Duo Review

Reviewed by Dan & Kat

Content Warnings:

Contains graphic violence and realistic portrayals of combat, PTSD, hate crimes, cancer and multiple deaths.

 

TITLE:  Resurrection

AUTHOR:     S. Davidson

PUBLISHER:     Encompass Ink

LENGTH:    296 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 1, 2016

BLURB:

His war has just begun.

Triggers: Deals with PTSD, death, and realistic wartime violence.

James (Jamie) Massey has been raised in a strict military household and grew up with the sole purpose of becoming a soldier. He never imagined the heartache his choices in love and war would weigh on his soul, and when he loses everything, he can’t imagine ever being happy again.
Chris Baker grew up in a small town, raised on the rodeo circuit. When he met Ben, he thought he’d live blissfully every after, but things have a way of not going along as planned. Chris, devastated by his loss, was barely hanging on.
When Jamie and Chris end up in the same small town diner, it can only be credited to divine intervention. But are both men too damaged? They say God works in mysterious ways. Well, he certainly had his hands full when he chose these two for saving.
Is it too late?

DAN’S REVIEW:

When I was asked if I would be interested in reviewing this book for Love Bytes, I answered based solely on the recommendation of the woman who asked me.  There wasn’t even a blurb yet, and I had little idea what it was about.  I was warned that there were some triggers, and some PTSD, but I didn’t know much else.  I actually liked that, because I had no preconceived notions.

The book is divided into three distinct parts, and they are each much different from the other sections.

Part 1 is the story of a young man named James “Jamie” Massey, the latest in a family of military men going back generations.  His father is a career officer, and it has always been understood that the military is Jamie’s only option.  But Jamie wants more, and pursues a college degree while on a delayed enlistment.

Sections of Jamie’s story are hard to read, in my opinion, maybe more so because of my own military background and the things that happened to my nephew while he was deployed multiple times in Iraq, so it was more personal to me.  Jamie’s story is the story of a young man thrust into battles, and multiple deployments on his quest to become a member of the elite Delta Force.  There is a lot of graphic violence, a lot of death, and a very realistic feeling plot.  The things that poor Jamie went through were brutal, and heartbreaking.  Of course, the military, at the time this story is set, was still under “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, and Jamie and his boyfriend had to hide their relationship.  There were a couple areas in that part of the book where I cried a little, particularly with the devastation of Derrick’s story.

Part 2 is the story of another young man named Chris Baker, the only son of a family that specializes in the breeding and sale of bulls and broncos to the rodeo circuit.  From an early age Chris has been a champion bull rider, but he wants more than just taking over the family ranch.  He has aspirations to become an architect, and is able to attend Columbus University in New York.   While there, he meets the love of his life, and they seem to have the perfect life.  But things happen, and there is a character who is sick with terminal cancer, and I’ll admit I cried a little again.  That is a huge personal trigger for me because of my own diagnosis, and it touched way to close to home to conversations my husband and I have had, but I think the author did a great job with her portrayal of the characters involved and their thoughts and actions.  Kudos.

Part 3 is set after the events in Part 1 and Part 2 and involves the meeting of the now thoroughly broken Jamie and the also thoroughly broken Chris.  Can they help each other with their issues?  I’m not saying any more….but I will say that I think you’re going to like this one.  It will tear your frigging heart strings at times, and will shock you at others, but you’re going to like it.

In conclusion, I would be willing to say this is one of the best books I’ve read this year so far, and it will definitely be going on my “Best of 2016” list.  I couldn’t put it down.  There were instances as I said which made me very sad, but there was also joy.  Take my advice, pick this one up.

DAN’S RATING:

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KAT’S REVIEW:

I literally jumped on this when I heard about it. Military men in uniform and rodeo cowboys is a no brainier for me. Some would question that I am more of a gay romance reader, which I am, but the intrigue of our military is a siren call for me. What our brave soldiers endure for us is mind boggling.

Resurrection is the story of how two men, both living and dealing with extreme loss, find each other and how their baggage complicates and dictates their lives and an attempt at a new life. James “Jamie” Massey is third generation military. He has known, since practically the moment he was born, what is expected of him. It was infused in him by both his father and his grandfather. That is what the Massey men did, join the military…Case closed. Chris Baker had a similar yet starkly different upbringing. He is the heir to a very successful ranch/rodeo family. His was supposed to be rancher, like his parents, but Chris, unlike Jamie, bucked the system and headed to New York City to achieve his goal, being a successful architect. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as they are planned out. Life happens and tragedy can hit at any moment. I found it interesting that both men were single children. They were their parent’s only child and how that was handled by their parents was very pivotal to the men that they became. How each man dealt with the tragedy that they faced was also interesting. They followed the same path, in a way, but even though the outcome was the same, how they “healed” was vastly different.

I truly engaged with both of these characters. You can’t help but feel for Jamie. His life story was so tragic. Our military service personnel endure so much at such a young age. How they have any ability to cope with what they have seen and done is beyond human understanding. Add in being in an elite group such as special forces or Rangers and you have even more mental and, usually, physical trauma to deal with. These are the “best of the best” and the backbone to success for a lot of missions. It is no secret that there is a high suicide rate with our returning troops. They have seen and done what can’t been unseen or undone and they can’t live with the results. This is an area that our government has needed to address for many decades, the aftercare of our returning vets. I have to say, the author did a wonderful job with her research with Traumatic Brain injury and Night Terrors.  It is something you can never recover from and is debilitating. I unfortunately know about this first hand. She handled it with sensitivity and understanding. As for Chris, who couldn’t like him? He is personable, good looking and caring. That is what stands out in his character, being a nurturer and caregiver, even at his own expense. He loves totally and completely with all his heart. He is one of the true “Good Guys”. Country to the core but flexible and adaptable to his partner’s needs.

I had to think long and hard about how to rate this. I really loved the characters and the story line. It wasn’t a fun, quick read but it was gritty and real. What I didn’t care for was how choppy the flow was. The three sections/parts were fine but within the parts I felt it didn’t flow as smoothly as a story should. I understand the need for the vignette scenes to develop the backstory but, at times I was confused why a scene was just dropped and then we jumped to much later. It just baffled me and, in turn, brought me out of the story to try to figure out what just happened. This might just be me but it did detract from the story at times. This story deals with some pretty dark and depressing issues but they are done in a respectful manner. Life is not always bows and puppy dogs, it is raw and unfair. The story brings that unfairness to the forefront. The plot and characters I give 5 stars but, with the choppiness of how the story was written, I had to bring it down to a 4. Great story of how resilient human beings can be when faced with tragedy. A touching love story against insurmountable odds.

RATING:

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BUY LINK: 

Amazon