***Arc was provided by author in exchange for an honest review***

At the end of More Than Her, both Logan and Amanda are left physically and mentally broken. What makes the situation worse is that Logan doesn’t know how to handle the fact that Amanda was hurt because of his past, so he does the only thing he knows how to do – he runs away, leaving Amanda’s life shattered. So, once again, she has to put herself back together after Logan turns away from their commitment to one another.

When More Than Him begins, it is 5 weeks since Logan cut ties with Amanda, and she is still dealing with the fallout. She is going through the motions of her life but every day is still a struggle to not only move past Logan but also the incident that has scarred her life. When Ty returns to Amanda’s life, she feels better and starts “living” again, but it’s not the same, and she has to deal with what that means for her and her future. As she copes the best she can, she gets help from an unlikely person – Logan’s dad. Their time together sheds light on more of Logan’s past and what that means for the man he is today. They never speak of Logan in the present because that is more than Amanda can handle, but through Logan’s father’s eyes, she sees the inner Logan that he never let anyone see. Fast forward several months, and Amanda finds herself locking eyes with the one person she never thought she’d see again – Logan.

Logan’s return does quite the number on both of them. The power they have over each other is tremendous. Their first encounter escalates quickly because of the raw emotions circling around them, and readers hold their breath, hoping that they can find their way back to each other despite all of the pain. But, even though I wanted Logan and Amanda to get back together, I’m so glad that it wasn’t instantaneous. Amanda makes Logan work for it, and through this stretch of time, readers get important insights into what Logan experiences when he is gone volunteering for Doctors Without Borders. The way that Jay McLean presents what Logan learns while he is overseas and how he is truly feeling about Amanda and himself is genius. It is much more genuine coming in the form she uses than if Logan would have just verbalized it all to Amanda. That part in the story is so eye opening not just for Amanda, when she finally does read it, but for readers as well.

To get back to being each other’s “person,” Logan and Amanda need to deal with what happened…they need to lay it all out to each other because it is the only way they can move forward. Those scenes were expertly written…readers could feel how devastated Amanda was by Logan’s actions, but we also sensed how much lighter she felt when all that needed to be said was said. Some stories don’t show the process of working through all of the crap that broke couples in the first place, so I’m glad Ms. McLean felt it necessary to share that with her readers because it makes for a much better story.

Throughout the story, readers witness the new and improved Logan – the man who is done running unless it’s with Amanda by his side. He wants to give her everything she needs, and even though the road to get him there was heartbreaking and scarring, Logan proves to Amanda that she’s what he wants for the rest of his life.

Logan and Amanda’s story is overwhelming at times due to the back stories and the tragic incidences they have to deal with, but it is so worth the read. Jay McLean is my go to author when I need an extremely well written angst ridden text. The emotions she brings out in her characters are the same ones she brings out in her readers, which is a hard skill to master for romance writers. I can’t wait to see what feelings she exposes for Cam and Lucy’s story!

4.5 poison apples!