Mini-review: Purple Hearts by Tess Wakefield

Purple Hearts by Tess Wakefield
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books/Alloy Entertainment 
Publication Date: 25th April 2017
My rating: 3 stars 

When a soldier with a troubled past and a struggling songwriter agree to a marriage of convenience for the military benefits, neither expects much after saying “I do.” Then tragedy strikes, and the line between what’s real and what’s pretend begins to blur in this smart and surprising romance perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks and Jojo Moyes. Cassie Salazar and Luke Morrow couldn’t be more different. Sharp-witted Cassie works nights at a bar in Austin, Texas to make ends meet while pursuing her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. Luke is an Army trainee, about to ship out for duty, who finds comfort in the unswerving discipline of service. But a chance encounter at Cassie’s bar changes the course of both their lives. Cassie is drowning in medical bills after being diagnosed with diabetes. When she runs into her old friend Frankie, now enlisted in the Army, she proposes a deal: she’ll marry him in exchange for better medical insurance and they can split the increased paycheck that comes with having a “family.” When Frankie declines, his attractive but frustratingly intense friend Luke volunteers to marry Cassie instead. What she doesn’t know is that he has desperate reasons of his own to get married. In this unforgettable love story, Cassie and Luke must set aside their differences to make it look like a real marriage...unless, somewhere along the way, it becomes one...

I always find myself gravitating towards books featuring fake relationships; I find myself fully immersed with these individuals’ lives, wanting to find out how things will go and love watching the relationship evolve into something way more than either could have expected. With Purple Hearts I liked how believable the relationship became between Cassie and Luke, despite not knowing each other that long or well enough before they decided to marry one another and I liked how their feelings developed slowly over time. The situation that they found themselves in really did contribute I believe to them being able to take their relationship to the next level. Having nearly died and then relying on your fake wife to look after you really does test the depth of one’s relationship. Despite enjoying Purple Hearts overall, it was kind of slow going for me at times, there was a lot of side stories going on to which sort of took my attention away at times, especially as I was more interested in how things would go down between Luke and Cassie. However slow pace aside, Purple Hearts was a book which I couldn’t stop reading, as I mentioned before, I tend to find myself consumed with the lives of characters and that certainly was the case with Cassie and Luke.