Hero by Samantha Young

• Title:  Hero
• Author:  Samantha Young
• Genre:  Contemporary Romance
• Published:  February 2015 – NAL
• Source:  Publisher

Synopsis:  Alexa Holland’s father was her hero until her shocking discovery that her mother and she weren’t his only family. Ever since, Alexa has worked to turn her life in a different direction and forge her own identity outside of his terrible secrets. But when she meets a man who’s as damaged by her father’s mistakes as she is, Alexa must help him.

Caine Carraway wants nothing to do with Alexa’s efforts at redemption, but it’s not so easy to push her away. Determined to make her hate him, he brings her to the edge of her patience and waits for her to walk away. But his actions only draw them together and, despite the odds, they begin an intense and explosive affair.

Only Caine knows he can never be the white knight that Alexa has always longed for. And when they’re on the precipice of danger, he finds he’ll do anything to protect either one of them from being hurt again….  (publisher)

My take:  Hero by Samantha Young (the first book of hers I’ve read) is the story of Alexa and Caine – two very wounded people who’ve survived on sheer determination.

Caine is motivated to be successful in spite of his history. Alexa wants to live her own life and hopefully one day apologize to the person whose life was changed forever because of her father. I really liked these two characters. Young’s story was as I would expect for the two made even more enjoyable by their constant push and pull at work and outside of the office. Everything went up a notch about 75% in the novel and moved the plot forward in a way I wondered what the heck would happen next.

The epilogue had me smiling as I turned the final page. Hero is a steamy and addictive read and I look forward to exploring Young’s backlist the next time I need to escape into a good contemporary romance.