Two brothers.

One woman.

One son.

One choice.

Lives ripped apart, shattered and rebuilt.

Evan and Nate Archer: Brothers, best friends, warriors and now enemies. Both in love with the same woman. Both determined to fight for what they want.

Nate Archer promised to protect Ryley Clarke in the event Evan didn’t make it back. It’s a promise between brothers since the early days of basic training. Nate never considered that his feelings, long buried since high school, would resurface and grow stronger.

Evan Archer wants answers. He wants someone to pay. After being gone for an unprecedented amount of time, nothing is making sense now that he’s home. Most of all, he can't understand how his brother ended up engaged to his fiancée. Evan is determined to uncover the mystery, and win back his family.

The Archers are about to fight dirty.

I have to be really careful with this review, because even the most innocent remark about the plot has the potential to spoil events in this or the previous book. That being said, I think I felt every emotion possible while reading these pages. Hope, fear, happiness, grief, relief, heartbreak.

Nate and Evan Archer are fighting each other for the first time in their lives. For the first time they are on opposite sides of a battle that means each of their hearts: the battle for Ryley Clarke’s heart. It is obvious that the hurt runs deep between these two, and the last six years could be devastating to their relationship no matter what Ryley decides.

I love both brothers for what they mean to Ryley and the parts of her heart they hold. Each brother deserves her heart and the fact that they have to fight for her, and she has to choose, just brought pain to so much of this story. But it also brought hope and happiness as Ryley was reminded of why she loved each brother.

But beyond the feud between the brothers is also the question of what happened to cause Evan’s team to be on a mission for 6 years, declared dead, and returned with zero fanfare, all while thinking their families were sending letter and photos and wishing them well.

The answers to questions that started being asked in Here With Me are here. Sort of. This is a great example of the middle of a trilogy that works for more than just getting readers ready for the finale. There is so much going on that this never felt like a placeholder between the beginning and end of the overarching story. There is enough that gets wrapped up in the course of this single book that it kept me reading steadily from start to finish.

This book is so aptly named. Choose it! But only after you read Here With Me. Things aren’t completely fixed, but even though there is one more Archer Brothers book coming, I loved where this one ended. I loved what it meant for all the characters, and I have hope that peace will return to the Archer family.

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.