I really liked this book. It was an engaging read and I think it was probably pretty accurate in the details. Kristin Hannah mentions three military people in her Acknowledgements that helped with her research. I think reading even fiction books such as this is an important reminder to those of us living safely in our freedom in the good ole USA, that military men and women - and their families - sacrifice a lot for the "greater good". It is not an easy life during deployment or afterward. I think we get complacent about our freedom here.
Michael drove me insane the first part of the book! He was so incredibly selfish that I nearly hated him. I'm not saying that it would be easy to live with someone who can always "turn her frown upside down" (because that would be annoying too), but he was such a jerk to her. And then there is Betsy, who was definitely hard to take at times - but she can be "excused" I guess because she was sincerely struggling with her pubescent emotions.
What I liked about the book is that there is character growth in Michael, Betsy, AND Jolene. Michael and Jolene both took a hard look at themselves and came out the better for it. As they always say: It takes two.
I really liked Jolene's physical therapist, Conny. He was such a positive, yet relentless life force, which is what she needed. What I found especially interesting is that while reading this book I was also reading Christopher Reeves book "Still Me". He also talks about his physical therapist, Juice (a large Jamaican man) as one of his life-lines when starting his rehab. Juice never let up on him either - and he was funny and personable and kind, while constantly "pushing". Both Jolene and Christopher talk about not wanting to leave that relationship when it was time to go because these men had such a positive influence on them. It was weird to be reading about the same situation in a fiction and non-fiction book at the same time. That also gave this fiction book more legitimacy in my mind.
When you are reading a book about war, you know someone is going to die. I wasn't exactly sure who would die at first, but I was really upset when it happened. I like how KH waited until the end for Jolene to read Tami's letter. Timing is everything, isn't it? Sometimes it is too soon, and sometimes it is too late. I actually kept waiting for Jolene to read Michael's email to her, written before she was shot down, so that Michael's words and actions during her rehabilitation would have more validity. How interesting that she never read it at all. And doubly interesting, she didn't need to. I liked that!
One of the hardest things for me personally when reading Kristin Hannah books (this was my 9th book of hers), is that oftentimes there is ONE character that is "too much" for me: too annoying, too selfish, too unforgiving, too whiny, etc. Michael was that character in this book, but his "character flaw" didn't go on and on with no apparent end in sight (like Firefly Lane and Night Road), so it didn't bother me. This was definitely a good read!
Wendy's Rating: ****
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