Review: A perfect blend of romance, pathos, humor, and characterization.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
I. LOVED. IT. Sooooooooooo good. Jessica Scott just may be the best romance author out there. Her books rip out my guts but they're worth every bit of pain and every tear shed while reading. This story has been brewing since book one and in the short stories. Jessica said it was difficult for her to write and I believe it. She tackled some challenging material and though I cried buckets, it was because I cared and I ached, not because she was pulling my heart strings or manipulating my emotions. If you can't feel the pain, the terror, and the hope, you may be dead.Trent and Laura have been married for about 10 years and much of that time he's been deployed overseas to Iran. The more time he spends at war, the less he feels he deserves to come home to his wife and family, and when he is home he doesn't know how to be back home, away from the war. He has trouble coping with daily life outside of the war and doesn't know how to be a husband or a father. The result is that he pulls away, rarely comes home, and continues deploying. Finally, his wife has had enough and leaves him.And that's when things get really interesting. Scott does an amazing job of showing us the stress, the disconnect, and the difficulty adjusting to life back at home for soldiers returning to the US. It's part of the story, there's no info dump, and even when Trent couldn't feel, I did. I had to take several reading breaks to stop crying and lessen the intensity. At first, despite never having been a soldier, I identified more with Trent than Laura but gradually I came to understand her side. I could appreciate her reluctance to trust Trent again and her protectiveness of their children. There are no villains responsible for the problems in their marriage; both of them contributed. There are problems with Trent's career, which have also been building through the previous stories. The resolution to that was a little too pat but overall, I enjoyed it. The authenticity that Scott brings to her books about the military and military life is priceless. She knows what she's talking about and knows how to weave it into a story.The journey Trent and Laura take as they try to rebuild their marriage is slow, painful, sometimes funny, and achingly poignant. There's not a magic cure for their marital problems or for Trent's adjustment problems but slowly they make progress, improve their communication skills, and rediscover their love for each other. It's a bumpy path but they keep trying and their friends, stars of previous are there to help them along. Carponti and Shane and their wives are not just dropped into the story but add to it and we get updates about them but they never take over the story.I cheered, I cried, I cursed Scott a time or two, but it was all worth it in the end. If you like contemporary romance, then you have to read "Back to You". It's a perfect blend of romance, pathos, humor, and characterization.I received an egalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.Original review posted at Bea's Book Nook - [...]