Review: Battle Scars by Jane Harvey-Berrick


Note: This ARC was provided by the author via Ardent PRose in exchange for an honest review.

If you weren't a newsletter subscriber of Jane Harvey-Berrick's during the time she was sharing her serialized military romance, now's your chance to get your hands on Battle Scars. It's in the harsh surroundings of war-torn Afghanistan where thirty-one-year-old New York Times journalist Margaret Jean Buckman and thirty-year-old Marine Sergeant Jackson Connor first meet--he as the disgruntled head of the contingent that rescues her from an increasingly rabid mob. There isn't much love lost between the two, but with an open invitation from MJ to each of her rescuers, Jack makes a point of going to New York once he's back on US soil and takes her up on it. From there, the two engage in an intense coming together. She quickly becomes his Maggie. Even though Jack has spent his life waiting for his next deployment and Maggie continually focused on her ambition to be NYT's next Middle East correspondent, they know that there's nothing casual or temporary about how they feel for one another. But how can two people who've gotten used to life on their own find some way to bridge that gap and make a life together?

I may have yet to read all of Jane Harvey-Berrick's books--I'm currently nine books in--but the woman has yet to disappoint me. Maybe she should add "professional heartstrings-tugger" on her resumé because her stories never fail to make me feel. With her latest release, she gives readers a military romance which pairs two highly independent and career-focused individuals in a love story that reminds us all of the harsh realities of war in the world we live in today. We're given the the ugliness of war and divisiveness as well as the things worth fighting for, such as love for a significant other, love for family, and love for country. I loved how Maggie and Jack were strong individuals who knew what they wanted, even if they were initially taken aback by just how fast-moving their relationship was going. I could feel the connection between them, but even as I liked how they were together, I more than appreciated that we got to know them even better while they interacted with their peers, friends, and family. There was more to this than being a romance with a sole character in the military; it truly was a love story.

There's some angst, a bit of humor, and enough romance and heat to leave you satisfied. There are even cameos from other characters in the author's previous books, namely, Sebastian Hunter and Lee Venzi from her The Education of... series (which I have yet to read!). I loved he story itself and I did find myself invested in the main characters, hoping that they would find some sort of compromise or resolution to their seemingly divisive situation. My one criticism would have to be the changing points-of-view. I'm all for dual POVs, but that first shift from Maggie's to Jack's felt abrupt, and then later, Jack's POV would show up out of the blue with not much consistency. Sometimes it was a first-person perspective, other times a third-person one. Other than that, I quite liked Battle Scars. Jack and Maggie's story is a reminder of how our priorities in life can change when a certain catalyst comes along--how we may not always be prepared for that change, but we can always amend whatever plans, even long-held ones, with the proper motivation...like our own happily-ever-after. This one garners 4.5 stars. ♥

Release Date: 01 October 2017

Date Read: 30 September 2017

Learn more about Jane Harvey-Berrick.

Purchase Battle Scars on Amazon | B&N.

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