Review: Worth Fighting For by Charity West

Book Blurb:

High School senior Lily Rhodes has been in love with her brother’s best friend nearly all her life. When nineteen year old Jake joins the Marines and is shipped overseas, she worries she’ll never see him again, and wishes she’d been braver before he left. Lily vows that if Jake comes home, she’ll tell him how she feels. But when Jake is injured by an IED and is discharged from the Marines, he comes home changed, bitter and broken. Despite the fact he's loved Lily for the past three years, he no longer feels worthy of someone like her. Not one to back down from a challenge, Lily knows the best things in life are worth fighting for.

My Review:

4 Out of 5 Stars

Genre: Romance, Teen--

Lily has always been in love with her older brother Riley's best friend Jake, but never had a chance to tell him before he enlisted in the marines. But now that Jake has been injured and honorably discharged, he is home and she has her chance to at least try and be his friend. But what Lily doesn't know is that Jake has had a crush on Lily for the last few years. But he refuses to act on his feelings since he doesn't want to have anyone deal with his disability. Can these two find each other when they need love the most?

I am a sucker for books with a wounded soldier and books with the romance between older brother best friend thing, so I was very interested in reading this story. I found the book to be a very sweet, clean (despite the fact both main characters were legal adults) happily ever after romance. I flew through the pages and it left me with a happy sigh of contentment.

The story has dual narration, switching at chapters between Lily and Jake. Lily was such a mature goal oriented character, not at all like most teenage girls. I mean seriously, what 18 year old wants to be a real estate agent as a full time job and a writer on the side? Anyway, she was incredibly level headed and was willing to be assertive about what she wanted, which I really appreciated. It was kind of sad/weird that she had literally no friends, so it must have been really hard to cope for the last 5 months with no people to talk to. Jake on the other hand had almost no idea what he wanted to do with his life and felt that he had nothing to offer anyone. But man did he walk on eggshells to make sure he respected and cherished Lily. I found Jake to be quite dreamy, pretty much everything about him appealed to me as love interest in the book, injuries and all. They were so sweet together, and I wouldn’t expect anything other than a happily ever after.

There were a few things that I did pick apart in the story, like how perfectly everything worked out. For example, you want to be a real estate agent? Poof, I have a relative who would love to make that happen for you since she just happens to be one too! You need a house, a job? Poof- here is everything you need! It was too easy (or maybe I was expecting more conflict- this book had VERY little conflict, mainly smooth sailing). Also, I would have loved more time with Lily and Jake together as a couple, it seemed as soon as they actually got together the story was wrapping up.

I would love to see more from these characters, like a book about Riley finding love a few years later with dashes of Lily/Jake love thrown in here (hint hint). This was my first book by this author and I found it to be a quick entertaining read and I am always up for a happily ever after. I would easily recommend this to anyone looking for a sweet, clean teen romance. I look forward to more by this author.

I received this title from the author in return for my honest review.