I’m the daughter of an Army drill sergeant, widow of an Air Force veteran, granddaughter, niece, and cousin to veterans who served during both World Wars, in Vietnam, and beyond. I am a member of the American Legion Auxiliary. One of my grandfathers suffered from PTSD and I’ll never forget a moment in my childhood when during a family picnic to welcome home my cousin from Vietnam, a car backfired in the street, and he dived under a picnic table for cover since days earlier he’d been in a war zone. I’ve visited VA hospitals where bitter veterans taunted each other for being a “cripple” and broke my heart.
Saving Jake made me cry in places and warmed my heart in others. Sharon Sala (one of my favorite authors) handled this troubled veteran’s homecoming with skill and accuracy.
As Jake returns to his hometown to heal, he also finds love and a way to triumph over a bully from his past. I have a soft spot for veterans with PTSD because my late grandfather, Claude Roberts, suffered from it, long before it had a name or diagnosis. It made his life more difficult than should have been necessary, but he still loved his little granddaughter, “the kid” as he called me, very much.
Saving Jake made me cry in places and warmed my heart in others. Sharon Sala (one of my favorite authors) handled this troubled veteran’s homecoming with skill and accuracy. As Jake returns to his hometown to heal, he also finds love and a way to triumph over a bully from his past.
I have a soft spot for veterans with PTSD because my late grandfather, Claude Roberts, suffered from it, long before it had a name or diagnosis. It made his life more difficult than should have been necessary, but he still loved his little granddaughter, “the kid” as he called me, very much.
"Sharon Sala is a consummate storyteller. Her skills shine in her Blessings, Georgia series. If you can stop reading then you're a better woman than me."―DEBBIE MACOMBER, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Welcome to Blessings, Georgia, the best small town in the South!
There is always hope as long as you can come home
After eight years in the Marines, Jacob Lorde returns to Blessings, Georgia, with no plans other than to hole up in his empty house and heal what's left of his soul. But with a charming next door neighbor and a town…
This ranks as one of the best books I’ve read. It cut me to the heart, brought tears, and yet brought hope.
It’s a complicated story about a woman who waited years for the man she loved. Then she moved on and is about to marry a new love, Eric, when John returns. He dreamed of Ava during his captivity and thought they would pick up where they left off but it doesn’t happen. She’s forced to make a terrible, gut-wrenching decision and must live with it.
But the story ends with hope for John and the future and there’s a follow-up story called One Year Back that continues the story. Although Ava’s not a widow, she felt like one and as a widow, that resonated with me.
The most brazen terrorist attack in history. A country bent on revenge. A love affair cut short. A broken heart that never truly heals.
Ava
I knew on the day of the attack that our lives were changed forever. What I didn’t know then was that I’d never see John again after he deployed. One day he was living with me, sleeping next to me, making plans with me. The next day he was gone. That was five years ago. The world has moved on from that awful day, but I’m stuck in my own personal hell, waiting for a…
When Carolyn Brown writes about small-town life and the people who live there, she brings it to life with such reality the reader feels you know them.
When Jennie Sue Baker returns from New York after a failed marriage, she wants to hide and lick her wounds, then convince her father to let her work in the family oil business. Instead, she finds new friends who aren’t from her parents’ social circle including a reclusive farmer who is also a scarred veteran. Rick is very sensitive about his appearance although most of the physical scars don’t show but Jennie manages to break down the barriers.
This book caught me by the heartstrings because I live in a small town and I know how public opinion can turn for or against a person very well.
From New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown comes a funny heartache of a novel about overcoming the past, confronting the future, and defying all expectations.
Everyone is talking about Jennie Sue Baker and the mess she made of her life in New York. The former high school queen bee-and wealthy darling of Bloom, Texas-has returned home after all these years, riding on a common bus and bearing two bounced alimony checks. In a town that thrives on gossip, Jennie's fall from grace has shamed her mother, set the town buzzing, and caused old, jealous enemies to whisper in delight.…
This is the most recent of the books I’ve picked, just released in May 2023. When I read the jacket blurb, I knew I’d have to read it since it was another story about a troubled veteran suffering from PTSD and a woman forced by circumstances to return to her hometown.
