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Review

5 Priceless stars

This book! THIS. BOOK!!! OMG, I loved it so much!

This book is heartfelt, funny and romantic with fantastically developed characters and relationships. A wonderful friends-to-lovers story with a bit of a twist, and I thought it was beautifully written. I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting, finishing in the early hours of the morning.

This is book 8 of the Priceless Men series. I freaking love this series so hard! And while each book can be read as a standalone, I definitely recommend reading them in order to fully understand and appreciate the character dynamics. Sarah is the younger sister of Mason and was introduced in the first book of the series, Price of a Kiss. Brandt is the younger brother of Noel, who was introduced in the second book of the series, To Professor, with Love. I feel like I have watched Sarah and Brandt grow up and their close friendship has been shown in previous books of the series, so watching them take that final step to something more was absolutely amazing!

The book begins by taking us back to show Brandt and Sarah as 13 year olds, struggling with their difficult lives, but already displaying incredible strength. Brandt lives in near-poverty in a trailer with his neglectful mother and his much-loved siblings. Life turns around for him when his big brother, Noel, comes to take his younger sister and brothers to live with him and his girlfriend, Aspen, and Brandt gets to experience what true family is for the first time.

Sarah also has issues with her mother, but her main struggle is with Cerebral Palsy. She is confined to a wheelchair and battles tremors, speech difficulties, and the pitying/cruel/over-protective behaviour of others. But she is just a normal girl – smart, wickedly funny and incredibly strong – who just wants to be normal.

All my life, I’d thought of myself as some kind of lower life form. My mother treated me as if I were an idiot. She probably had no idea I could actual form rational thoughts and feel feelings all on my own. And Mason…I loved my big brother to death, but he was too concerned about being protective and making sure everyone treated me with respect to realize how trapped I was in my own skin.
It wasn’t until Reese came along and saw me inside my shell of a body that I began to realize I didn’t have to let my limitations actually limit me. I had just as much right to be alive as anyone else on earth. I didn’t have to be ashamed of…well, myself.

When Brandt and Sarah meet they share an immediate bond and form a friendship that will define their lives. Despite their obvious differences they share a lot of similarities, and they understand each other in a way that nobody else does. Brandt sees past Sarah’s physical issues and treats her exactly how she wants to be treated, and Sarah becomes the one person in Brandt’s life that he can turn to.

It had become a habit for me to seek out Sarah whenever I was distressed. She was my sounding board, my voice of reason, my everything. She knew how to make me smile when I was down, how to listen when I wanted to rant, and how to slap some sense into me when I was wrong.

Their friendship is something incredibly special and their acceptance, understanding and love for each other is beautifully explored. They both realise that their feelings for each other are something more than friendship, but they are unaware that the other feels the same. Brandt thinks that Sarah is totally out of his league so he engages in a string of meaningless hook-ups, and Sarah reluctantly accepts that her disability means that a ‘normal’ relationship and sex are going to be difficult for her. They carry on like that for years, remaining as close as they have always been but never revealing their innermost feelings to each other.

I kept my sex life private while everything else in me belonged to her.

But when a 22-year-old Sarah begs Brandt to be the one the help her experience everything that she has been missing, everything changes. It’s not an instant thing – Brandt has demons that he’s never dealt with, and it takes them a while to get onto the same page, but slowly desire is unleashed, hearts are opened to new possibilities, and they finally start to explore everything that has been brewing between them for years. It’s emotional, it’s romantic, and it’s so, so hot! And naturally it becomes so much more.

“This is happening. We are so fucking happening together. Whether you like it or not, you’re mine…just as I’ve been yours for years.”

Their emotional connection has always been strong, and it remains so but with an added intensity, but they also maintain the fun, teasing part of their relationship. Never afraid to call each other out on their shit, and being there for each other as they deal with the emotions that the change in their relationship evokes. And I loved it!

“If you want to see me that bad, then come over and see me already, Jesus Christ.”
“Fine,” he said. “Be there in ten.”
I snorted. “Why not make it five, you clingy son of a bitch.”
“In that case, I’m already outside your window. Open up.”

I cannot gush enough about these characters, I absolutely love them! All that they have been through is heartbreaking, so much more than we ever realised, and I had tears in my eyes within the first few pages of this book. But the way they deal with their issues, their strength in moving on and the love and acceptance that they find with their families, and each other, is so beautifully written. It’s not often that I love a heroine as much as I do a hero, but in this case, Brandt and Sarah equally rocked my world. The book is written in dual POV so we can follow their individual journeys as well as the development of their relationship, and every moment is perfect. It’s not an easy ride for them by any means, and they have more than their fair share of things they need to deal with – both together and individually – it’s devastating, angsty and emotionally intense at times, I could feel everything they were going through and my heart broke for them more than once, but it would quickly heal again as I watched them pick themselves up and be there for each other time and time again as they created something truly magical together.

“This right here – every single piece of you – is very precious cargo to me. If anyone mistreated it, I’d lose my shit. You’re not just my best friend, you’re my sanity. You’re priceless, Sarah.”

SWOOOOOOON!

The rest of the Forbidden crew are a part of the story, particularly Sarah and Brandt’s families, and I loved catching up with them. There are some pretty significant moments for them, and again I revelled in the closeness of the group. More than the support that they offer, they are also a hilarious bunch, and the teasing and bantering is fantastic! Ten’s inappropriateness made me laugh out loud, and the way that everybody got behind what they considered to be Brandt and Sarah’s inevitable hook up was gorgeous.

“That boy is completely and irrevocably in love with you. He worships the ground you roll upon. And it’s clear as day you love him back.”

This is such an amazing book. I felt so much while reading, and Linda Kage did a wonderful job giving Brandt and Sarah the story, and the happy ending, that they deserve.

Sensational stuff! 5 stars.