HOMEFRONT by Jessica Scott is book one in the
Homefront
series, a spin off her bestselling Coming Home series into
an all new series set at Fort Hood about soldiers
preparing
for war and the families who love them.
Scott is a career
army officer and wife to a career NCO who has deployed to
Iraq and has had the honor of serving as a company
commander at Fort Hood, Texas twice. She knows what she's
talking about when it comes to the service, and her
military romances show it. Her stories are always
bittersweet for me, because they show what seems to me
(someone with no military experience whatsoever) to be an
unflinching look at the problems that the military has,
and
how those problems bleed over into the families of those
who serve. I'm always curious what Scott's commanders
think of her blunt demonstrations of the issues dogging
those in command and in service- are they irritated at
her? But her honesty makes for such powerful reading for
me.
First Sergeant Gale Sorren is back in the States, at Fort
Hood, after multiple deployments in Iraq. He asked his
commander to pull strings to get him at Fort Hood so he
can
be around his ex-wife, and their daughter Jamie, who has
some psychiatric issues and is a self-cutter. Gale was
unable to come back to the U.S. when his daughter was
hospitalized from cutting herself too deeply, and he has
incredible guilt over this. He has anger control issues,
and when he found out he couldn't come back to be with his
family, he attacked his commanding officer in Iraq, and
only escaped (punishment) due to his mentor interceding
for
him. Gale is learning how to manage his anger, and it
feels very healthy to watch him succeed in his struggles
to
try to stay rational when dealing with his work and his
family. Gale is a hero I love to root for!
Gale spends a lot of his work days, and evenings,
wrangling
misbehaving soldiers. His exasperation shows, along with
the author's:
"Life in the Army sometimes felt more like a reality
TV
show than a professional organization".
It's comical, and yet disturbing, to read about the myriad
of problems that the Army grapples with in trying to get
soldiers ready for a war, and how to manage the problems
that abound. I learn things from every Scott book that I
read that broaden my point of view, and I love that I can
get smarter at the same time that I'm reading a romance.
A lot of the characters I know and love from the Coming
Home series make appearances here, so this is a smooth
slide in a new spin-off for me. While knowing the back
stories make this book more enjoyable for me, it can
easily
be read as a standalone. Gale and his ex-wife Melanie's
slow tumble back into love is poignant and beautiful.
It's
lovely to see a romance between an older couple, a segment
that is not often highlighted in the typical romance book
today. Their shared history gives them plenty of hurdles
to surmount, and that makes their success all the
sweeter. Two thumbs up to HOMEFRONT by Jessica Scott,
proving that her new series will be an auto-read for me!
First Sergeant Gale Sorren waited a war and half a
lifetime
for a chance to get stationed near the ex-wife who left
him
years ago. When he finally musters the courage to see her,
the life he imagined she was living was nothing close to
the
reality.
She's never stopped loving him...
Melanie never stopped worrying about Gale each time he
headed off to war. But he's never been there when she
needed
him and she's had fifteen years to steel her heart against
him.
But when Gale moves to Fort Hood, he finally has a chance
to
make things right with Melanie and the daughter she raised
without him.
Can Mel trust her heart to a man who has always let her
down?
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