Emme
Sawyer is a twenty-two year old navy corpsman assigned to a marine
unit heading into Helmand Province. The unit is attacked and lives
are lost. Sawyer begins to question her faith, wondering where God is
in all of this. She finds comfort in her commanding officer, Raven.
Their relationship is difficult. They are in the Afghanistan desert
and they are both aware of the military's view on fraternizing. Can
their budding romance survive?
This
novel takes us to the front lines in Afghanistan. It is not a pretty
sight. War is terrible and this novel does a good job of portraying
the emotional toll experienced when someone is killed. The
friendships formed in the heat of battle are strong and the death is
painful.
Women
in the military, especially in combat zones, has been an issue. This
novel really gave me a sense of how both the men and women must act
in order to keep relationships civil. During their romance, Raven
asks Sawyer to voluntarily go back to the hospital where she was
originally assigned, leaving the front lines. “I can't do my job if
you're out there running around,” Raven says. At another point,
Raven wants to kiss her but Sawyer is busy helping village children
and says, “Let me do my job. Please.” Even though this is a
romance, it does point out the difficulty of men and women on the
battlefield together. Emotions and hormones run high in situations
where life is so fragile.
This
is a pretty intense romance as the relationship develops rather
quickly. Sawyer's character is developed well as the novel is from
her viewpoint. Raven remained pretty aloof as far as his character
development goes. He is the team leader and responsible for his men,
so he takes a somewhat hard attitude. When the romance developed, I
was a little surprised at his emotion. It just seemed to appear
without warning.
There
is some mild swearing, but nothing one would not expect on the battle
field. This novel shows how romance might occur in the military under
battlefield conditions.
Connie
Ann Michael grew up in Seattle but moved to Central Washington State
after college. She is a second grade bilingual teacher. She is
married and has two college age sons. Find out
more at her blog: http://www.connie-avidreader.blogspot.com.
Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Ananiah
Romance, 292 pages. Publisher's website for the book.
I
received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the publisher
for the purpose of an independent and honest review.
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