I like second-chance romance stories and that’s an element here, along with Jax’s PTSD issues. He’s isolated himself from most people except a few family members, but some old sparks ignite when Natalie returns home. Jax needs to find some forgiveness and redemption before he can move forward and that’s where Natalie comes in.
Natalie Tuttle fled her hometown—and its humiliations—for big-city life. When she must return after her mother falls ill, the last person she wants to see is Jaxon Stringfellow, the onetime friend who shattered her heart. But military veteran Jax is so much more than the boy he once was. And he’s coming to terms with his own demons. Can Nat grant him the forgiveness he seeks…and so much more?
From Harlequin Special Edition: Believe in love. Overcome obstacles. Find happiness.
This novel begins with a chance, intimate encounter five years earlier that has lasting importance for both Cameron Pope and Rusty Caldwell.
When they met, they didn’t even exchange names and he was a soldier about to be deployed. Now, she’s a federal agent and he’s returned home to his native Kentucky hoping to lead a simple, healing life. Instead, a kidnapping affects his family and Cam is thrust into the action. When Rusty arrives, the “soldier boy” has found his “angel” again.
It’s a fast-paced, exciting adventure but there’s a developing love between the two main characters. For me, it’s that second shot at love, that hope in the face of hopelessness, and the suspense kept me on the edge of my chair.
Army veteran Cameron Pope arrives back in Jubilee, Kentucky, for the first time in years. He barely has time to catch his breath when he becomes embroiled in a race of life or death for his little niece and a deadly hunt for the human traffickers who are destroying the peace of his mountain town. When he's reunited with Rusty Caldwell—a woman from his past he's never stopped thinking about—he wants to believe they can finally be together. But Rusty belongs to one of the rich families in Jubilee—the same rich folks…
At Face Value isn’t a retelling of the classic fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast although there are some similarities. Nicholas, the hero, scarred by a roadside bomb incident during his service in Afghanistan as a United States Marine, has retreated from life as much as possible. His young niece calls him ‘Uncle Beast’. When fate drops Maribel Barbier into his life, he learns she prefers to be called “Belle so even Nicholas sees the connection. At Face Value is the story of one man’s struggles with his appearance and his post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s a story about the power of love and t challenges of life.
Love and redemption are timeless themes that will never go out of style.
I read and write to better understand people. Why do we do what we do, feel what we feel, hide what we hide? Any book that illuminates these questions and their answers draws me in. Reading and writing are ways that I can attempt to walk in someone else’s shoes and see the world through their eyes, expanding my own understanding of the world. Perhaps the books on this list will offer you the same opportunity.
Ava Winston likes her life of routine in Lexington, Kentucky. Then a tornado blows it away. Ava is safe in the basement, but when she emerges, only one corner of her home stands. Rather than crumbling under the loss, she feels a load lifted. Maybe something beyond the familiar is calling to her. Ava seizes the opportunity to find the owner of a suitcase that landed on her lawn during the storm. Meanwhile, Juniper urges her to rebuild, Ava’s employer doesn’t want her to quit, and her ex-husband invites her back into his life. Ava must be courageous if she’s…
"A loving coming-of-age story for women in mid-life. Brava!" -Adriana Trigiani, Author of The Good Left Undone
". . . captures the true meaning of resilience-something so many women strive to know in the depths of their inner-self." -Sister Robbie Pentecost, OSF former Executive Director of the New Opportunity School for Women
Ava Winston likes her life of routine in Lexington, Kentucky. Each day, she goes to the place she's worked for twenty years, then returns home. On Sundays, she has dinner with her daughter, Juniper. It's a little boring, but as Ava nears fifty-five, she deserves a bit of…
