Ami's Hoard

A decade ago, good girl and Puffin Islander Brittany Forrest thought that bad boy Zach Flynn was the answer to her adventure dream. He was her first and being in love as well, Brittany asked Zach to get married. Only ten days later, that dream shattered when Zach walked out on her. Now, Brittany is back to Puffin Island after an accident broke her wrist. Unfortunately, Zach is too. Now no matter how Brittany says that it's all over between her and Zach, the intense emotions between them is not something they both easily denied.

Some Kind of Wonderful is the second book in Morgan's "Puffin Island series. I was looking forward to this one mainly because it has "one who got away" theme, which has always been a favorite of mine when it comes to romance.

From the first chapter, Zach just had my heart. I knew that he would be a difficult stubborn man, and Brittany would need to fight hard to knock down the wall of distrust surrounding Zach's heart. Zach came from an abusive home situation, and he was shoved into foster care when he was only eight years old. He has lived his life not trusting anyone because it's the way he feels safe. Meanwhile Brittany, despite having her parents divorced, grew up with the love of her grandmother and the Puffin residents. She was loved and had a happy childhood.

I thought the chemistry and tension between these two was OFF the chart. It was clear that both still had deep feelings towards one another. But Brittany was afraid of getting hurt again, while Zach still didn't know how to love other people. I was so immersed with their story and I couldn't take my eyes off the pages.

I actually cried not once, not twice, but on three separate occasions while reading this book. The first one was when Jack saved a stray dog. That moment was powerful because it made me, as a reader, understood Zach a lot better. Then the other two occasions was when Zach finally opened up to Brittany about his childhood, and of course, the ending.

Guess I was probably in sappy mode.

But yes, I loved Zach so much -- and Brittany too; except for the ending, in which I thought she was throwing a hissy fit, being childish, and a bit over-dramatic. I mean, with all these talks about trust, why couldn't Brittany trust Zach that he would tell her about the camp? And her whole attitude of "why didn't he say 'I love you' to me first" sounded whiny to me. Philip and Celia were practically like Zach's foster parents, they LOVED him way before Brittany did. Philip was the one introducing Zach to flying and gave him a chance for something better. It was absolutely understandable if Zach told them first that he loved them. The sequence of Zach finally able to say that he loves people shouldn't matter!

Despite my annoyance near the end, I still loved this story very much. I couldn't wait for the conclusion with Alec and Skylar's story. With the way these two are acting towards one another -- with hatred *LOL* -- their story could be explosive :)