From Ashes to Flames

by A.M. Hargrove

There are days that test your patience and other days that stretch that very same patience to breaking point and for Marin McLain, that was the start of not only why but how she was in the position that we find her in, a day from hell had pushed her to the brink, after losing her job, she later discovered that her “loving” boyfriend and her “best friend” weren’t exactly worthy of the titles they had, because there was very little loving or friend-like going on when she caught the pair of them in a rather compromising situation.
Retreating both mentally and physically Marin was practically reclusive after returning to live with her parents and for the most part, her folks had been the support that she needed but they knew that they had to pull the rug from under a wallowing Marin and insist that she takes up a new job. Luckily, they have one lined up, their friend’s son is looking for a live-in nanny to help take care of his home and kids. Suddenly this spunky twenty-something is going to have a whole new challenge ahead…she has no clue how to care for a kid, let alone two!!
Greydon West is a single father, widowed in the most traumatic of circumstances when his wife dies as a result of an aviation incident. But when the details of his wife’s life start to surface, he learns that there is so much about the woman he loved, so much that he has to not only learn but also learn to accept about the state of his life and the relationship he really had with the mother of his children, Kinsley and Aaron.
Drowning in not only work, worry and woe, Greydon quickly accepts that as difficult as his personal situation is at the moment, his kids need him to step up to the plate and help them to navigate their situation, living their lives without their mother. So a nanny seemed like a clever idea, what he hadn’t anticipated was someone as unique as Marin.
They were poles apart, neither of them in a particularly good place emotionally and for me, I think that maybe that could explain the fact that there was always a little something different about the two of them.
A real opposite attracts story, the forty-something doctor, single dad and the twenty-something who didn’t fit into any of his expected dynamics. He was narky and belligerent in many ways, he didn’t wear his pain well, he allowed his emotional bruises to show, but Marin was wise to him and his attitude and she was never going to let his attitude fly…ok the joy!
I thought the story took almost every emotion and gave it purpose, it was heartbreaking in many ways but through that pain shone hope, the author brought to the fore, the fact that no matter how much pain, whatever the situation, if you look hard enough and are receptive enough, you will find your own little bit of happy and for Greydon and his kids, that happiness came all wrapped up in a Marin shaped package.