Review: less formulaic than most romantic fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 16, 2014
Main characters - Emily and RezaReza is a warrior – a soldier in the US Army, stationed at a US military base between deployments. He has a troubled past, and is a recovering alcoholic, trying to stay on the wagon.  Emily is a therapist, from a privileged background, providing behavioral health services on base and wanting to “make a difference”.  Their initial meetings are tense and hostile, but gradually they start to respect and like each other – and act on the physical attraction they’d suppressed at the beginning.  Each has baggage from past relationships, but the central conflict in this novel revolves around soldiers who are so hurt and broken inside they resort to suicide – and how the different characters respond.The author, Jessica Scott, is a career army officer and well aware of the suicide epidemic in the armed forces, and her writing clearly showed inside familiarity with the problem.I really enjoyed reading this novel because it was less formulaic than most romantic fiction and I could not predict what the ending would be.  The author also writes beautifully, with crisp prose and believable characters. This is an author I will read again.I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a truthful review.