The Way Back Home

by Carmen Jenner

I didn’t want this book to end.

I read with baited breathe, waiting on the next hammer to fall and hoping against all hope at times that the main characters wouldn’t be on the receiving end of yet more heartache, especially August, because it didn’t take long for me to become very, very protective of him.

I felt the story evolve around me and that immersion in every detail made the whole experience all the more special.

August. OMG. What a guy.

Having experience more than any one person should every have to in a lifetime, August is back in the one place he never really expected to set foot in again, his home town, his little sister needs him and being the guy that he is, he had no hesitation in stepping up to the plate, the death of his parents hits hard but she is his priority, she comes before everything including him and it is blatantly obvious that this broken man is far from being ok!

Olivia, well if ever there was a woman on the earth for August it was her. She knew the pain that he was going through, her work with members of the military returning from war was emotionally taxing but it was one that she felt a calling for. She had been on the receiving end of some very tetchy situations and knew that none of the attitude directed at her was really meant, it was the knee jerk reaction, she expected everything that August threw at her and she stood against a man that was on a path to nowhere. I loved her determination to help August, she saw him for who he was and not the first impression…one touch cookie Olivia!

August was as stubborn as a mule but he was clashing horns with a woman that wanted more for him, and who refused to be defeated by him in her quest. He tried to drive her away and I think that a lesser woman would have turned tail and walked but this is a woman made of forged steel.

I felt every second of August’s pain, every second glance that he endured or felt that he endured. I felt indignant for him when those that know him, people who have known him his whole life stare and gossip about him, their indiscretions made my blood boil. And while August appeared to ignore it I couldn’t help but feel that his reaction spoke more of self-preservation than he should have had to…I wondered if his ambivalence was more a case of not having the capacity to care about their narrowmindedness, it was too draining, taking more effort that he could be bothered with

 I commend the author for a story that was as special as it characters needed it to be. I accept that it wasn’t all sweetness and light, but it was the darkness that gave the characters the opportunity to shine and to flex their emotional muscle.