Soul to Keep (Rented Heart #2)

Title: Soul to Keep (Rented Heart Book 2)
Author: Garrett Leigh
Publisher: Fox Love Press
Release Date: April 2, 2018
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance
Page Count: 239
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

Jaime flits around the edges of "Rented Heart" as Zac's best friend and roommate, whose actions dramatically impact Zac's life. At the end of that book, Jaime is on his way to rehab in California. I don't think you'll necessarily need to read "Rented Heart" prior to "Soul to Keep" but the background may give you some awareness of just how far Jaime has come from the depths of his addiction.

Jaime and Marc meet on the flight back to the UK, and amazingly end up in the same small town where Jaime goes to reboot his life, and where Marc works as a trauma doctor. I want to say that their relationship immediately captured my interest, and that I could feel they belonged together, and they connected in a strong amazing way .... but, nope. Sorry, so sorry. It just didn't work that way for me.


I struggled to connect with Marc and Jaime and the relationship they forged together. Because we know so little about Jaime (other than recovering addict and former hooker) and because he was earlier defined solely by his relationship with Zac, as Jaime deals with his addiction, with his feelings for Marc, with his OCD, it's hard to really sense what this all means to him. Also Jaime has gone through rehab, but this occurs before the start of the book, and I feel we lose something but not seeing anything of the process.

Similarly, Marc remained relatively unknown as well. He's a former solider, a doctor. He has a prosthesis. We learn a bit more about Marc in his interaction with his friends Nat and Conner, but I personally needed more in-depth character development similar to what "Rented Heart" gave us with Liam and Zac's backgrounds. The pace also felt slow to me, as little happens externally until almost the very end of the book.

I have been absolutely gobsmacked by more than a few Garrett Leigh books, but "Soul to Keep" just didn't work for me personally. 3 stars.