Someone to Love Me by Tory Richards

Survivor’s Guilt. Dealing with the death of a loved one is very hard, sometimes almost impossible. But when that person feels responsible for that death in any way, their thinking and reactions can become illogical/irrational. And the last thing anyone would be looking for is Someone to Love Me.

When Charlie’s plane goes down in a remote Alaskan wilderness she knows she’s in big trouble. She didn’t have time to radio in her position. It looks like her decision to surprise her parents on their wedding anniversary wasn’t such a good idea. Now lost and in freezing temperatures, her chances of survival look bleak.
As Charlie heads out on foot, she faces a new danger when a white wolf appears. And right behind him is her salvation. A quiet mountain man with secrets, who takes her to his one-room cabin, where she finds herself stranded for the winter. To make matters worse, there’s an instant attraction between them they both try to resist.
Hard to do when she’s sleeping in his bed! Before long they give into a temptation stronger than their wills, and find survival, and the chance to love again, in each other’s arms.
Warning: graphic language and sex scenes.

Luke Remington has lived alone in the wilds of Alaska for almost fours now. He likes being away from everything and everybody. That is ever since the death of his wife, Susan. She was an ambitious lawyer, full of life and laughter. Until her death, and he still blames himself for that. He can’t get over her death and doesn’t want or need anyone else. But when he sees a plane go down close by, he knows he can’t just let whoever is on it die out in the snow and wilds. But having someone invade his small cabin for the winter is going to be more than he can handle.

Charlie Wayne was on her way to her parent’s in Alaska to surprise them for their anniversary when her small plane crashes. She has no time to call in her position or for help, so has no hope of rescue. Luke coming along is lucky but he doesn’t seem to want her around. When he tells her there is no way off the mountain until spring, she is worried. She is just starting to get her singing career, as Charlene Benton, back on track and several months missing will hurt that. And the strain her missing will put on her parents and brothers! They are just starting to move on after the death of her daughter, Robin, two years ago. Her daughter had had leukemia for years, almost since she was a baby. Her husband couldn’t cope with that and the attention her daughter took from him and divorced her early on. She is worried her missing, or assumed dead, could be too much for her parents, principally after the lost of her daughter. Her main hope is her brothers will take care of them, and even keep the search for her going.

But Charlie had her family to help her with the loss of her daughter. From what Charlie can tell, Luke has never dealt with the loss of his wife. Luke is still in morning and pain. Luke and Charlie have a powerful chemistry between them, but Luke is too closed off emotionally. Charlie wants to help him but doesn’t know if he will let her. He keeps running away from her. Especially after every physical encounter they have.

As they spend more time confined in the cabin, they do grow closer together. There is no fighting the attraction after a while. But Luke is determined to keep himself apart from her. And she has a family and career to go back to. She does manage to help him deal with his wife’s death and see that he likes living in the wilds, on the mountain. But how could he ask her to stay on in this isolate place? How could she ask to stay if he doesn’t want her here, doesn’t actually love her?

Someone to Love Me deals with issues of loss, guilt, and love. Luke has never dealt with any of the issues surrounding his wife’s death. Blaming himself for something he had no control over is easier than accepting that she is gone or moving on. Hiding out in the wilds of Alaska keeps him from facing life in most ways. I also have to point out that he should have been angry at her as well. Anger is a standard step in grief, and Susan is even partially to blame here. But he manages to skip that step. Luke refers to Charlie as ‘an angle falling from the sky’ more than once, and she really is for him. She has had a similar loss, even if it is a child rather than a spouse. (That her child inherited a sickness could have caused her to blame herself for “making” a faulty child’s body, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.) Charlie shows Luke that keeping all this in is hurting him and that Susan would never have wanted him to live like he is, closed off and alone. That Luke is able to help Charlie find the ‘woman’ she once was again is an added bonus. She may be dealing with the loss of her child, but she is still cut off from parts of herself, weather she realizes it or not. So he does help her as well, just not as much.

Someone to Love Me is a touching story of moving on and finding love again. We all need help at times and to share our pain with someone who understands, preferably someone who has been through what we are experiencing and feeling. That these two fire up the other and share a passion as wild as the country they are in while healing their wounded souls is an added bonus. Someone to Love Me is a moving story about two passionate people who do as much healing for the other as they do loving.