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Joel is a U.S. Air Force pararescue jumper and Amber is a school teacher who has a boy dying in her class. Bradley is waiting for a bone marrow transplant, and he asks a dream organization to let him meet a Special Forces Soldier from his home town. Joel not only parachutes onto the school lawn, but brings a whole squadron of fellow jumpers with him. Joel is immediately attracted to Amber and they start up a long distance friendship via email, phone and Instant Message. But Joel hates the ugly memories he has of his hometown and doesn’t want children because of his job and feeling like he can’t be the father they would need. Amber is trying to adopt Bradley and has her family and career in this town. If that were not enough, she is scarred from a past jilted romance and not too sure about taking a risk again. I really, REALLY loved this book. The characters were both well adjusted, deeply committed in their faith and just all around nice people. Joel is quite hunky and a hero with the type of valor and care of others that just grabs your heart and won’t let go. He shuts off completely when anything to do with his family is involved, yet that is believable based on his childhood pain. I really liked that this was just one flaw, and, rather than turning him into a angst-ridden character, he still functioned as a highly successful and very charming, strong and trustworthy man who had a great faith that he lived every day. I really liked that the main character was a soldier. There is a freshness like a story directly out of our front page news, yet Wyatt did not focus on the gory details of war or politics, instead choosing to focus on our young men and women in the armed services from the perspective of patriotism and love of our country. This was a debut for this author and I was very impressed by the depth of her characters, the powerful way she grabbed my emotions and the vividness of the scenes. A few of her transitions were a little sudden; sometimes it took a couple of seconds to realize that time had elapsed or the scene had changed. These, however, were very minor distractions in an otherwise richly fulfilling reading experience. This one is going on my keeper shelf! Reviewed by Crystal |
A
Soldier’s Promise
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