The foremost achievement of Defend Her Heart by Jillian Arly is its chronic illness portrayal. Avery’s chronic illness experience is not simply a subplot here; it is very much a driving force. Arly captures the chronicity of illness with remarkable thoughtfulness: the struggle for a diagnosis, finding a physician who believes you, and most astutely, the way illness gradually percolates into every corner of your life — your self-worth, career, relationships, social life and the sense of what your future can look like.
Avery’s story also offers a quiet, sharp commentary on the social model of disability. Her body has real and unavoidable limitations, but the extent to which those limitations disable her is profoundly shaped by the world around her. Having experienced the erosion of a marriage where her illness was not believed, Avery finds something very different in Connor: someone attentive, accommodating and willing to understand. The contrast makes a compelling point about how access to resources and a genuine support system can change the experience of living with chronic illness.
Fortunately and deliciously, all this comes packaged in a very fun sports romance with many of our beloved tropes: second-chance, women in male-dominated fields, marriage of convenience, found family…very favourably reminiscent of the wildly beloved book boyfriends from the Windy City series. The book is a joy to read, but a few character motivations, particularly around family dynamics and some of the transitions between past and present, could have used minor tightening or finishing touches.
Verdict: Defend Her Heart is a warm, delightful romance that understands something important: chronic illness doesn’t exist in isolation from the rest of a person’s life.