It seems that this is the #5 book in the series but they can be read as a standalone and that is what i did.
But i did not enjoy it as much as i had hoped. The characters were incredible boring and meh, and the story went on without much really happening.. i did not really see the chemistry between the characters either.

When Alice's military career ended with a blast, literally, she finds herself at a Veteran's Retreat in an attempt to acclimate back into civilian life. Here she meets Micah, an NFL Quarterback, who has been fighting addiction and his own demons for the past year. Micah decides to help Alice, while at the same time helping himself.
They begin to spend time together. Although Alice feels the pull toward Micah, she does not want to open her heart to anyone. Micah pulls out all the stops to show Alice that she can trust him with her heart.
I would definitely recommend this book.
Thank you Laurie Winter, The Wild Rose Press, Inc. and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Know You by Heart by Laurie Winter is a modern-day story of healing and romance. Alice Liddell legally changed her name at eighteen after escaping an unhappy childhood home. She joins the army and is deployed with special operations. She barely survives an IED explosion and is discharged from the army. She is dealing with a lot of emotional and physical issues. Micah Palmer is a professional football player who is recovering from an injury that led to drug addiction and rehab. Part of his plan to get back his career is volunteering at the Veterans retreat, just for PR, that Alice happens to be attending. The two lso6t souls become friends and Alice becomes Micah’s trainer. Will more than friendship develop between them?
I really enjoyed this story. Having family members deployed and reading about some the experiences is hard but gives the reader a better perspective on what our military members face every day. The characters are very believable and act in ways one would expect. There are several twists and turns and the story flows very well and logically. I give this book 5 of 5 stars.
I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars

I liked but didn't love this book. I like the authors style of writing but honestly had a hard time connecting with Micah, he was a little too self-centered for me and I didn't like the way he couldn't make up his mind.

Alice resonated more with me, but I still struggled a bit with her character. I get that both of them had baggage that they carried from the past, but neither one of them seemed like they were willing to compromise. And relationships are ALL about compromising!

This is the first book I've read in this series and am planning to go back and read the ones written before this.

Enjoyable story about a female wounded warrior and a quarterback fighting addiction, “Know You by Heart”, by Laurie Winter (The Wild Rose Press), is still a light read despite its dark themes. The idea that both characters heal each other through their involvement is sweet.
Micah and Alice are engaging enough characters, but they look more like buddies than lovers. Micah is a bit shallow, although I found the author handled this trait in an interesting way (he often acts like a self-centered male child, yet he has a good heart and I could not dislike him). Alice had also problematic sides to her character, I felt she turned too quickly from guarded former soldier to drooling-over-the-quarterback female.
Alice’s troubled childhood resolution was handled a bit too lightly, in my opinion.
It was a bit annoying that close to the end of the story, the hero was still torn between two women, that is not romantic at all! On the other hand, all that indecisiveness made the character realistic.
The previous story was so amazing, its characters so lovable, I really couldn’t connect at the same level with this couple, but still found it entertaining.

WARNING: Long, semi-rambling review ahead.

I feel like I need to give some background here. I read the first book in the Warriors of the Heart series, Home Field, shortly after its June 2017 release, and found myself impressed with this debut author’s first book. The story was compelling and heartfelt and was written without all the silly cliched things so many books are written with these days (like repeating ad nauseum about how hawt the hero is, and repetitious inner monologues lamenting why the couple can’t be together). Book two, True Horizon , was good as well, and really challenged my thoughts on what constitutes a good love story. Book three, After All , didn’t work for me as well as the first two, but there were aspects of the storyline that I liked and appreciated because, again, the author took the road less traveled with her characters and storyline. Book four, Winner Takes All , was AMAZING and will probably end up on my Best of 2019 list because of its unique plot and fantastic storyline.

So with that track record in mind, I had (what was most likely too) high expectations for this story. After enjoying all four previous books, I was never able to feel connected or invested in the hero or heroine, or their journey to heal, in this one.

Micah is a disgraced NFL quarterback, hoping to make a comeback after a major knee injury the previous year lead to a drug addiction and general bad behavior. Alice is a former soldier, recovering from a serious injury sustained in the line of duty. Both are hoping time at the veteran’s retreat center (run by Colleen from Winner Takes All) will help them heal and be ready to face the future. When Heath (from True Horizon) conspires with Colleen to pair Micah and Alice together for training/working out, they first develop a friendship, which then blossoms into more.

It’s a rough road for our hero and heroine, though. Alice had a truly harrowing childhood - which she refuses to talk about with anyone, and is struggling to figure out what she’s going to do with her life now that she’s been medically discharged from the military. She’s reluctant to have a man be any part of the decisions she’s making about the future. Micah didn’t have a great childhood either. Add in a tumultuous former relationship with unresolved feelings, and he’s not in a good head space for a new relationship either. So these two had a stadium-sized amount of baggage to unpack.

Which begs the question...did they unpack all that baggage? I don’t feel they did. The title of this book is Know You By Heart, but by the end of the story I didn’t feel like either of them knew each other all that well - otherwise they wouldn’t have done the things they did at the end of their predetermined time together (I’m not a fan of “relationship with an end date” storylines to begin with, but that wasn’t even the issue here). I won’t go into specifics (so as not to give any spoilers), but both of them had a good idea what the other was going to need if they were to continue the relationship, but neither was willing to be the one to compromise what they thought they needed. In short, both were still selfish. And simply put, there’s no romance in that whatsoever.

I also want to see characters have growth. Alice faced down some of her childhood demons, but still wouldn’t let Micah fully into her heart. And Micah starts out as the typical cocky, overconfident pro-athlete, low-key demanding his way about everything. He’s still a cocky, overconfident pro-athlete demanding his way at the end. I want to see them do the hard work to get through their issues, and instead we get an epilogue that takes place six months later when everything is all hunky-dory.

Ultimately, I feel as meh about Know You by Heart as I did about book three, except I wasn't able to find any qualities about this one to bring the rating up. The writing and story wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t enough for me to say I “liked it” either.

I do want to end on a positive note. I really appreciate that Ms. Winters writes clean, sweet romances. There’s nary a single bad word - not even the nickel ones (even though we all know athletes and military people are known for having salty language!), and the focus in the relationships is on the mental and emotional aspects, instead of the physical parts. Personally, I don’t have a problem with either bad language or steamy times. But reading a book without those can be refreshing!

So this one may not have worked for me, but I’m still looking forward to whatever Ms. Winters writes next. She earned my respect with her first book, and has repeatedly shown she writes her own refreshing stories instead of giving readers a regurgitation of what “everyone” else is producing. Hopefully I’ll connect to better to her next book.

* thank you to NetGalley and Wild Rose Press, Inc for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review