Blurb:
He's always loved her... First Sergeant Gale Sorren waited a war and half a lifetime for a chance to get stationed near the ex-wife who left him years ago. When he finally musters the courage to see her, the life he imagined she was living was nothing close to the reality.
She's never stopped loving him... Melanie never stopped worrying about Gale each time he headed off to war. But he's never been there when she needed him and she's had fifteen years to steel her heart against him. But when Gale moves to Fort Hood, he finally has a chance to make things right with Melanie and the daughter she raised without him. Can Mel trust her heart to a man who has always let her down?
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Excerpt:
“What if he comes here?”
“He won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You’re right,” he admitted finally. He sighed heavily. “I’ve known him a long time and this doesn’t gel with what I know of him. He's not going to hurt you.”
“You sound so certain.” Her fingers danced over his ribs, as though she wasn’t sure where to place her hands. “Why?”
“Because you’re mine,” he said, giving voice to the powerful feelings he could finally identify for what they were. “And if he puts his hands on you or our daughter, I’ll kill him.” And then he kissed her. It was a powerful kiss, filled with a riot of emotions that had started building in him years ago when she’d first left him. It was a kiss filled with fear. With uncertainty. With desire. He gave in to the maelstrom inside him, holding back only enough to be certain that he wasn't crossing the line.
Mel opened to his kiss, wanting badly to push away the sadness and the fear and the worry that had been squeezing the air from her lungs since she’d found Gale outside her office. There was fear in her response, a tacit admission that this was something fleeting and yet, it was the only tangible thing between them. He shifted then until their bodies pressed together, until she breathed with him and felt part of her soul take flight from the bonds of worry and sadness and daily life. Her fingers flexed against his ribs.
Gale felt the moment she gave in to the kiss, savored the moment of her surrender. Her body relaxed against his, fitting perfectly against his chest. This was something good. Something pure. Untainted by the darkness that had caused him to seek her out today, needing her when he needed to lean.
This. This was what he craved. His wife’s touch. His wife’s taste. She was not his wife.
That ugly piece of reality crashed into him and he stiffened. Mel felt it instantly, her body tensing.
“What?” The words lodged in his throat. There was no way he could admit the feelings that churned inside him. That he still thought of her as his wife after all these years. He nipped at her bottom lip, hoping to distract her.
“We should do this more often.” He felt her smile beneath his lips.
“You think so?” There was something light and breathless in her words.
“Very much so.” He kissed the corner of her mouth. The edge of her jaw. He traced the outside edge of her ear with the tip of his tongue. Felt the pleasure of her gasp against his cheek. His teeth scraped over her earlobe.
“That’s nice,” she breathed.
“You like that?”
“Yeah.”
He closed his eyes, pulling her tight, needing the comfort of her touch, the pleasure to drive away the darkness. He breathed in her scent, holding her close. Her pulse scattered against his cheek and for a moment, he simply held her.
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Lisa's Review! :)
Lisa's Review! :)
Homefront by Jessica ScottMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Homefront is about romance and second chances.
Gale and Melanie have spent over a decade a part after their divorce. Gale has been a devoted military man and the strain of his absence eventually took its toll on their relationship… leading Melanie to take their daughter and leave him. Its 15 years later, Gale is back in the US, Texas to be specific, and sets out to fix his relationship between his ex-wife and his sixteen year old daughter. But Melanie is hesitant to forgive and allow him back in her heart… she’s so used to Gale leaving as soon as they start getting close as a family.
And now things are a world more complicated… Jamie has mental health issues that once lead her to an attempted suicide attempt and a stressful relationship between her and her mother. More than that, Gale and Melanie soon learn that Jamie’s friend Alex lives under the hand of an abusive father… a fellow soldier and friend. As they struggle to find a healthy relationship and a balance between their new selves, they also fight to keep their daughter and her friend safe.
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What I liked:
I liked that these characters were complex and felt real… it felt like I was reading someone’s life.
I liked that there was a bit of a slow burn; that Melanie didn’t forgive and forget right away and that Gale had to work to be a better person and father. I also like that Jamie was a bit mysterious… as teenagers usually are. I was never quite sure what was going on with her, or Alex, or her and Alex.
What I didn’t like:
It took awhile, maybe 8 to 10 chapters, for me to connect with this story and the characters, especially Gale… perhaps because it starts in a military setting; military jargon is all Greek to me.
The switching back and forth between first and last names among secondary characters was quite confusing; it made it difficult to keep up with the images of the characters in my head. I’m afraid I still don’t know who is who of characters…
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Overall, this was a short and beautiful story and I rate it a four stars! :)
View all my reviews
About Jessica Scott:USA Today Bestselling author Jessica Scott is a career army officer, mother of two daughters, three cats and three dogs, wife to a career NCO and wrangler of all things stuffed and fluffy. She is a terrible cook and even worse housekeeper, but she's a pretty good shot with her assigned weapon and someone liked some of the stuff she wrote. Somehow, her children are pretty well adjusted and her husband still loves her, despite burned water and a messy house. She's also written for the New York Times At War Blog, PBS Point of View Regarding War, and IAVA. She deployed to Iraq in 2009 as part of OIF/New Dawn and has had the honor of serving as a company commander at Fort Hood, Texas twice. She's pursuing a graduate degree in Sociology in her spare time and most recently, she's been featured as one of Esquire Magazine's Americans of the Year for 2012.
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