Customer Reviews

SEALed with a Ring

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed this book. It is the third in the series and is the best so far in my opinion. I loved the hero, David. He was a very real, very human character who made mistakes and grew and learned. The author did a good job making him a strong and sexy man who was also gentle while not being sickly sweet perfect. The heroine, JJ, was a strong woman who needed a strong man. Anyone less she would have just walked over. Still, she wasn't a ball breaker. She had fears and insecurities that her relationship with David helped her overcome. Their relationship grew over time and was not one of those "we met last Tuesday, saved the world from annihilation and fell in love by Saturday" kind of stories. You really believe that this is a relationship which will last.

The writing was very well done. The dialog was strong. The love scences were good, hot without being offensive and not overpowering the story line. Characters from the other 2 books showed up but didn't have their own scenes which I liked. I like to see old friends but their stories have been told. This is not one of those authors who can't seem to let go of old characters and has to continually write scences from their POV in later books.

I liked the SEAL details. She sprinkled them in without an info dump and didn't write as if the reader had never heard of a SEAL and had to be told everything about them. The only thing I wondered about was JJ being so rich and so prominent in high society from owning a car dealership. I will admit that I know nothing about either car dealerships or the junior league set so maybe that's all realistic too.

I really enjoyed it and if you like good love stories with SEALs in them, I think you will too.

JJ and Davy first meet at a wedding where they let their inhibitions go and spend a wild night of sexual indulgence together... not so new to Davy, but very uncharacteristic for JJ. Then both go their separate ways...JJ to find a way to keep the car dealership that she feels is her family legacy, and has become the sole focus of her life, and Davy back to Afghanistan to serve his country as a SEAL.

They meet again almost a year later at another wedding, but Davy doesn't remember JJ. He is drawn to her inexplicably, and feels moments of déjà vu that he just can't explain, while JJ desperately wishes to forget a night that she regrets. In a moment of brilliance JJ realizes that Davy, now David, is exactly the type of husband that she needs and has been searching for. A SEAL is perfect since he will almost never be around and she will be free to lead her life as she sees fit...on her own terms. However, David has terms of his own. One of which is a "real" marriage, not just in name only.

There was so much promise in JJ and David's love story. I loved the hero David, and his transformation into a man that is drastically different from his prior playboy personality, while trying to overcome traumatic brain injuries that could end his career as a SEAL. For me he was the heart and the most interesting part of the story. However, much to my disappointment I felt that this story was heroine centric and focused mostly on JJ and her struggles to control everything in her life.

I was slow to get invested into this story for this reason. I wish the story would have been more about David and how he changed after his injuries; his efforts to regain some of his memories, having to relearn things like reading and math while hiding his struggles from everyone including his new wife, and doctors because of his fear of no longer being a SEAL...the very reason why she wanted to marry him. He viewed his entire worth and identity with being a SEAL and this was such a significant point in the book that I wish it would have been explored in more depth.

His injuries were the reason why he didn't remember JJ. He just had inexplicable feelings that he already "knew" her and that she was important enough to him that he didn't want to let her go. It made JJ's struggle with controlling the world around her seem insignificant compared to what David was experiencing, yet it was JJ's story that was the focus of the book. I felt that JJ"s same problems were rehashed repeatedly, I just wish she would have learned her hard earned lessons much sooner so that we could experience more of David's story. I wanted to learn more about his relationship with his family. More about him, how he coped with his fears, and desired the love of a woman he felt unworthy of.

I felt that the emotions were stunted and just when I thought that the hero and the heroine would get to important discussions/discoveries the scene or chapter would end, and while some of this was finally addressed, it happened all within about the last 50 or so pages...too little to late for me. It was almost as if the story needed to conclude, and the parts of the story that for me were the most important, that were crucial to their love story, their growth and development individually as well as a couple, were sadly rushed. SEALed with a Ring held promise that I felt wasn't completely fulfilled despite it's potential.

Ratings: 3.25 stars

Sensuality level: the intimate scenes in this book were mostly just hinted at, however there were a few scenes that went into more detail...much like you would find in a Harlequin romance

A quote from the cover of Author Mary Margret Daughtridge's new book, SEALed with a Ring, says: "Sometimes you get a lot more than you bargained for..."

In this contemporary romance, those words do come true. Through skillful storytelling, insightful character development, and quirky little twists and turns, SEALed with a Ring kept me reading, sentence-after-sentence.
Navy SEAL medic Davy Graziano is my favorite kind of hero. He's alpha to the core, but oh so vulnerable when it comes to that one special woman in his life, the one that can wrap this bigger-than-life hero in knots and leave him squirming. JJ Caruthers is that a woman.

