Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: His Soldier
AUTHOR: Anna Lee
PUBLISHER: Totally Bound
LENGTH: 54,302 Words
BLURB:
Sometimes you find love where you least expect it, for Sergeant Ryder Brooks that’s writing letters home to Dean Anders, his army pen pal…
After a tragedy, in a way to honor his brother and try to cope, Dean becomes a army pen pal to Sergeant Ryder Brooks. The two connect through letters and phone calls for a year, falling in love and making plans to meet when Ryder finishes his tour. However, in an effort to save one of his men who steps on a mine, Ryder loses his leg. Broken and depressed, he doesn’t think Dean will want him. But once Dean learns what happens, he immediately goes to Ryder, determined to help him heal and show him that he loves him no matter what. Ryder has a long road of recovery ahead of him, but with Dean’s support, he realizes his life isn’t over, it’s just beginning if he’ll only give them a chance.
REVIEW:
When Dean was sixteen he was discovered kissing another boy by his bigoted, homophobic mother who immediately reported the “infraction” to his equally homophobic and violent father. As a result Dean found himself beaten and homeless with no idea what to do next. Luckily, he was found by his best friend Dax, who took Dean home with him and Dax’s family welcomed him with open arms. Already blood brothers, they became brothers legally too and this story begins with a phone call from their mother giving Dean the news that Dax has been killed in combat.
I really liked the beginning of the story. I even cried a bit as Dean, Dean and Dax’s mother, and Dax’s girlfriend Jessie mourned for a man who felt like a very present character throughout the book, for all that he’s deceased from the first sentence.
To help heal from the loss of his brother and to do something he hopes will help even just one soldier, Dean decides to become a pen pal. He begins writing to Sergeant Ryder Brooks and after only a few letters the two men are fast friends. Both feel a strong connection to the other so when they each admit that they’re gay they both start hoping that once Ryder heads home, something might happen between them. Although Ryder feels he has no right to ask, Dean swears that he’ll be there, waiting for Ryder’s return and after a year of letters and phone calls they’ve fallen in love despite never meeting.
So normally that would leave me scoffing to the extent it would sound like I was attempting to cough up a furball. Falling in love before physically meeting is not a storyline I tend to have much time for but I think in this case the author pulled it off really well. Both of these men had suffered so much emotional crap through their lives that they were basically desperate for someone to love, even though they weren’t aware of it. So as soon as they found someone who was worthy of their love it was entirely believable that they wouldn’t hold back.
I appreciated the fact that there wasn’t a drawn out period of Ryder refusing to be with Dean after he loses his leg. Yes, there’s the usual fuss of the injured soldier trying to set his perfect bodied lover free but it just takes Dean setting him straight once for Ryder to give up on that idiot behavior.
However as much as I appreciated the lack of drama in the two mens relationship, that left me sitting at around a third of the way through the book thinking, well what now? I think this may be the first time I’ve ever said – this story may have worked better as a novella rather than a full length book. The problems that popped up in the second half of the book, which came from a couple of different sources, seemed more an effort to extend the length of the story than anything else. There’d be a flare up of drama, the men would solve that problem, and then another “bad guy” would come along to create another commotion. But for me, the romance was done back at that first third and could probably have been finished off by 50%. That’s not to say that the rest of the story wasn’t good. To be honest, I prefer a longer story and I enjoyed reading everything that happened. I’m just saying that, in my opinion, a lot of this story felt unnecessary.
Readers who like a bit of military hurt-comfort will probably enjoy this one. Overall it was a good read.
RATING: 
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