{"id":2871,"date":"2015-10-23T09:05:15","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T16:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2017-03-08T12:21:16","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T17:21:16","slug":"review-semper-fi-the-education-of-3-by-jane-harvey-berrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=2871","title":{"rendered":"Review: Semper Fi (The Education Of…, #3) by Jane Harvey-Berrick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/b><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u201cI was looking at her. I felt grateful to be here: this woman, this time, this place. Second chances didn\u2019t come any better.\u201d <\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

3.5 stars.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Education of Sebastian<\/a> \/ The Education of Caroline<\/a> is one of my favourite and most cherished love stories. What started off as a forbidden affair between a 30 year old married woman and a 17 year old boy became an epic love story when they fell into soul-deep, life-changing love and were brutally torn apart, only to reconnect 10 years later. Now, Jane Harvey-Berrick has given us the story of that reconnection from a different perspective, and this book is the retelling of book 2, The Education of Caroline<\/i> from the POV of Sebastian.<\/p>\n

Sebastian has lived a wild life since he was left absolutely shattered by his separation from Caroline. Devastated and full of anger that she made no effort to contact him after he spent years waiting for her, he joined the US Marines, and is now a bitter and detached (semi-alcoholic) 27 year old, working a desk job in Geneva, Switzerland as a form of disciplinary rehabilitation for his wild behaviour. And then Caroline, now a journalist and war correspondent, walks back into his life.<\/p>\n

She walked towards me and my heart started pounding in my chest again. <\/i>Christ, it hurt so fucking much. How could it hurt so much if I wasn\u2019t dying? Or maybe I was. I didn\u2019t know anymore. Because when she came towards me, it was just her and me again. Just us. No one else. She wove her magic and the world went away. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019ve read the original two books then you will know exactly what to expect going into this book. If you haven\u2019t read them, then stop reading this review and go off and make a start on them now, because this is one highly emotional, steamy and stunningly beautiful story.<\/p>\n

The Education of Caroline<\/i> is a clusterfuck of emotions as Sebastian and his Caro find themselves thrust back together after 10 years apart, and I loved the chance to be inside of Sebastian\u2019s head as he experiences the shock, anger, hurt and regret of all that he has lost, and then the depth of his love for the woman he has been unable to forget and his firm determination not to let her get away again.<\/p>\n

I watched her for the longest time, scared by the depth of emotion I felt for her, that I\u2019d always felt for her. I knew she thought that a 17 year old boy couldn\u2019t understand adult love, but she\u2019d been wrong about that: nothing had changed for me. She was still the only woman who\u2019d ever owned my heart. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The love story is beautiful, and I always love a story told by a desperately-in-love-man, but don\u2019t expect too much new content. Honestly, I was hoping for something a bit more, but this book is exactly what it is advertised as \u2013 a retelling of the original story, with the same events and dialogue as appears in the original book, just with a different twist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you, Caro, so much. I haven\u2019t changed how I feel. I still love you \u2013 I\u2019ve always loved you. It\u2019s only ever been you.\u201d
\nI stopped breathing as she gazed back at me, her lips moving wordlessly. And then she spoke.
\n\u201cI love you, too, Sebastian. More than you\u2019ll ever know.\u201d
\nThat was all I needed to hear.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It has been a while since I read the original books so the repetitiveness wasn\u2019t a huge issue for me, but this book did feel a little rushed. I especially wanted more details towards the end of the book where Sebastian\u2019s story takes a dramatic turn. In the original books I felt that I wanted more from the end of the story, and I was hoping to get that here, but I still feel it wasn\u2019t explored as much as it could have been \u2013 especially considering the detail of the romance earlier in the book. But again, I appreciated Sebastian\u2019s POV so we could see exactly what he was feeling, and it was heartbreaking in places.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I had nothing to offer her and she had no future with me. And I couldn\u2019t help thinking she was only with me now out of loyalty; I was dreading the day when I saw hatred in her eyes. I\u2019d seen every other emotion: frustration, annoyance, anger, fear, love as well, I think. But I also saw pity. That was the worst. <\/em><\/p>\n

I think I was making her hate me; that was okay, because I loathed the piece of shit I\u2019d become.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ending finishes off exactly where the original book did \u2013 which I honestly thought felt unfinished, but I did have a copy of the more-recently-released The Education of Sebastian & The Education of Caroline<\/em> paperback on my bookshelf which contains additional content, including an epilogue which finishes everything off beautifully. So I sat and read the end of that after finishing this book in order to give myself some closure.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t consider this book a must-read, and I admit it wasn\u2019t as epic as I was hoping, but my love for these two characters and their story was enough to carry me through, and I enjoyed the different perspective on a book duet which remains very close to my heart.<\/p>\n

3.5 stars.<\/p>\n

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

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The Education of…<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>series<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Dude<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Dude<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Semper<\/a><\/p>\n

The Education of Sebastian (#1)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0\u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

The Education of Caroline (#2)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0\u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Semper Fi (#3)\u00a0<\/strong>(alternate POV book)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0\u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Education of Sebastian\/The Education of Caroline (#1-#2)<\/strong>
\nCombined books featuring bonus content
\nBuy: \u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Paperback Review \u201cI was looking at her. I felt grateful to be here: this woman, this time, this place. Second chances didn\u2019t come any better.\u201d 3.5 stars. The Education of Sebastian \/ The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,49,51,9,24,29],"tags":[159,48,167],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-feeeeeeels","category-military","category-romance","category-second-chance-romance","category-steamy","tag-jane-harvey-berrick","tag-review","tag-the-education-of"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Semper-Fi.jpg?fit=150%2C239&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-Kj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}