Review….The Education of Caroline by Jane Harvey-Berrick

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Synopsis:

Ten years after their broken affair, Sebastian and Caroline meet again: this time in very different circumstances, against the background of the war in Afghanistan

Now a successful journalist, Caroline meets Chief Sebastian Hunter, US Marine. Will this chance encounter rekindle the erotic madness of her passionate affair with a younger man?

My Review:

This is the second book in the “Education of…” duet by Jane Harvey-Berrick. The first book, The Education of Sebastian, was really damn good….but, The Education of Caroline will go on the list as one of my favorite books of all time.

We met up with Caroline ten years after she left San Diego, and the love of her life, Sebastian, behind.  She has made a life for herself in New York City as a freelance reporter with a successful following and a knack for her reporting on military life overseas.  It’s that knack that lands her on her current assignment…and running into a certain blue-green eyed, tanned San Diego surfer boy.  Only now, that surfer boy is a Chief in the Marines and is assigned to help train the journalists going overseas, the journalists she is a part of.

Sebastian can’t believe his eyes.  Sitting in the hotel conference room in Switzerland is the woman he has loved since as long as he can remember.  She is also the woman who left him…and took his heart with her.  Now he was supposed to brief her on the dangers of reporting in hostile circumstances in dangerous countries.  How the hell was he supposed to concentrate on anything other than the anger, pain, frustration, desire and long-buried feelings of love and lust toward her?  Now way was he going to let her get away this time….

Dear God.  This book was freaking INCREDIBLE! I loved the first in the series but damn; this book was that much better.  The emotional turmoil starts from the very beginning and doesn’t let up until the very last page.  Caroline and Sebastian have mastered the art of push and pull and just can’t seem to catch a break.  They’ve lived a long ten years apart and have given up on ever ending up together, and now, they almost don’t have a choice.  Fate was surely on their side this time…of so we think.  They go through some amazingly loving high points and crushingly devastating low points.  I bawled my freaking eyes out the last 25% of the book!  But don’t worry, the ending is totally “dreamy sigh” worthy and I was delighted with it.  Sebastian is one of my all time fave book men.  Totally swoon worthy…the whole sexy, bad-assed, romantic, occasional-bumbling-idiot, delicious package.  Caroline is finally happy within her own skin at forty and is a great match for Sebastian, level-headed when he is fanciful but playful when he is lost in his head and needs distracting.  She also realizes Sebastian is just amazing now as he was when he was seventeen.  Better even.  Amazing book couple…even if I want to hate Caroline for having Sebastian to call her own and I’m seething with jealousy!

I read this book in a day.  I could NOT put it down.  I loved every word on every page…laughed and cried and thought it was blissfully perfect!  I already recommended The Education of Sebastian and I HIGHLY recommend The Education of Caroline.  Thank you, Ms. Harvey-Berrick, for writing the newest member of my favorite books.

Five Loves