Review: A beautiful love story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 17, 2013
Since I have family members proudly serving in the Marine Corps, I have no problem admitting that I wanted to read this story because it involved an ex Marine with PTSD having served during DADT. Luckily for me, there was a lot more to this story and to the character of Cole than just him being an ex-Marine. Plus, Cat Grant is an author I enjoy so it was certainly no hardship to jump into reading this.Marc is a waiter in a diner and a writer the rest of the time he's not slinging hash. He has a horrible habit of being attracted to big, strong military guys who are, almost always, in the closet and they just use him for sex. Marc grew up by Camp Pendleton and his only two serious boyfriends were closeted Marines. It looked like that was going to be the case with Cole when they met, but first impressions can definitely change. Marc writes romance and has been doing fairly well in the last three years, each book garnering more and more sales. Granted, it's not quite enough yet to quit his waiter job, but it beats working in an office, and writing, at least, justifies his master's degree.Cole did five tours in Iraq and Fajullah. He graduated from the Academy. He's from the South where honor can still mean something. When he was finally honest with himself and the Corps, he was discharged for being gay. When he told his father, his father informed him that he was ashamed to call him his son, that the sight of Cole made him sick, and he was a disgrace to the Corps. Cole's mom would just like everything to go back to the way it was. Nice, huh? Cole suffers from PTSD, including nightmares and insomnia, a little gift for the service he performed. Twelve years of giving everything he had to his country and when he wouldn't lie anymore, it was all down the drain. So, now he's going to law school and not enjoying a moment of it. He feels like he'll never make it through with all the reading and studying and being the oldest in his classes.It was very interesting to watch this relationship develop. I had expected Cole to be the one hanging back and wary. Instead, it was Marc. Cole was still getting used to the fact that he could be out and not have to worry about someone telling on him, and, of course, he had no idea how to have a relationship, but overall Cole was invested in Marc and the possibility of them long term. Marc, however, had a very hard time thinking that this time, maybe, the guy would stay with him. Having been hurt so badly in the past, Marc is afraid to give his heart and have it broken again, and he's afraid to trust.This was a fabulous story and I greatly enjoyed it. It was so much more than just closeted ex-military guy and liberal writer/waiter guy fall in love and get a happy ever after. Cole and Marc got their happy ending, but it came with a lot of hard work on both their parts, and the willingness to jump without a net into the scary world of committed relationships. I empathized, completely, with both men's viewpoints and was thrilled to see them get to where they needed to be. Thank you, Cat, for a beautiful love story.