Review: An Everyday Hero by Laura Trentham

An Everyday Hero

by Laura Trentham

Publisher: St Martin's

Pages: 336

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  At thirty, Greer Hadley never expected to be forced home to Madison, Tennessee with her life and dreams of being a songwriter up in flames. To make matters worse, a series of bad decisions and even crappier luck lands her community service hours at a nonprofit organization that aids veterans and their families. Greer cannot fathom how she’s supposed to use music to help anyone deal with their trauma and loss when the one thing that brought her joy has failed her.

When Greer meets fifteen-year-old Ally Martinez, her plans to stay detached and do as little as possible get thrown away. New to town and dealing with the death of her father in action, she hides her emotions behind a mask of bitterness and sarcasm, but Greer is able to see past it and recognizes pieces of who she once was in Ally. The raw and obvious talent she possesses could take her to the top and Greer vows to make sure life’s negativities don’t derail Ally’s potential.

After Greer is assigned a veteran to help, she’s not surprised Emmett Lawson, the town’s golden boy, followed his family’s legacy. What leaves her shocked is the shell of a man who believes he doesn’t deserve anyone’s help. A breakthrough with Ally reminds Greer that no one is worth giving up on. So she shows up one day with his old guitar, and meets Emmett’s rage head on with her stubbornness. When a situation with Ally becomes dire, the two of them must become a team to save her—and along the way they might just save themselves too.

Kritters Thoughts:  The second in a series, but this one of those series where you don't need to read the books in a row because there were no characters overlapping.  The only commonality between the two books was their look at military life through unique perspectives.  In this book, Greer Hadley returns home after she fails to make it in Nashville and while home she has a bit of drama which ends her in a courtroom and sentenced to volunteer work for a foundation that uses music as therapy for veterans and their families.  The story begins with her at the foundation and the people that she will impact there.  

What an interesting book.  With two major secondary characters that she meets through the foundation, I fell just as in love with the two of them - Ally Martinez (daughter of a fallen vet) and Emmett Lawson (high school mate who has returned with a major injury from war).  Ally is dealing with the loss of her dad and her mother's inability to cope with the loss and doesn't believe that music can really heal her.  Emmett has returned to live on his parents property and has a huge dose of survivor's guilt and isn't ready to even start thinking about healing both physically and mentally.

The perspectives of the people she interacts with combined with the issues she is dealing with herself made this such a full book to read.  I kept reading and reading wanting to know more and more about these characters and wanted to know where their stories would end up.  The plot moved along so well and the characters felt so real and authentic.

I have only read these two books by Laura Trentham and loved them both, but wonder if I would like books from her other series.  Have any of you read anything from her other series?  Where should I go from here?    


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2020 Challenge: 3 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from St Martin's Press.  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.