Review: From Here to You by Jamie McGuire

Author: Jamie McGuire
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date of publication: August 2018

As Darby Dixon sits in a tiny Texas church bathroom on her wedding day holding a positive pregnancy test, she realizes that of all the bad decisions she's made in her life, marrying her abusive fiancé would be the worst. She's never been able to stand up for herself, but she'll sure as hell stand up for her baby. With just the cash she has on hand, she runs to get a bus ticket to the farthest place she can afford. Between her sheer grit and pageant-queen smile, she lands a job as a front desk clerk at the Colorado Springs Hotel. It's not a glamorous life, but she and her baby are all that matters.

A former Marine, Scott "Trex" Trexler has worked in the most dangerous, corrupt, war-torn places on earth. Now he finally has a chance to return to the last place he'd felt at peace--Colorado Springs, Colorado, to take a new job with the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, a top-secret military installation buried deep within the granite.

The moment Trex walks into the inn, Darby knows he's dangerous. There's no way she wants to get involved with another man who seems to be keeping way too many secrets. As charming and devastatingly gorgeous as Trex is, he clearly isn't telling her everything. But as wildfires rage on the mountain and Darby's ex-fiancé shows he isn't so willing to let her go, both she and Trex are soon to find out that what you don't know absolutely can hurt you.

 I had high hope for From Here to You.  It is the first in a new series and that is always fun to read.  Unfortunately, for me, this one didn't work very well.  The book opens with  Darby in the bathroom before her wedding confirming she is pregnant.  Her fiance is abusive and she knows she needs to flee for herself and her baby.  She ends up in Coloroda and gets a job as a hotel desk clerk.  Trex has been searching for "the one" his whole life.  One look at Darby and he knows she is it.  It's too bad Darby has sworn off relationships.

I had a few issues with the book.  The first being nothing happens for the majority of the book.  It was pretty boring.  It's only until the last quarter of the book that there is any real action.  The scenes in the secret military installation that Trex works at were repetitive and added nothing to the story.  Trex kept lying to Darby about completely unnecessary things.  He works at a top secret job.  All he had to tell her was his job was top secret and he was in security.  But he lies to her constantly.

The other big issue I had were the amount of characters who seem to be a part of the Maddox Brothers' series.  Seriously, if you are going to start a new series, don't put in a bunch of characters from another series and expect people not to be completely lost.  I didn't read the Maddox series other them Beautiful Disaster. So, I had no frame of reference for a bunch of the events that happen or that were mentioned  regarding the Maddox twin brothers.  It seems that part of this book took place during two of the Maddox brothers' books.  The whole thing was a mess and made the story feel disjointed and made me feel like I was missing a lot of back story.  There were chunks of the middle part of the book that could have been left out and the story would have been better for it. 

All of that being said, I did like Darby and Trex as characters.  I had to admire Darby for her choice to run away.  I also loved Trex's jumping into playing the dad role with all he had.  I did like Trex's team.  They were characters I hope get explored in other books.  I'm just hoping that the story moves forward from this one and leaves the Maddoxs behind.