Because of You (Coming Home, #1)

by Jessica Scott

[Cocktails and Books]

Shane Garrison is about to ship out to Iraq, leaving behind an ex-wife and the knowledge that the Army is his only family. But when he meets Jen St. James at a party the night before they ship out, he feels a connection to her. Kissing her that night was a spur of the moment decision, but it gave him something to hold onto as went into the battle zone. But when Shane is seriously wounded, he's shipped back to the base in Texas and enters into Jen's battle zone. What we get is a bird's eye view on what the wounded soldiers, their family & friends and the nurses back on the base deal with once those soldiers come back home.

The story centers around Sergent First Class Shane Garrison and nurse Jen St. James. Shane is seriously injured in a bombing in Iraq and shipped back to his base in Texas for medical care. Shane is a tough man, but also one that has some pretty deep emotional scars that skew his vision of who he is. He views himself as only be good at being in the Army. After being injured, he truly doesn't think he's worth anything because he couldn't protect his men when the bomb went off and he's stuck in a hospital thousands of miles away unable to lead them now. We get a seat front and center to Shane going through his stages of grief and acceptance on his road to recovery. It's not easy for him and he really has to re-evaluate how he looks at himself, but in the end he gets to a place where he's comfortable with who his is and opens himself up to being loved.

Jen has her own private demons, having lost a breast to cancer, but she proves she's a lot better at dispensing advice than follow the same advice giving to her. However, when she saw Shane being rolled into the hospital, she knew that she would do whatever she needed to in order to help him get his life back. She's tough with Shane when he needs it, a shoulder to cry on and ultimately the one person he needed to know would love him and be there for him no matter what he did. But Shane also helped Jen comes to terms with losing her breast and realize that she isn't just the sum of her body parts. He helped her learn to love herself.

Talk about a tough read! Jessica Scott weaves a story that makes the reader feel as if you're sitting next to the wounded soldier as he lays in his hospital bed or standing next to that dedicated nurse as she tries to push all her feeling and weariness aside as she paints on a smiling face for her patient. This hits you right in the gut and emotionally drains you thinking of what those that serve our country deal with. If that weren't enough, we see what the families left behind deal with when they don't know what's happening with their spouse or what happens when their loved on is injured.

I enjoyed reading this. It was tough and, at time, emotionally draining, but it was worth it to see see what happened with both Shane and Jen as Shane made his recovery.