Review: Back to You by Jessica Scott

back to you by jessica scottFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: Military Romance, Contemporary Romance
Series: Coming Home #3
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Forever
Date Released: January 7, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

He’s in for the fight of his life . . .

Army captain Trent Davila loved his wife, Laura, and their two beautiful children. But when he almost lost his life in combat, something inside him died. He couldn’t explain the emptiness he felt or bridge the growing distance between him and his family-so he deployed again. And again. And again…until his marriage reached its breaking point. Now, with everything on the line, Trent has one last chance to prove to his wife that he can be the man she needs …if she’ll have him

. . . to win back his only love.

Laura is blindsided when Trent returns home. Time and again, he chose his men over his family, and she’s just beginning to put the pieces of her shattered heart back together. But when Trent faces a court martial on false charges, only Laura can save him. What begins as an act of kindness to protect his career inflames a desire she thought long buried-and a love that won’t be denied. But can she trust that this time he’s back to stay?

My Review:

Back to You is the story that everyone who has read Jessica Scott’s Coming Home series has been waiting for. And I’ll say that it was definitely worth the wait.

because of you by jessica scottTrent and Laura Davila have been part of the series from its very beginning, in the marvelous Because of You. As each of the men in Trent’s command have found their happily ever after, readers have been watching as Trent screwed up his own marriage. It’s been heartbreaking to watch, especially since it was so clear that there was much more going on than we saw in glimpses.

For one thing, Laura still loves her husband. She just doesn’t believe in him anymore. It’s not just what he’s done, it’s also what he hasn’t done, and hasn’t said.

She had no idea that Trent was volunteering for back-to-back deployments in combat zones. He let her believe that they were assignments he couldn’t refuse. Finding out the truth is Laura’s last straw; or maybe the next to the last.

The accusation of sexual misconduct is absolutely the last.

It’s pretty clear to followers of the series (and if you’re not, start!) that Trent isn’t guilty of that crime, or the embezzlement and theft charges that are also laid at his door. There is a rotten apple in Trent’s command, but he isn’t it.

But Trent withdraws from every friend he has during the investigation, and Laura decides she’s lost her faith, and her trust. She doesn’t know what to believe, since Trent isn’t talking to her.

She believes that she deserves more, even if it’s apart.

But Laura’s request for a divorce finally slams home the idea that Trent has a partner he still wants to come home to–if he can win her back.

It will be the hardest battle he’s ever been in.

ill be home for christmas by jessica scottEscape Rating A+: Back to You is a story that lives up to the anticipation that precedes it. Reading the previous stories in the series (Because of You, Anything for You, Until There Was You and I’ll Be Home for Christmas) we’ve known that this story was waiting to be told.

Like every story in this series, Back to You tugs at your heartstrings, and makes you reach for tissue. But there’s more to it than that.

This is a powerful and moving second-chance at love story, between two people who almost lost each other. The reason that Laura files for divorce resonates; she needs to know that she’s waiting for someone who wants to come back. She expected that Trent would be deployed, but she has the right to the truth about why it keeps happening. He keeps breaking her heart, but she doesn’t get to heal. So she finally decides to walk away.

While the court martial hangs over the story, it serves more as a catalyst than an actual threat. It forces Trent to make decisions about what is really important to him; his pride, his grief and his silence, or his wife and children.

It’s a hard journey. The grief and the feelings of responsibility, PTSD and survivors’ guilt, that Trent has to work through make the reader feel for his struggle. His re-entry into his family’s life is incredibly difficult. He wants to be there again, but he doesn’t know how.

The need to present a united family front in the face of his court martial bring all the simmering issues to a boil.

The romance in this love story is about whether they can find a way back to each other. They’ve never stopped loving each other. Their journey back is something special.

If you enjoy military romance, read this series.

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