I Want to Hold Your Hand (Green Mountain, #2) by Marie Force 
Series: Green Mountain #2
Published by Berkley on June 3rd 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Small Town
Pages: 352
Format: eBook
I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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For the Abbott siblings, the Green Mountain state has always been an idyllic place to call home. But it isn’t until they open themselves up to love that they’ll truly discover how fulfilling life can be…
Almost seven years after losing her husband in Iraq, Hannah Abbott Guthrie isn’t sure she’s ready—or able—to move on, but the attentions of a lifelong friend are making her think about it for the first time. The memory of the sweet kiss she shared with Nolan Roberts hasn’t strayed far from her thoughts, but she also fears that pursuing something with him would mean betraying her husband’s memory.
Nolan has loved Hannah for years, but he’d been giving her the space she needed to heal from her devastating loss. Now, when an opportunity arises to show her how he feels, Nolan can’t resist, but he knows earning her love will take more than a kiss. Somehow he has to prove to Hannah that finding love twice in a lifetime is possible—and well worth risking her heart.
The close knit Abbott family will always work together to solve any problem, but there is one thing that hurt them all so deeply, and there is nothing they can do about it. Caleb Guthrie was a long-time friend of Will and Hunter Abbott and the husband of Hannah Abbot Guthrie. His death was a shock to the family, but there is nothing they can do for Hannah while she grieves the loss of her husband. Until she is ready to move on, they have to sit and wait as the years pass.
The Abbotts aren’t the only ones waiting to see if Hannah will move on. Nolan Roberts has been waiting in the wings for the last few years hoping against hope that Hannah will agree to go out with him. Nolan is a long time friend of both Hannah and Caleb and he understands how Caleb’s loss has effected Hannah and he is willing to go as slow as she needs in order to be a part of her life.
The dance at the Grange a few weeks ago and Nolan’s kiss at the door, changed something for Hannah. She forgot the simple pleasure and excitement of being with someone. Hannah is wracked with guilt over the thought of kissing someone else, since she is Caleb’s wife, and Nolan is such a kind, sweet man she doesn’t want to lead him on. Yet if she was going to find love again, she couldn’t ask for a better man than Nolan.
Just when she is ready to take a step forward with Nolan, Caleb’s dog, Homer, passes away and it once again brings a finality to Caleb’s life, and Hannah’s emotions are in turmoil. Except this time, she has Nolan’s support as well as that of her family. It is Nolan who suggests a big send off for Homer, just like Caleb would have done, and Hannah feels her guilt lighten since Nolan understands her so well and what she needs in order to move forward with her life.
Nolan Roberts might just be Hannah’s second chance at love, but not everyone is ready to let Caleb go and let Hannah move on with her life.
THOUGHTS:
We spent more time getting to know the Abbott Family in Book #1, All You Need is Love, but they weren’t far away in Book 2. They are there to support Hannah but they would like to see her move on with her life and stop being alone. Caleb has been a part of Hannah’s life since she was 13, first as the annoying friend of her brothers, and they slowing into a first love. Caleb is portrayed as someone large than life, always the center of a crowd a friends who love him and Hannah. But we also get to see that not everything was perfect between Hannah and Caleb. His larger than life personality also included excessive party drinking, and Hannah refused to start a family with Caleb until he was ready to “grow up.” This also causes Hannah some pain since she believes that her chance to have a family died with Caleb.
We see Hannah moving forward with her plans, suggested by Cameron, to turn Caleb’s home into a retreat for war widows which bridges her need to hold onto Caleb’s memory and a moving on with her life.
She couldn’t have chosen a better man to move on with than Nolan. He is so understanding of the pain she is suffering and how hard it is for her to move on. Trying to move on, causes Hannah to swing on an emotional pendulum and whenever she pulls away, Nolan is afraid he is losing her, but he is willing to give her the time she needs to work through her feelings, as long as she doesn’t just walk away. We feel his frustration but he is already in love with Hannah that he won’t give up entirely on their future.
It is a sweet story of moving on from the pain of loss, and we see how the further loss of Caleb’s dog brings another finality to Caleb’s loss which rocks Hannah just as she tries go reclaim her life.
We also get a glimpse of future stories which would involve Mountain man Colton and Hannah’s twin, Hunter. I am not sure who’s story is next, but I am enjoying spending time with the Abbotts.
Received ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Favorite Scene:
Every time the garage phone rang, his heart stopped for a moment, which was flat-out ridiculous. She said she’d call him. She hadn’t said she’d call him today. But why hadn’t he asked her to call to let him know she’d arrived safely after the trouble with her battery?
He wiped the grease off his hands with a red oil rag and threw it aside in frustration. Was it possible for a person to drive himself nuts? If it was, he was well on his way. Since his productivity was positively shot, he decided to break early for lunch.
He was on his way out the door to grab something to eat at the diner when the phone rang. Under normal circumstances, he would’ve let voicemail pick up the call, but there was nothing normal about circumstances under when Hannah Guthrie might be calling. So he ran back in and grabbed the phone.
“Nolan’s.”
“Hey, it’s me. Hannah.”
Come on. No way. Had he gone straight around the bend into the land of the delusional? Had he wished so hard for her call that he’d made it happen out of sheer will?
“Nolan? Are you there?”
It was really her. “Oh yeah, sorry. I’m here. Is everything okay with the car?”
“That’s why I called. I figure you’d be worried about whether or not I got here, and I did, so I wanted to tell you.”
Was it his imagination or was she rambling? And did she sound nervous? The calm, cool Hannah he knew and loved never sounded nervous. She was always in perfect control of her emotions, something he admired greatly about her in light of what she’d been through. “That’s good to know. I was hoping it wouldn’t give you any more trouble.”
“It didn’t.”
Nolan wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say next. His brain spun with possibilities, each of them rejected.
“I also wanted to tell you…”
His heart pounded as anticipation beat through him in time with his heart. “What, Hannah? What did you want to tell me?”
“Ever since I saw you this morning, I can’t stop thinking about enchiladas.”
Since that had been about the last thing he’d expected her to say, he laughed. “Is that right?”
“I’m drooling, in fact. So I was thinking, maybe we could check out that place in Stowe later? If you’re not busy. I know it’s last minute–“
“I’m not busy.” He was but he’d get out of it. The racing team could meet without him. “What time will you be back?”
“Around six thirty.”
“How does seven sound?”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then?”
“I’ll be there. I can’t have you drooling all over the place. What will people say?”
Her laughter made him smile. “See you soon.”
Nolan put down the phone and let out a very loud, “Yes!”
