I liked that Evan is somewhat awkward and afraid but works past his fear. She writes about men and women who I want to see happy, to see fall in love. And leapt right into his arms.Ĭourtney Milan clearly puts a lot of thought and heart into her stories, and that's why they resonate with me. He proved that he had, and she took that leap of faith when it counted. She was afraid to trust Evan, to believe he had changed. Sometimes you have to go away to grow, and he did that, and came back to fulfill his destiny. That took so much courage, more courage than climbing a mountain. I completely fell in love with Evan, for his honest desire and efforts to make amends and to be a better man. Although I could never imagine falling in love with one of my adolescent tormenters and settling into a HEA, she made it plausible, because she showed that Evan was just a man, a man who was too scared to be real and to be stand out from the crowd in a good way. It felt therapeutic to me, that she could hit at the heart of such an issue that many of us experienced, and do it so well in the context of a love story. Milan was spot on with her psychology in this story. The prey animal that runs gets chased by the predator. If you pretend like it doesn't matter, after a while, you can deal with it and keep your composure. I followed her plan of attack and withdrew into myself, pretending like it didn't matter. No matter what I did, it was the focus of ridicule in school. Unlocked is a fantastic short novel about a man who faces his past, and earns the love, trust, and forgiveness of the one woman he always wanted but was afraid to go after honorably, to break out of the mode of society's expectations for him. It's worth well more than the $.99 pricetag. Note - Unlocked is book 1.5 of the Turner series, and a novella of 28,000 words, or about 111 pages.

Milan created such a powerful story with believably human and perfectly imperfect characters, that I couldn't help but fall in love with him and cheer for his and Elaine’s happily ever after. I wasn’t sure if I could forgive Evan for the devastation he’d caused Elaine all those years before, but Ms. But now he's back, and determined to make things right! She lost any hope of marrying well, and as if it weren’t enough, Diane continued the tormenting and teasing long after Evan fled England, unable to face Elaine and the pain he’d caused her. Years earlier a callow, cruel Evan Carlton, Earl of Westfeld and his cousin, Diane, ruined a young woman’s debut into society, and pretty much turned Lady Elaine Warren into a pariah. It’s a story filled with hurt and sadness, hope and happiness, forgiveness and love. It was such an emotional story, one that had me in tears one minute and laughing the next. This might be the best novella I’ve ever read.

Unlocked by courtney milan