. And even though that meant she realized that he wasn’t doing that damn great, the way she’d chosen to deal with it meant a lot to him. This. This was why Noah could never chance harming his relationship with Kristina.

This story was a lot hotter than I was expecting! As mentioned, Noah and Kristina shared an intense and undeniable attraction and that chemistry exploded over no matter how good their intensions to stay just friends were. I actually really loved the way they just couldn’t seem to stop themselves from being together.

“You’re the one I want. You’re the one I’ve always wanted. You’re my best friend, but you’re also the man I’ve fallen in love with.”

Overall, this was a great read. It was a very fast read for me — definitely a one-sitting story and one that I just devoured without stopping. It reads a standalone (complete with epilogue), but there will be more interconnected standalones in this series following this book that focus on other side characters/couples introduced in this book. It’s also written in third person, but from alternating POVs.

If you’re looking for something sexy but full of heart to read, check this out!

Rating: 4 stars!! Contemporary Adult Romance, can standalone.

• Buy FIGHTING FOR EVERYTHING (Kindle)
• Buy FIGHTING FOR EVERYTHING (Paperback)
• Buy FIGHTING FOR EVERYTHING (Audiobook)
• Buy FIGHTING FOR EVERYTHING (iBooks)

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Series of standalones.

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