“Finding Serenity” is the second book in the “Unexpected Love” series. T.E. Black is continuing the stories of the already known heroes from the first book. This time the story is about Trent, the tattoo artist and Shay, the receptionist in the tattoo shop. Out of the blue, they fall in love with each over, trying to deny what they are really feeling. The feelings though are too strong to be denied and eventually they come to accept that. They see each other every day and they act as if they hate each other, while they are madly in love with each other underneath.
Shay has a little daughter to care about and she is not making ends meet easily. She is working two jobs, a day and a night job, as her ex has fallen behind with the money support. The tattoo shop is the day job. No one can ever know about the night job. Trent is really good at what he does. However, when his mother is diagnosed with cancer, he is devastated. He needs something to make him numb and coke is really good at this. He just uses when he really needs to and he can quit whenever he wants. His best buddy Mac, cannot know. He had a really bad time recovering from addiction, plus he lost his fiance to that. So he could probably beat him big time.
As they both keep secrets from each other, they found themselves in some very difficult situations. Apart from the love story leading the way, this book is also sending some clear and strong messages that should not be avoided. Drugs is a big part of it. How the user believes they can control it and how fast and easily they get to a point where they cannot quit, as it has become part of their daily routine. Hitting the bottom is the next in line, after such an addiction. When you have hit ground and you cannot think clearly, because it is the drugs making all the thoughts on you, you may end up in a dark and lonely path, hanging on a cliff and really thinking of letting go.
T.E. Black has done a really good work on this one. Her writing is more mature than the first book in the series. This story contains some really good twists that makes it a page turner. The sensitive subjects are touched in a way that makes them part of the story, yet very enlightening and educational for the reader. The happy ending comes to the fact that the heroes make amends with themselves and the other, they recognize their faults and they are ready to make a fresh start based on honesty.
