Finding Liberty

The Finding Home Series, Book 4

By: Bridget E. Baker

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya, Connor Crais

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

Billionaire heiress Brekka Thornton is headed for Olympic fame and glory until a car accident destroys all her plans. She redirects her efforts toward conquering the business world with her brother, Trig, closing the door on her old life without a backward glance. 

An IED blast sends Rob Graham back to the US with a purple heart and a broken back. After a miraculous recovery, he returns home to find that his dad needs him to run the family business. Rob never hesitates, even though he hates car sales more than pop up ads. 

When Brekka’s brother proposes to Rob's best friend, their paths are destined to cross at the upcoming wedding. Even so, Rob isn't prepared for Brekka to roll into his life and turn it inside out. Brekka takes Rob to task for slighting her brother, but he’s distracted by her flashing eyes and captivating dimple. He can’t bear the thought of watching her leave his office, so Rob asks her to dinner. 

Brekka hasn’t been on a date since the car accident, and Rob’s quick wit and winning smile unnerve her. She resolves to head home and duck back into hiding where the world is safe. Rob ought to let her go. He isn't nearly good enough for the highly educated Brekka, but he didn’t become a Marine by quitting when things look bleak. 

Can love mend these two broken spirits, or will the weight of the past shatter them beyond repair?

©2019 Bridget E. Baker (P)2020 Bridget E. Baker

Brekka and Rob = perfection!

Finding Liberty by Bridget E. Baker is amazing! This is book four in the Almost a Billionaire Series. This book is narrated by two equally talented narrators, Connor Crais and Jennifer Jill Araya.

Brekka was an Olympic hopeful skier, whose dreams were drastically crushed when she was in a car accident and lost most of her mobility in her legs. Rob is a wounded war veteran who is dearly devoted to his family. Brekka and Rob meet after Brekka storms into his office challenging him to back off from Geo (Finding Cupid) and let her be happy with her fiance, Trig, which also happens to be Brekka’s brother. Brekka and Rob have instant chemistry although Brekka questions her ability to be enough for Rob while Rob questions if he is in fact wealthy enough for Brekka. They soon will discover that they may just be perfect for each other.

Jennifer Jill Araya did a remarkable job portraying all of the conflicted emotions of Brekka. Brekka is such a strong character, but had various insecurities due to her limitations. Connor Crais crushed his performance as compassionate Rob. In Chapter 22, Connor literally made my heart swoon when Rob declared his love for Brekka. Both narrators helped me become completely infatuated with Brekka and Rob.

While this story could be listened to as a stand alone, it certainly does help to have listened to the books in the series in order. Bridget E. Baker writes the most kindhearted, understanding characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. Each book in the series gets better and better. This book explores how someone with damaged emotions can learn to love again even stronger. I’m looking forward to listening to even more in this heartwarming series!

Rewriting dreams

The title indicated this book is about finding freedom and it is. But I look at it as rewriting dreams. Dreams can be broken. Just like people. But those dreams can be put back together to be even better dreams then they were before. Life is hard for all of us and often things don’t turn out as we hoped but there are also many good things too. Brekka, like her name is “broken” or at least she thinks she is. She is a paraplegic after a car accident. She gives up on her dreams of the Olympics, of marriage, and of having kids. But then Rob comes along. Rob also had a broken back but was healed after a short time as a quadriplegic. He sees past Brekka’s injury and sees her. He is kind and loving to all that know him. He is what can be described as the perfect man. Perhaps too perfect. Brekka has to decide if she can trust that Rob isn’t just looking at her as a project. This is a sweet, clean romance.
Both narrators do a great job.

Wonderful!

WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Billionaire heiress Brekka Thornton is headed for Olympic fame and glory until a car accident destroys all her plans. She redirects her efforts toward conquering the business world with her brother Trig, closing the door on her old life without a backward glance.

An IED blast sends Rob Graham back to the US with a purple heart and a broken back. After a miraculous recovery, he returns home to find that his dad needs him to run the family business. Rob never hesitates, even though he hates car sales more than pop up ads.

When Brekka’s brother proposes to Rob's best friend, their paths are destined to cross at the upcoming wedding. Even so, Rob isn't prepared for Brekka to roll into his life and turn it inside out. Brekka takes Rob to task for slighting her brother, but he’s distracted by her flashing eyes and captivating dimple. He can’t bear the thought of watching her leave his office, so Rob asks her to dinner.

Brekka hasn’t been on a date since the car accident, and Rob’s quick wit and winning smile unnerve her. She resolves to head home and duck back into hiding where the world is safe. Rob ought to let her go. He isn't nearly good enough for the highly educated Brekka, but he didn’t become a Marine by quitting when things look bleak.

Can love mend these two broken spirits, or will the weight of the past shatter them beyond repair?

MY TAKE
I loved this book! It deals with a tough issue of the long-term consequences of spinal cord injury. While Rob eventually regained the use of his body after the IED explosion, he didn't forget what he learned. His increased sensitivity about what the people living with it have to deal with demonstrates what a caring person he is. He gives and gives and gives. And that's where a person's strength can become their weakness.

Brekka is a force to deal with. A powerhouse, she was also very opinionated and there were times I wanted to smack her upside the head to shake some sense into her. Growing up in a seriously dysfunctional (seriously rich) family, I was surprised that she managed to do as well as she did. I'll confess that I read book 1 in this series and then this one. That might have been a mistake because I didn't get to see her brother Trig in his love story. He doesn't shine in the beginning of this story, and it made it tough to like him at all (since I didn't get to see his softer side in the other book). But, Baker is a gifted storyteller, and Trig's story arc, while not the primary one of this book, is important as it relates to Brekka's.

I'm not going to spoil anything but there's one section of the book where Brekka is dealing with a tough choice she has to make and then the consequences that had me a nervous wreck.

I think it handles the accommodation issue gracefully and brings the issue to the forefront. Most of us just go blindly through life completely clueless of what others might be dealing with. I've never been a wheelchair user but I did suffer for a couple of years with a painful foot problem that made it necessary to use one of those motorized shopping carts.

I didn't have a handicapped placard and too often when I went to the grocery store I'd have to park far from the entrance--and the cart. Sometimes I'd cry knowing how much it was going to hurt by the time I got to one. Inside the store, it could be a nightmare! People would go zipping around with their carts giving no concern about people like me who didn't have that kind of mobility. And the stores weren't any better, putting all kinds of displays in the wide aisles making it hard to maneuver around. I was lucky that surgery fixed my problem. But that experience left me with a tiny bit of understanding. I totally understood Brekka's desire to be independent.

It's a beautiful love story, and Rob was the perfect man for her. I think they'll be good for each other.

I'd read the ebook, but jumped on it when I saw it out as an audiobook. The narrators were wonderful!