JJ is in a predicament. In order to inherit the business she's worked her whole life to obtain, the one that means more to her than her personal happiness or freedom, she's got to marry. And in a hurry! Why not choose Davy Graziano? Well, there are lots of reasons, notwithstanding the fact that, he doesn't remember her as the girl of his dreams. With little time left, she makes the choice and takes a chance on Davy.

Why doesn't Davy remember JJ? With separate schemes, can these two find a basis for a merger? Why is a Navy SEAL the perfect choice for JJ, who doesn't want a husband at all? You'll enjoy discovering the answers to these questions as you read SEALed with a Ring.

I absolutely loved this book! I really liked the first one, the second one I had a little trouble warming up to but this one, I was hooked right from the beginning. I wasn't sure how MMD would redeem Davy because he was kind of a jerk in the last book but she managed to pull it off. She took these characters and the plot and made them (and it) totally realistic. There are so many SEAL romances out there that are so unrealistic and one dimensional that they are actually an insult to the Navy Seals but this book, I think they would approve of. It doesn't sugar coat what these men have to do and it doesn't glamorize war. And there are no spectacular Hollywood rescue scenes where one or two Seals manage to rescue the defenseless female lead from some paramilitary organization in a jungle. Those books are fun but they are like the appetizer and this is like a full meal. There is just so much more to these books then the average special ops romance.

I hope she comes out with another one either featuring Garth and Bronwyn or Garth and Elle.

Based on this book, I definitely want to read more of her books.

Dena:)

absolutely fell in love with this book! I loved the character building, the plot, and the suspense level! The author did a wonderful job of keeping the readers questioning Davy and and JJ's future.


I personally love stories about servicemen. I have a soft spot for anyone who serves our country because I grew up with a veteran grandfather; soooo....maybe my opinion is biased but I thought Mary did a great job showing the dedication of a SEAL.


Davy was a well built and multi-faceted character who made you want to root for him no matter what kind of scoundrel he was! LOL! The same goes for JJ; throughout the story I just wanted her to be happy and fulfilled. The romance was perfect, the story would touch my heart at times, and the ending was great!


I, personally, would like to read more of Ms. Daughtridge's work after reading this book. I would recommend this book if you like contemporary romance and are looking for a great read!

SEALED WITH A RING by Mary Margret Daughtridge is book 3 of her SEALED series, following SEALED WITH A KISS and SEALED WITH A PROMISE. First let me say that Mary Margret Daughtridge is an awesome lady from my home state of North Carolina. And I always ALWAYS try to support my local authors, now let me tell you about this great book. From the previous statement you may awesome I'd be baised, and that's probably true, if the books weren't so great. But this series is one of the best IMHO. SEALED WITH A RING touches on an issue that many in the military deal with, however you rarly see it addressed in romance novels. And that is brain injuries and how they affect not only the person hurt but those around them. This is a marriage of convience story, but it didn't really read like that to me. Both JJ and David(Davy) are strong characters who have their own issues, fears, lives to deal with. They aren't perfect, they aren't superheroes, they are "normal" people. I could see these characters being my friends in real life. Ms. Daughtridge has set SWAR in North Carolina, one of the best settings for a story, IMHO, that adds to the feel of this story. There is the small southern town touch that just makes you smile. The romance between David and JJ is sexy, fun,and very believable. I loved seeing characters from previous stories and I love the hints to upcoming stories. While this is part of a series, I will say it can be read as a stand alone, even though I think you'll be rushing out to get the previous titles and bugging Ms. Daughtridge for the next story. I would highly recommend SEALED WITH A RING to readers who love emotional stories that deal with SEALs. This is a story that will leave you smiling.

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SEALed with a Ring is a fast moving story with excellent believable characters, depth, and a true understanding of the challenges facing American's most elite forces. Mary Margret did an excellent job of describing an intelligent man dealing with Traumatic Brain Injury. WELL Done!!

I love this series! the only thing that I can find wrong is that the vehicles that are mentioned are so messed up. Ford does not make the Silverado, Chevy does. At least the 250 was right for a ford unless it was meant for Chevy then it should have been 2500. I realize it is nit picking but I am a car nut as well as a lover of great romance novels.

Everything about this book should have worked: really likeable hero, interesting heroine, nice locale, good story, good dialogue. And yet somehow it fell short of delivering the emotional punch it could have. I think the basic problem was too many words. There were lots of scenes that were redundant and which dragged the story down. The other critique I would make is that the passion which was present at the very beginning somehow never gets back to that red hot level it was at in the beginning and which got the story started. That was a bit disappointing. I'm not talking about a need for explicit sex scenes! One just felt that they weren't as "hot" throughout the rest of the book. I read it all the way through but because of the problems mentioned above, I can't give it a whole-hearted recommendation. I really wanted to love this book and instead am left feeling sort of "meh".

Sure this isn't an epic Navy Seals romance epic, but the plot is very good and the characters are appealing. I hope there are more books like this one out there!