There are some books you stumble across that are easy to read. Light. Fluffy, even. This book is not one of them. 
 As a married woman whose own life has recently suffered some turmoil, I found it difficult to start. I even had to put it away for a couple of days and build up the nerve to dive back in when I felt more emotionally prepared. 
 Though I don't think I could have prepared myself to read this. It was heartbreaking and real and really, I don't have the words to describe it. Tracey Garvis-Graves has such a simple way with words. She tells her stories without any fanfare or unnecessary bells and whistles. Her books aren't about shock value or pushing the limits, they're about the characters and their true to life situations. Which is what makes them so fantastic. 
 To anyone on the outside looking in, Claire Canton's life is perfect. She lives in a big house in the suburbs, has two great kids, a husband who provides for her and a little dog, too. But behind the doors of that perfect home exists a woman who's lost. And a husband who's just as mixed up on the inside. Marriage takes work, and if you stop trying--if you take it for granted--it can slip away from you so quickly that you don't even realize it's happening until it's too late. 
 That's exactly what happens to Claire and her husband Chris. 
 After losing his job, Chris falls into a downward spiral that Claire finds herself powerless to get him out of. She does what she can to make it better, but it seems everything she tries to do for him, he fights her on. It's his home, and his job to take care of his family, and to have her threatening that causes tension in their marriage that builds to a level that almost ruins them both. 
 When Chris lands a new job that requires him to travel four days a week, things don't get better as she'd hoped. If anything, to Claire, they get worse. She's lonely. She's lost without the man she built her life with. 
 She just wants someone to be there for her for once. 
 And after a routine traffic stop by Officer Daniel Rush, that's exactly what she finds. A friend. A very attractive male friend who has issues of his own. These two form a quick bond. One that blurs the lines and begs to ask the age-old question about whether men and women can ever actually be friends without it becoming more. 
 The answer is no. They can't. Not truly. There will always be lines that get crossed and emotions that shouldn't be in play. But when two people are searching for something they aren't finding elsewhere, sometimes the temptation of that escape is too great to deny. 
 For Claire and Daniel, their friendship provides something they've both lost. It makes them feel whole again in a way they haven't felt in far too long. Is it wrong? To outsiders, yes. To them? No. It's a slippery slope. They've both made it clear that friendship is all they want, but it doesn't take long for Daniel to want more, or for Claire to want to give it to him. 
 Until she, as a type 1 diabetic, suffers a DKA episode that lands her in the hospital and shows her that no matter how distant Chris has been recently...he still loves her. 
 He just forgot how to show her. 
 And she forgot how to show him, too. 
 You probably know a handful (or more) of couples who have faced this same kind of predicament. Temptation is everywhere, but as the book jacket suggests, these characters have to decide what's more important...temptation, honor or love. It's not an easy journey, but it's one I feel is worth reading. And no, it's not just those of us who are married that can understand. I think anyone can identify with the feelings these characters experience. Young or old, man or woman...give it a shot. Especially if you've ever felt desperate enough to do something you know you might regret...