This is not a romance per se. It is more a book about 18-year Army veteran, Lina Ragelis, who is closed off and keeps her distance from everyone in order to avoid being calling weak. She suffers from almost nightly nightmares and hates belng startled by anything or anyone. she is on a TDY assignment to Kitty Hawk and mts ??? who somehow slides beneath her walls and settles into Lina’s heart. When the fourth of July fireworks drive her back to Afghanistan to relive the suicide bomber who changed her life and not for the better. During one brief moment of semi-clarity during a particularly vivid episode, Lina calls Regan, who rushes to her side. While Lina does not label herself as suffering from PTSD until late in the book, most readers will pick up on it from the beginning.

If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to suffer from PTSD, read this book. Jackson puts her readers into Lina’s mind as she suffers through episode after episode of PTSD-driven feelings of inadequacy and utter terror.

While Jackson’s novel is not a romance, there are romantic elements in it. Jackson’s main character suffers from a condition few of us can even imagine and does a good job of it, but at the expense of developing Lina into a fully realized character.

My thanks to Bella Books and NetGalley for an eARC. ( )