A Love Restrained is a story of love and life where everything is not all black and white, when a straight-shooting police officer, Kylee Parker and bad boy Jayson Donovan click. They have had this chemistry ever since being high school crushes. However, life happens and when Officer Parker chases and corners Donovan, a drug dealer, in an alley, things happen. Life rewinds and intersects as Officer Parker has come face-to-face with her high school crush!

Author Becky Flade has a unique voice and delivers an interesting tale. She shows the family life in which both Kylee and Jayson were raised. Hers is a supportive circle of love; his, a dysfunctional family of abuse and suffering.  Will these two be given a second chance at love?

There were a few instances where I was pulled out of the story by the switching point of views. Time jumps were sometimes off-putting, but I understood why it was necessary. Luckily, the story was good enough to keep me going as I wanted to know what would happen next. A Love Restrained delivered quite a few surprises.

I like the relationship between the main characters. Flade made her characters so real that you want to reach out and give Jayson a good talking to! They are people you truly get to know. The pacing was steady for most of the book. What I like most about this story was that it had a bit of romance, drama, and suspense.

Better proofreading would have helped catch some issues such as missing commas and use of homophones such as ‘gate’ for ‘gait’.

I would rate this book a 3.5.

Note: A copy of this title was provided to me for my honest review.