Hail Mary ~ Lani Lynn Vale

Title: Hail Mary

Series: Hail Raisers #6

Author: Lani Lynn Vale

Genre: Romance Suspense 

Release Date: February 9, 2018

Mary Persephone Hail Mary—well-wished-for child. Persephone—destruction. Hail—well that speaks for itself. Her name is painful to think about. Mary, his newfound daughter, isn’t a wished-for child. Persephone, though? Yeah, destruction is a fitting description. And Hail? Yeah, that’s just the final f-you. The moment that her mother drops her off on his doorstep, Dante’s hell becomes complete. Or so he thinks. What can make life worse after losing one’s wife and kids, you ask? Here’s what: being given a baby that depends on him for her survival. Finding out that the baby’s mother is dying of brain cancer, and has a husband that he never knew about. A husband that Dante knows in the marrow of his bones is trying to kill her just as surely as the cancer eating her brain. Dante’s a bad person. He’s done some not so nice things, and now he’s being punished for his misdeeds. Karma is finally catching up to him. This child that he’s been stuck with is of his flesh and bone. This child is his salvation. This child is the final nail in the coffin of his wife and daughters’ too short lives. He doesn’t want this child. But this child will save him whether he wants her to or not. With the help of a friend—yes, a woman friend—Dante finds his way back to life. But what he finds when he gets back isn’t the same life that he left behind. Turns out, he has to start living a new one. One where he's suddenly having feelings for a friend that helped him get through some tough times, and loving a daughter that won’t let him quit.

Dante was living in a self imposed exile after losing his wife and kids when one error of judgement, assisted by alcohol, turned his life around. One sweet little bundle of innocence that was literally abandoned on his doorstep in his bleak cabin in the woods. But there's a catch. Everything else still keeps going to Hell around him.
Enter Cobie. The best friend of the woman who dropped off the baby on his doorstep. Dante made a promise to the mother of his brand new baby to watch over Cobie and keep her safe. Little did Dante know it would be Cobie and little Mary that would combine their superpowers and bring him out of that dark cabin in the woods and back to life. But all is not safe back in the real world. There's a very bad man who wants destroy Dante and everything he loves....again.

Oh Lord. Keep the tissues handy and get ready for some ugly crying. There's so many reasons this book will break your heart so just know you've been warned. I was looking forward to Dante's story and it was terribly sad. But you can't help but feel for the guy when you realize what all he's been through and it just won't stop. I did feel he was a real jerk at a couple points and I wanted to quit him, but....
I loved Cobie! I think she had an inner strength that I only hope I can find if I ever find myself facing the life altering events she has to.

I got this book as an arc and I give it 4 stars.

“If you keep pronouncing the L in salmon, I’m going to stab you in the dick with a kah-nife. Dante to his brother Travis”

#MeatyThud

I came to the LLV party late, so I’m playing catch up…and damn, what a great game it’s turning out to be.  Just when I think her books can’t possibly get any better, she up and pulls off a Hail Mary…see what I did there? ;-)  I caught glimpses of Dante in a couple other books of course, so I was intrigued to see how his story would play out.  Damn, I didn’t know that I could love and hate someone as much as I did Dante.  Sure, his life was totally turned inside out and I knew he would probably be hard to love…and he was, for about a minute, but then I fell hard and never looked back.  Losing your family so tragically but then being given the gift of sweet baby Mary would be enough to make anyone break.  Enter Cobie, the best friend of Dante’s one night stand with Mary’s Momma, and a lost soul of her own.  Cobie has her mind set on being alone, for as long as she may have left on this earth, she never expected to feel the way she feels about Dante, but love is funny that way.  This story is full of alpha males, powerful females, precious babies, such deep loss and then love that your emotions will overflow onto every single page.  Can two broken people let down their guard long enough to see that they need each other to heal, that they need each other to love, and that together they are perfect for each other?  The answer is a great big yes.   It takes some convincing, lots of hot loving, and finally being able to trust each other enough for the healing and happily ever after to begin. 

*ARC provided for an honest review* 5 stars. ~Dirty Lady TaTa~

“How do I articulate how amazing this story is?” - Cali Gals “Thanks Lani for a couple so beautifully broken that it makes me want to wrapped them up and never let go.” - One Last Page Book Blog “Another amazing read from Lani Lynn Vale. Again.” - Books After Fifty…

I’m a married mother of three. My kids are all under 8, so I can assure you that they are a handful. I’ve been with my paramedic husband now for ten years, and we’ve produced three offspring that are nothing like us. I live in the greatest state in the world, Texas.

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