Title: Rare and Precious Things
Author:  Raine Miller
Publisher/Year:  Atria Books 2/26/14
Length:   263 Pages
Series:  The Blackstone Affair #4

Overview

Fresh from an idyllic honeymoon along the Italian coast, the Blackstones prepare for the birth of their precious baby while facing the challenges of settling into a new home and married life. But when specters from the past resurface, so do their lingering doubts. Fears about those things they struggle to understand about each other, threaten the very foundation of their relationship. 
The story of two souls who both need the other in order to be complete…
A husband and a wife who learn just how rare their love truly is when faced with losing it…
Two lovers who will have to lay bare their darkest fears so that they may find peace… 

“I need you like I need air to breathe. You are my air, Brynne.” -Ethan Blackstone

My Thoughts

Silly me – here i thought that book three was the final one and that this was a trilogy. Whoopsies! What we have instead is a great forth book to this series – seeing how life continues and hoping that things will finally smooth out for this couple. Like that’s really possible.

We’ve left off from the last installment with Ethan and Brynne living somewhat of their happily ever after. Now they are married, they have a baby on the way and life seems like it’s going in the right direction. We know Brynne’s past and she’s trying to cope – especially now that we know her life is no longer in danger. Ethan however still has his nightmares and his ghosts from the past and we’ve yet to truly get to the bottom of it. Are they strong enough of a couple to help each other through the darkness? that’s the biggest question in this forth installment.

Throughout this story, we’re kept in the romantic bubble between these two. Their chemistry continues to be off the chart, but what i would want to be true happiness that brings them together is often a need for pain and a need to hide from pain. They share that – the fact that their past torments them and as a result they cling to each other for survival.

There are several different paths that this next book takes us down. We see at Neil and Elaina’s wedding that the past is now the present with the appearance of Sarah – the wife of a fallen soldier from when Ethan was held captive. That brings so much to the forefront for him, and makes Brynne question her role in life. Sarah makes Brynne uncomfortable and jealous and uncertain, and being pregnant doesn’t help.

Then there’s Lance – he’s reappeared through a trauma of his own and he’s trying to get time with Brynne to iron out the past. There’s so much weighing on Brynne in the sense that she’s wary to listen to him because she doesn’t know his motivations, and she also doesn’t know if it’s healthy for her to let him have a chance.

Add to that yet even more life and death situations, and well we’ve got an exciting finale to this series. Even the best laid plans don’t ensure that we’re going to have a happy ending and when we find ourselves in dire straights again, well, we can only hope that there are angels looking down on this family to be. We can only hope that they’ve built up enough good juju that things will work out on the positive. To learn that – you’ll have to read! Enjoy!