Book Review: You and Only You by Sharon Sala

You and Only You by Sharon Sala is part of her Blessings Georgia series. Each of the books can stand on their own, but the like most small town settings there is plenty of carry over and cross over characters in each of the books.

Mike Dalton has secretly loved LilyAnn Bronte since they were all children together in the small town of Blessings, Georgia. But one fateful day T.J. Lachlan roars into town and starts showering LilyAnn with his charm, and Mike feels his dream of them being more than friends slipping away. LilyAnn, as anyone in Blessings will tell you, let herself go after her fiancée was killed in Iraq. A look at the handsome new guy shocks her into a revelation: she's ready to live again, and maybe the best is yet to come. The thing is, everybody in Blessings is sure it's Mike and LilyAnn who belong together-and they're willing to do whatever it takes to make LilyAnn realize the love of her life has been by her side all along.

You and Only You is a read that had enough danger and frustration in it to have me clutching my Kindle a little harder than I should on occasion.  Mike and LilyAnn have been neighbors and best friends forever, and everyone but LilyAnn seems to know that Mike has loved her just as long. I had my fears in the beginning that this book was going to turn into one of the 'big girl finds love despite the fact she is big' romances, or the 'big girl transformers herself and catches the guy' kind of books. I was glad that LilyAnn turned out to be a smarter character than that, and was both independent and tough no matter what she had to survive. While I will admit to thinking Mike was a bit of a doormat on occasion, I like that he stepped up and acted like I hoped he would eventually. The book kept me interested and fairly consistently frustrated through the read, but I liked that Mike seemed to be well aware of the fact that the problems he faced was because of the lack of communication, and eventually too the steps to fix that. I also liked that in the opening of the book I was not quite sure if Mike was going to get his HEA, maybe because I so rarely read the summary if I have already read a few books from the same author. So the initial set up had me questioning which guy was going to be the hero and which was going to lose his mind. The big climax was bigger than I expected and began the resolution nicely. However, I found that there was a little too much extra after their avowals of love. It was nice and well written, but not really necessary.

You and Only You was more dramatic than I expected, but the love story and occasional, light religious tones were exactly what I did expect from Sala. It was a well written read, and one that I think fans of the author and small town romances will enjoy.