No one knows the heart and mind of a soldier. Every day they must face scenarios and life choices that most of us will never even imagine. When Rory Nichols joins the army, this hard lesson hits hard and fast. After 911, he is deployed to Iraq. He and his wife, Emily, face sacrifice and strife which they fear their young marriage may not survive. Pushed to his limits, Rory begins to ask questions. Then one day, he receives a fateful phone call relaying the most wicked of betrayals. He rushes home to face an enemy he had not predicted. In this penultimate moment he will right a wrong and stand for what he believes in at all costs; making a statement to his country, to his family, and to all victims of this seething crime. It is a story of life, love, and rising above the acts of war and abuse.
My Review:
Behind all of the cheese, this is a mediocre coming-of-age novel. The main character, Rory, is desperately trying to discover his true self by escaping from his small hometown, while his best friend is trying to break away from family expectations and give the system the finger.
The romantic and familial relationships are cliched and typical of the type of stuff found in self-published novels.
Emily is a sweet, pure, beautiful blond that embodies the American girl next door myth. Her love for Rory is loyal and unwavering, even in the toughest of times. Rory respects his parents, even though they don't see eye-to-eye on many things, including Rory's decision to seek out a career as a police officer, thus moving away from the family's ranch. Rory and his brother Rodney love wrestling but truly love and respect each other. Minutes after receiving a black eye from his brother as he's about to leave for a date, an eighteen-year-old Rory is thinking about how much he really loves his brother. It just doesn't ring true. And there are many other examples where the characters' emotions lack depth.
Although Rory is the story's main narrator, Emily, Rory's best friend J.T., his girlfriend Abby, and Rory's daughter, Callie, all take turns narrating at various plot crossroads. A writer of a higher calibre would have used these different characters to add emotional depth but in this case, it's basically a regurgitation of Rory's thoughts. The only slight exceptions are J.T. and Abby.
The 'wicked betrayal' eluded to on the book cover does not occur until the last quarter of the book and it comes across as being one last ditch effort to add a little more drama and to tug at the heart strings. The final pages are so unreal, this book might as well be classified as fantasy.
2.5/5
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