Torture, Politics, and the Cost of War: "Before Sunrise" by Sienna Mynx

For military wife, Kennedy Flanagan, letting go had not been easy. Learning to let go after the tragic death of her Navy SEAL husband in the Afghan War has proven to be "mission impossible." But after five long years and countless hours of tears and healing, Kennedy has moved on.

"Killed in Action?" No! Liam Flanagan is alive! A special ops team uncovers the location where he had been held prisoner and Liam has a second chance at life. However, five years is a long time. Soon life deals another blow. His wife has remarried and his daughter calls another man he hates "daddy."

Caught between the past and the realities of the present, Liam and Kennedy fight for the love they've had and forgiveness for all they have lost. "Before Sunrise" promises to make you a believer in the "happily ever after" we all deserve.

This is one of those novels that deals with circumstances and situations that are very much a part of American life, that tells a story with characters and contexts that are real and robust, weighty with authentic emotion and the hurts of a reality that few of us can ever know and for which we are beyond thankful that we don't.

It is the story of two people who shared a love that is one of those rare "forever" kinds of connections, an intimacy that connects souls and not just bodies. It is a love that began under a set of circumstances that few parents would condone, and yet these two people knew instinctively that their love was real and that no one or nothing could prevail against it. And then comes the Middle East conflict on the heels of September 11, 2001, and Liam and Kennedy are caught in the vise of politics and terror. They had weathered family disdain and disapproval; they had been true to their plans and goals and Kennedy had completed her college education as Liam had promised her father. Now she was three months pregnant and Liam is ordered on a top-secret mission. That is the last Kennedy heard from her husband and just weeks later is told he has died.

There's so much going on in this novel that is could truly be called a saga. The flashbacks throughout give the reader a glimpse of Liam and Kennedy's beginnings, the growth of their love and the tensile strength of their relationship. Even in the misery and messiness of Liam's homecoming, the reader is aware that there are bonds holding these two together that are mind-boggling in their strength, in their reality. The reader is also gifted with insights that tell of the depth of Liam's loyalty to Kennedy, his willingness to open his heart to their daughter who refers to him as her "daddy from heaven." He is loyal to a fault to his SEAL buddies, bound to them with ties that have stood the test of overwhelming human challenges and which will stand the test when pushed and pulled with politics and those greedy for power.

This novel is so powerfully written that the reader finds one's brain and consciousness seared with the images of past loving and present pain. It is so beautifully written that one is ever aware of hope that is diluted with pain and joy that is buffeted with anxiety and anger. The author never backs away from the realities of PTSD, from the anger and disappointment Liam feels when he realizes that he might lose his family, the anger he feels that his wife has given herself to another, that his daughter has formed a father/daughter relationship with one of the men he dislikes most. Yet the reader is equally aware that even in the darkest moments of Kennedy's grief and pain over the situation that confronts them all, she never waivers in her determination to re-establish her marriage with Liam and prove to him that he is indeed her "one and only love."

You will seldom read a story of love that will be this powerful, nor encounter characters that will reach into your insides and squeeze your heart with such abandon. There were moments when I just had to put the book down so that I could get a handle on my emotional responses. I found myself pulling so for Liam and Kennedy and still having to watch them stumble and fumble through attempts to reconnect, to re-establish that firm footing that had preserved their marriage through some very difficult challenges. It was hard to watch them deal with Liam's anger, and to see him wrestle with denial over his PTSD issues--his unwillingness to seek help, his fear that to do so would make him weak, his need to do whatever it took to keep Kennedy and his daughter in his life, knowing that his anger alone would eventually drive them away.

Lastly, in all of this there was that overriding awareness of Liam and Kennedy's deep humility and gratitude for having one another again, in spite of all there was that was keeping them at odds. There was anger at those who would misuse their relationship, who would make Liam a "sacrificial lamb" on the altar of political expediency, and watch another person in Liam's military circle seek to destroy his love for Kennedy and even his life as cannon fodder for her obsession with power.

This is not a contemporary romance any of you should miss. Newly published in December, 2011, it is new and at the fore of what is going on in our world. It is also a very raw look at the challenges our warriors face, before they deploy and the realities of what they become as they serve our country and its foreign objectives. I proudly give it a rating of 5 out of 5.

The Hurt Just Seems To Go On and On: "Touch Me" by Callie Croix

Arriving home on leave from his tour of duty, Army Captain Alex Montoya knows there's a beautiful woman waiting for him-his best friend's sister. She's always been off limits...until now. He fully intends to move them out of being "just friends" and encourage her to release the sexual needs he senses she's buried deep.

Tianna McIntyre is starting over after her marriage ended. Her ex-husband weakened her self-esteem and caused her to deny her true sexual desires. But being around Alex brings all her dormant fantasies to the surface, and now Tianna feels the stirrings of her secret, submissive wishes.

Determined to help repair the damage Tianna's ex did to her self-worth, Alex will use whatever means necessary to convince her they're meant for each other, including tying her down to make sure he has her full attention while he takes her to the heights of pleasure she's always dreamed of.

There are indeed an endless stream of stories that come out of the horror of war and the effect that such military conflict brings, not only to those doing the fighting, but to those who must remain at home, who must contend with the long-term effects of injury, and whose lives are forever altered, often not in positive ways. Out of the wounds and disaster of the Middle East conflict comes this story of three people who must live with the damage war continues to do, even after the original injuries occur.

Tianna has been separated from her veteran husband, a man who she loved and who loved her, who went to war with every expectation of returning home and picking up the frazzled strands of his life and their relationship. Now he is struggling with a wound that has changed him, altered his personality and the way he relates to her and the world around him. Known as Traumatic Brain Injury, Tianna's husband has become hurtful, abusive pschologically as he criticizes her looks, her housekeeping, her professional skills as a physical rehab therapist, and on and on. When she shares her sexual needs and desires with him he berates and demeans her as a whore. Slowly but surely he kills her love for him and ultimately, their marriage. She is now house sitting for her brother's best friend who an Army captain and is serving in Afghanistan.

Alex is home for a short post-injury leave, having been involved in an accident that wounded him and resulted in the death of several of his squad. He has desired Tianna for a long time but has been prevented from acting on his love for her by her marriage and the fact that she is his best friend's sister. But no longer. He senses that she is not only saddened by the failure to help her husband and the death of her marriage, but she is unfulfilled as a woman and he wants to be the person to bring life back into her passionate spirit.

This is a novella that talks plainly about the inner wounds of war, not only to the soldiers but to those who must find a way to live with men and women who will probably never be the same. It is also a story that is blunt about the hurt and sense of emotional numbness that comes when one's own needs are stymied and when those who express their needs are belittled verbally abused. Yet in the midst of all the negatives comes a love relationship that is new and good, that is poised to bring Tianna back to life and which potentially will get both Tianna and Alex past the bad stuff war brings into human experience. It is not an extended read and will not take an inordinate amount of time to enjoy, but it is good writing, a good story, a slice of life in the real world with real people, and certainly set in our contemporary times. This is a relatively new author for me but I have recently read two or three of her works. I find her writing style to be very readable and the editing of her work is well-done. This is a story that will entertain as well as instruct, but it is no light-weight love tale. There is a lot here and it is one of those kinds of stories that makes me feel that I have been enlightened through the experiences of fictional characters. I hope you will get this novella and will find it as compelling as I have. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

This novella was released in January, 2012, by Carina Press.