Her Holiday Hero by Margaret Daley

Book Description:The Soldier's Gift

The holidays are right around the corner, but Captain Jake Tanner is struggling to find Christmas cheer. Having survived a devastating attack overseas, he has emotional scars that run deep. When Jake meets beautiful widow Emma Langford, his heart is unprepared for the feelings she inspires.
Training service dogs has taught Emma to recognize those in need. She wants to show Jake that a four-legged companion is the best therapy, but she's afraid that the closer she gets, the more her own wounds are revealed.

Together, Jake and Emma will discover it takes a different kind of bravery to open themselves to love—and to healing.

Caring Canines: Loving and loyal, these dogs mend hearts.
 

My Review:When Captain Jake Tanner rescues Josh Langford from three bullies he had no idea his world was about to change. Emma Langford trains service dogs and feels Jake could really use a service dog to help with his PTSD.

The author Margret Daley did an outstand job of bringing the characters to life. She was able to touch two tough subjects that affect many today, bulling and military PTSD. With this book she brought honor to our service men and women. This is the second book in the series Caring Canines but it can be read as a stand alone. I really enjoyed this inspirational romance and highly recommend it to others.

About the author:

Margaret has been writing for over 30 years. She started writing in the late 1970s because she wanted to see if she could put a whole story down on paper. That book is still in the drawer and will never see the light of day. But she was able to finish a book, which was her goal.

She decided after that to get some help, and joined a writers' roundtable where she met once a week with some fellow writers who went over each other's work. She sold her first book in the early 1980s and has been selling ever since.
She loves to tell a story. When she was a little girl she made up stories while playing with her dolls. On long trips with her family she would weave a story about the surrounding countryside. From those early beginnings grew a love of entertaining people with a story.

When she went away to college, she met her husband, Mike, to whom she has been married for over 40 years. He is her support and her best friend. She has always felt she was the luckiest woman the day she bumped into him on campus.
When they married, they moved to Tulsa, where she finished her degree in special education and began teaching. She loved teaching and working with students with special needs. They helped her remember what is important in life. She also participated in the Special Olympics as a coach with her students and has attended the State Games in May for years. Recently she retired from teaching to write full-time.

Besides teaching and writing, she is also a mother of one. Her son, Shaun, loves animals and there have been times they could have their own zoo at the house. The most interesting pet Shaun had is a leopard tortoise, which could outlive him. She has joked that his children will be inheriting a tortoise. He is married with four daughters.

When she isn't working, she loves to read, travel, and go to lunch and a movie with a friend. She has been to many countries in the world and loves to meet new people. Her favorite place is Tahiti -- Bora Bora. It is as beautiful as all the pictures portray it.

In her travels she has found herself in some interesting situations. Once, in London, she got caught in the middle of a protest that later turned into a riot over poll taxes. In the rain forest of Costa Rica, she was covered from head to toe in mud and ruined a perfectly good outfit. She should have remembered it was going to be wet since it was called a rain forest. In Rio, she and a friend were left with no means to get back to the hotel on the other side of the city. Neither Margaret nor her companion spoke Portuguese and there wasn't a cab in sight. Thankfully one finally pulled up to the curb at the museum because she couldn't see herself hiking across Rio to get back to the hotel at night.