Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Review: Homefront by Jessica Scott





A breathtaking new series from USA Today Bestselling author Jessica Scott

He’s always loved her...

First Sergeant Gale Sorren waited a war and half a lifetime for a chance to be 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 reality. 

She’s never stopped loving him...

Melanie never stopped loving Gale, never stopped worrying about him 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. 

When Gale moves to Fort Hood, he finally has a chance to make things right with Melanie and the daughter she raised without him.

But Mel can't trust her heart to a man who has always let her down

4 Stars

Review by Jen Hagen 

Gale and Melanie were young parents when he received orders for his first deployment.  After subsequent deployments and never being there for his wife or daughter, it was decided it would be best if they divorced.  That was 14 years ago and at the present time it has been almost 3 years since they have seen each other.  Melanie is shocked to see him back home, and he has been home for a couple of months!  What?!  You have a daughter that you haven’t seen for close to 3 years…you have an ex-wife that has faced a medical emergency with your daughter and you can’t make a phone call saying that you have moved to town?  This really bothered me and thankfully Gale was starting to see the error of his ways.

After years of hoping to unf*ck things, he’d finally accepted there was nothing he could do to undo the damage he’d done.  He’d given the Army everything he’d had.  And he could never get that back.  The war, work—all of it was a convenient excuse for being a shitty father and a terrible ex-husband.

Melanie has been a single parent raising Jamie, and it has been a constant struggle of wills.  Jamie is forever butting heads with her mother and the years have not been easy.  Besides being your typical moody teenager, Jamie has some emotional struggles that has Melanie on constant alert.  She is leery of Gale wanting to step in and be an instant father, but at this point she will take all the help she can get.  However, there are times when Gale can make a connection with Jamie when Melanie can’t and this makes Melanie a little jealous. I would be too!

Gale and Melanie really never had much time to spend together before a baby came and his deployments took him away, and they have never really had any closure on the end of their relationship.  There is still an undeniable attraction between the two that never left, but Gale doesn’t know where he fits into her life even if she were to give him the opportunity to try again.

He’d given her up for the army.  He’d let her go so that he could maybe grow into the kind of man who deserved her.  Instead, all he’d done was grow into a warrior.  A leader of men.  Not a lover.  Not a husband.  Not a father.
Gale has come a long ways since he was a teenager.  He has seen a lot of horrible things while in battle and he doesn’t let them overcome who he is.  He is able to control his anger that used to get the best of him and has shown that he can be a good leader as evidenced by the promotions he’s received in the army.   He is a good guy, and he is trying to find his way back into his family.  

“I’ve missed you.  My whole life, I’ve missed you, Melanie.”



This book felt real…it had a more mature feeling to it than my normal angsty love-gone-bad reads.  It featured topics that are normal for any parent including backtalk, earning respect, and finding condoms in your teenager’s belongings.  It was a slow-paced read but I found that it was filled with depth.   This was my first read by this author and I was very impressed by the amount of detail she incorporated into the story to allow the reader who is not familiar with military procedures to feel comfortable with the setting.   

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