CR Review: Because of You by Jessica Scott

Because of You 
by Jessica Scott
Contemporary Romance
Published November 14th 2011 by Loveswep
Buy: Amazon 
★★★★

Keeping his men alive is all that matters to Sergeant First Class Shane Garrison. But meeting Jen St. James the night before his latest deployment makes Shane wonder if there’s more to life than war. He leaves for Iraq remembering a single kiss with a woman he’ll never see again—until a near fatal attack lands him back at home and in her care.

Jen has survived her own brush with death and endured its scars. And yet there’s a fire in Shane that makes Jen forget all about her past. He may be her patient, but when this warrior looks her in the eyes, she feels—for the first time in a long time—like a woman. Shane is too proud to ask for help, but for Jen, caring for him is more than a duty—it’s a need. And as Jen guides Shane through the fires of healing, she finds something she never expected—her deepest desire.

REVIEW:

Sergeant First Class Shane Garrison is the consummate soldier. His first priority is keeping the men under his leadership alive. He meets Jen St. James, a nurse assigned to the same base in Fort Hood, Texas, the night before his deployment to Iraq and shares a single passionate kiss than neither of them can forget. Months later, Shane becomes injured in a near fatal attack and ends up in the hospital back home under Jen's care. Jen is a breast cancer survivor and understands first hand the mental and physical struggle to recover.

I loved both of these characters. Shane is an alpha male on steroids but what makes him so appealing is his absolute courage and commitment to the men assigned to him. This actually becomes the source of his issues when he's sidelined as he cannot get past the guilt and sense of failure for getting injured. Jen is just emerging after hibernating for almost two years following her treatment for breast cancer. She's still fragile in terms of her own identity but is tough when it comes to taking care of her patients, especially Shane. Their attraction was so adorable and it was touching to see Shane leveled by it. Their romance really works.

There were other characters that made this an even more interesting story, some heroic and others not so much. The wives and significant others of the deployed troops play an important role and makes this book even more poignant.

This is not an easy story as it deals with some very tough issues involving our servicemen and women who cope with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. It's enlightening in a way that's often uncomfortable when faced with all they have endured. However, I feel much better having learned this than not and it's obvious that the author is skilled in not only the facts and details but in how to tell the story.

I loved this book and am anxious to read the next ones in the series as there were some unresolved issues involving a few of the secondary characters. It's an extraordinary story and one that I highly recommend.

Stop by on Wednesday to check out 

Jonetta's interview with Jessica Scott