Review of "Love Wells Kept"

"I'm a boat, she's my lighthouse."

The final installment of Wells Ranch. I could cry!!! In fact, I did!!! Newly released and finished only a day after being delivered, I could NOT wait to read this one, and it did not disappoint!!

Love Wells Kept by Bailey Hannah is the final book in the Wells Ranch series, following the middle Wells brother Jackson and his long-time wife, Kate. They met prior to the book, sixteen years ago when Kate was a home aid for their mother as she was ending her battle with cancer. They fell in love, she never left, and that was the start of their story. Now, with two kids and another on the way, everything felt so perfect. Until it wasn't.

Jackson suffers a serious injury after being kicked by a horse and ends up in the ICU in a medically-induced coma after having brain surgery. Kate refuses to leave his side, and his brothers end up staying with her, just in case something happens. When they slowly reduce the medicine keeping him in a coma to see if he'll wake on his own, things start feeling hopeful for Kate. Until the moment he finally is coherent, he doesn't have a clue who Kate is. He remembers his dad and partially remembers his brothers, but nothing about Kate nor their kids together.

It was incredibly heartbreaking to watch Kate practically fall apart at this. She held onto the hope for so long that he'd be okay, and while he would physically recover, he had no recollection of being married or having kids. Not to mention, he obviously had no clue she was pregnant. Unfortunately, to add even more pain to the story, she ends up losing the baby the day after he wakes up, and that whole scene between them in the hospital was shattering, him asking if she was pregnant and her having to say no. 

When he is finally able to be released from the hospital, that starts whole new journey for them, with him going back to a home he doesn't remember, to a life he doesn't remember, with a wife and kids who he can't seem to feel a connection to. The writing was just so well done, I could feel the hurt and confusion from Jackson over feeling like he's not himself, even though he is. Feeling like he's not Kate's husband and like he's intruding on her life, and it broke my heart seeing the turmoil he went through in the aftermath of it all, depressed and unable to live his life because he just doesn't know how.

I love how Kate also navigates it, because obviously, this isn't easy on her just as much as Jackson. She has this man living with her, whom she's known for almost two decades, and she has to deal with the fact that he's not the same man as he was. She wants so badly for him to be, for him to remember their memories and have him love her like he had just a month prior to the accident. But she also wants him to go at his own pace, and that creates so much tension and hurt between the two. I think when she finally realizes that their lives will never be the same no matter how hard she tries, she becomes much more willing to see this through and create new memories rather than trying to relive the old ones. They have a second chance with one another, and she realizes she needs to take advantage of that and live in the moment than trying to relive the past.

It hurts my heart throughout the entire book, Jackson will remember small moments here and there. Like Denver wearing a blow-up dinosaur costume, and making two mugs of tea even though he doesn't exactly remember the reason, and the song they danced to at the bar after they eloped, that one hurt bad!!! And, the one constant that he remembered was his mom, and oh my god, when Kate shows him a picture of Odessa in the hospital (if I'm thinking of the correct scene) and all he says is "she looks a lot like my mom" OUCHHHHHH!!!! That one was a gut punch.

Kate sticks by his side through everything, and I admire how strong she was to stay. Obviously, she was going to, through sickness and health, right? But to go through this whole thing, miscarry in the midst of your husband not remembering you, and have to put on a brave face for her kids who have no clue what's going on and why their dad is more distant, it's incredible. Kate is a fierce woman, as we learned in the previous books and this one, and her strength to get up each day, risking her husband never falling in love again and not having a connection to his kids like before is something I will forever love about her.

Plus the smut in this book was so hot!!! There's a lot of scenes once we get further into the book, and each one is hotter than the next. The way he uses her underwear to get off, him going down on her for the first time again, THE DIRTY TALK THIS MAN HAS, MY GOD. Kate reveals that he was always so vanilla before and not into such things like he was doing, and I think it's a perfect example of the fact that while it's still physically him and the reactions he has to her body are the same, he's much more open and excited to try new things and have new experiences with each other.

Of course, my picky ass has to find some flaws of course, although it's really nothing much to do with the story, aside from the fact that I wish we got more sweet and tender moments between Kate and Jackson falling in love again rather than them going at it like rabbits. Some sentences and phrases were a bit repetitive here and there, like overusing "down to the marrow in my bones" and things alike. The other is the use of the word "niggle" I hate it so much. And...maybe it's because I'm not around children that much, but can three-year-olds talk that well and that much for how much Rhett was talking? My cousins at three years old weren't speaking in full sentences or coherent enough to make any sense. But that's just my small nitpicks, overall, I really loved this entire book from start to finish, those are just my personal gripes.

I really wish I could reread this book for the first time again, even though I just finished it a few hours ago. I love Kate and Jackson and this was the absolute perfect end to a perfect series that will forever be etched into my heart, just like the Wells' brothers branding on their chest. Below is my overall rating.