'We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, we are going back from whence we came.’ 

My first LJ Evans book, even though this is a re-read, Eli and Ava were love at the very first page AND song for me. It is so rare to find authors who work so hard to mix the perfect song with each chapter (I only know a few) and it causes me to fall a little harder for their words, and LJ is no exception.  

Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset by Luke Bryant is the perfect song to introduce Eli and his grumpy- perfectionist-self to Ava's carefree, throw it all to the wind, self. It makes my heart happy each time I hear it now, and both times I've seen the words on the page. 

Eli is bound for one thing, a successful career in the Coast Guard, and all he can see when he first meets Ava is all that work crashing to the ground. 

"The ocean and me, we’d always been a thing. Twined together like almost nothing else in my life. It talked to my soul like some people said music or art talked to theirs."

What he soon feels is the draw from one soul to another, one soul born missing the piece that would fit his perfectly, and the yearning might just kill him. How is he supposed to let her walk away?

Ava is the embodiment of a free spirit, she's been a caged child her whole life, thanks to a father who's never seen her as anything but a burden. When she meets Eli she thinks he's a curmudgeon, surely sent there to drag her back to her Dad. When Eli proves he's fighting tooth and nail against what he sees as the "right" thing to keep spending time with her, to allow Ava her freedom, how does she walk away from that?

“Life and death are one, even as the river and the sea.”

This slow burn made me an instant fan of LJ Evans, so much so that I begged for an ARC of Forged By Sacrifice! If Military Romance, Found Family Slow Burn is your jam then Guarded Dreams will definitely be a dream come true for you as well!! 

☆☆☆5 super swoony stars for Eli and Ava!!☆☆☆

1-click here:

https://www.amazon.com/Guarded-Dreams-inspirational-slow-romance-ebook/dp/B07R4K7WM3

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