Grab the tissues once again because this one will leave you tears from the get go. I think this has been the most emotional series ever from Lani Lynn Vale. It seems like every single book has been an emotional roller coaster. This one though really pulls at you.
Ugly Duckling by Lani Lynn Vale
Series: Content Advisory #6
Genres: Mafia Romance, Romantic Suspense

It wasn't easy being considered the ugly friend.

She's known since she was young that life wouldn't be easy, and that she would have to work hard for everything she got. Life was tough when you had a face that only a mother could love.

For years, Sutton Sway goes through life knowing that she's never going to have a happily ever after that she's always dreamed of. So she settles. She marries not for love, but for companionship, choosing a man that she never should've looked twice at, all so she could have a family of her own.

That family never happens, and within a year, she's divorced and right back where she started.

Just when she's at her all-time low, thinking life couldn't get much worse, in walks Gunner Penn.

Gunner Penn, her protector. The man that saved her from all her high school bullies and proved to her that there were good men in this world.

He was the man that she'd compared all other men to, and probably always would.

But he's not the Gunner she remembers. He's harder, less forgiving, and a whole lot less happy.
He hates everyone and everything and doesn't care who he offends.

That hate and anger for the world and its occupants doesn't seem to include her, though.
No, Gunner Penn doesn't hate her at all.

In fact, he's loved her since high school. She was just too traumatized by life to see it.
But she sees it now. She feels it. She lives and breathes it.

Gunner Penn lost her once. But he won't lose her a second time.

Not if there's breath left in his body.

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I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review

So if you have been reading Lani Lynn Vale for a while then you already know that Gunner lost his son Jett, in a school shooting which we learned in Maybe Don’t Wanna. This book is his story years after that. In the previous book, Mistaken Identity , we find out that Gunner has a daughter he wasn’t aware of. So here we are and he is trying to navigate fatherhood again when he thought he would never have that kind of love ever again. He is far harder on himself than anyone else. He is a great father from the first page to the last.

Every scene his daughter is in just made me melt. She is simply too cute for words and I loved the way Gunner is with her. However, being a teen parent and then having that taken in the way Jett was, left a mark on Gunner along with plenty of guilt.

Gunner and Sutton actually knew each other in high school. Sutton was I hate to say ugly duckling friend but that is what she called herself. She’s the plain friend who doesn’t see herself as anything more. She is bullied and harassed. Although, not by Gunner who thought she was beautiful from the moment he first saw her.

Life moves on and Sutton has settled for the hope of kids and a future above love. Let me tell you that what happened to her both angered and horrified me. Sutton meets Gunner again through a bet he made with his MC club. Honestly it is great and you immediately know they were always meant to be. Life happened the way it often does but there is something about these two that says they will come together in any lifetime. 

Sutton and Gunner were simply wonderful together. We got some closure of a lingering issue and the new antagonist was not what I saw coming. Honestly there was also a person or two that I really wanted to throat punch in this one so much. All in all it was a great addition to this series.  

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