Review: After the War by Jessica Scott (Homefront #2)
Note: This ARC was provided by Rock Star Lit PR in exchange for an honest review.
Sarah Anders and Sean Nichols were once very much in love and training to become part of the Army. But when Sean proposed to Sarah, she turned him down, telling him that she wasn't ready to be a wife and didn't want to have children, essentially shattering his dreams for them in the process. She wanted to be in the Army and he felt it would be better for them to settle down so she could remain at home while he went to war. Both wanting different things, Sarah and Sean went their separate ways only to find each other again unexpectedly nine years later, with Sarah being tasked to investigate Sean's very troubled unit.
Seeing each other again brings up a lot of buried hurt and heartache, and Sean's discovery that Sarah did indeed get married within two years after telling him that she didn't want to settle down is a painful blow. He then finds out that she happens to be the widow of a friend of his, Jack, who died while they were serving together in Fallujah, Iraq and has a five-year-old daughter, born after Jack's death. As Sarah continues her investigation, she and Sean are forced to spend time together but this allows them to re-start their friendship and re-gain one another's trust, in the process stirring up old, boxed-up feelings.
Even as they try to understand their re-discovered emotions for one another, both Sean and Sarah are dealing with a lot of pressure from work. Sean is dealing with his unit, trying to protect two of his men who were with him in Fallujah and who saved him from himself back then. Sarah is trying to balance her new job and a superior who thinks she doesn't belong in the Army along with being a single mom to her daughter Anna. As they make a go of being together, Sean realizes that he needs to be honest with Sarah and tell her the truth behind the events the day her husband died and Sean's actions that terrible day.
After the War is the second novel in the Homefront series by bestselling author Jessica Scott and is a contemporary military and second chance romance. Jessica Scott has an undeniable gift of creating something beautiful out of the terrible circumstances that war can bring about. Her knowledge of the military brings a sense of realism to her stories and her characters are often flawed and scarred yet have traits that make them heroes in the eyes of others. The subject matter of war brought together with the love the characters in her stories find is often heavy and dark but also always hopeful and insightful.
Sarah Anders and Sean Nichols carry with them a lot of baggage, courtesy of their break-up as a couple nine years ago and their own experiences with the war plus the death of Sarah's husband Jack. With this being a second chance romance, I'm glad that there wasn't this immediate need for either of them to rekindle what they once had because then it would have felt forced or somewhat unnatural. The pace in which their relationship went through reconciliation and re-establishing love and trust for each other gave me the chance to fully appreciate the highs and lows of Sarah and Sean falling in love all over again.
This isn't your typical story about a couple who parted ways years before but never stopped loving each other and then reconcile. Sarah truly did fall in love with her late husband and they had a good life together. Life went on for the lead characters during their nine years apart which was more real than had everything been put on pause or they spent all that time thinking about only each other. There are some emotional moments in the story and I know when it starts affecting me because I had that heart-squeezing feeling in my chest time and again. After the War is a love story worth reading and gets five stars. ♥
Release Date: 05 May 2015
Date Read: 01 May 2015
Learn more about Jessica Scott here.
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