Review: Mandatory Release by Jess Riley

Mandatory Release by Jess Riley

Publisher: CreateSpace

Pages: 310 

Format: ARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon  

Goodreads:  Recently paralyzed in a car accident, thirty-year-old Graham Finch spends his days trying to rehabilitate a caseload of unruly inmates and his nights on one bad date after another, attempting to rehabilitate his heart—

—until his high school crush Drew Daniels walks through the prison gates one hot summer morning. On the run from a painful past that’s nearly crushed her faith in love, Drew is a new teacher at Lakeside Correctional. Graham, smitten all over again, tries to redirect his unrequited feelings. But when your heart keeps looking back, it's not easy to turn it forward.

Amidst escalating violence at work, Drew is forced to confront her secrets, find a way to forgive old sins, and learn how to listen to her heart and her head when it comes to men. Graham must also learn to make peace with his own past. Together they realize that if you’re going to save yourself, sometimes the best way to do it is by saving someone else first. If only finding their way to one another was easier than working with convicted felons.


Kritters Thoughts:  Drew Daniels has had a major life change and has returned home to put the pieces back together while at the same time a former high school friend is continuing to deal with a life change of his own.  The story is set in such a different setting and I loved it - a prison, but the main characters aren't prisoners, but are employed there and this job brings with it different obstacles and interesting things.  

I absolutely adored that the reader wasn't told what Drew was really dealing with until the end; it made me wonder what made her run home, but she didn't obsess over it to make the issue a distraction to what was currently happening in the story.  At the same time, I also loved how Graham had a cynical approach and we weren't shown the more immediate reactions he had to his accident and new life in a wheel chair.  It kept the book in more of the less depressing and blue parts of his recovery.

I definitely loved this book and think it was perfect to read during a day at the pool.

Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Booksparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.