Review - - A Hero's Return

A Hero's Return

by Carrie Nichols

Sandy Shores - Book 1

Publisher: Harlequin Special Edition

Release Date: August 26, 2025

Reviewed by PJ

He knows how to be brave on a battlefield

Now he has to be brave with his heart

Years of military service taught decorated veteran Braden Sullivan how to be strong. It didn’t teach him how to be vulnerable. Back in his Oregon hometown, with a job as a helicopter pilot and a two-family home to renovate, he’s not at all prepared for his heart to take flight after meeting his tenant, Cassie Donovan. The widowed single mom is beautiful, charming…and terrified of loving another pilot after losing her husband in a crash. Overcoming her fears and his own uncertainties will take courage—but isn’t that what a hero soldier is for?

PJ's Thoughts:

Carrie Nichols launches a new series with A Hero's Return, a heartwarming, humorous, and deeply emotional story of surviving loss, starting over, and finding new love. 

I was quickly invested in Cassie Donovan and her daughter, Amelia. Nichols paints a clear picture of mother and daughter, starting over in a new town after a devastating loss three years earlier. The effects of that loss are still reverberating, making the duo, who are both strong and vulnerable, sympathetic characters I took to heart. I appreciated Cassie's strength, her willingness to put her heart at risk again, and her fierce determination to keep her daughter her priority.

Braden took a bit longer to get to know. I enjoyed his character but I wouldn't have minded more attention to his backstory, especially his military service and its lasting effects on him. It would have added layers and rounded out his character a bit more. He may be grumpy at first but it quickly becomes evident that he's a good guy, showing through his actions how much Cassie's happiness means to him. He's a guy who pays attention.   

I especially enjoyed Braden's soft spot for the animals in the story as well as the evolution of his relationship with Amelia. It's not easy starting a romance with a woman who has a twelve-year-old daughter, especially when that daughter is still grieving the tragic death of her father, taking tentative steps forward in life, and watching her mother fall in love with a new man, all while navigating the hormonal peaks and valleys of puberty. Her character is realistic, relatable, and essential to this story.

If you enjoy stories that feature starting over after loss, family dynamics, finding love a second time, adorable pets, and happy endings, A Hero's Return by Carrie Nichols may be a good book for you.