2.5 stars. I have a lot of feelings about this book. This is the fourth book I've read from Kristin Hannah. I enjoyed it and appreciate all of the work she did in writing it, but I was left feeling a little underwhelmed by it.

What I liked:

1. Exploration of PTSD and grief. I've had people very close to me struggle with PTSD that was specifically caused by being in active combat situations. It was obvious to me that Kristin Hannah did more than just a cursory google search on the topic before she wrote this book. There were so many moments in this book that were personally impactful to me. It was disturbing and uncomfortable but I appreciated it.

2. Working military mother. I liked that it's the woman in the family who is the military parent. The fact that she flies helicopters as her job is also very cool.

3. Setting. The book is set in the Seattle/Puget Sound area, which is where I live. It's always fun to read books that take place somewhere you've lived or spent a lot of time, as long as it's done well. Since the author also lives in this area, it was done very well.

4. The murder trial. I really liked this subplot and how it forced Michael to see that even if he doesn't necessarily agree with everything the military does, he can still appreciate that the men and women serving are putting everything on the line. I liked that it also showed a very real look at what is broken in our system as far as veterans coming home without the proper resources to re-integrate into their lives and society around them.


What I didn't like:

1. Jolene and Mike's marriage and reconciliation. I don't think the book was helped with the marital strife between Jolene and Mike. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have introduced problems in the relationship. Having one parent continually absent the way Mike was in the beginning and Jolene was in the second half would be hard on even the most devoted couple. But to have Mike go from 'I don't love you anymore' to being completely devoted to her again without working through any of their issues didn't seem realistic to me. I liked that he realized how much Jolene did to keep things running smoothly and started appreciating her more, but I think having him experience such a 180 even before she was hurt just didn't ring true.
After her accident, he helps her through the aftermath of her trauma and they end up finding their way back to one another, but it didn't feel like it actually took much work as far as their actual relationship went. I guess you could say that they realized what was actually important, but he was wanting her back even before her accident brought them back together.

2. Rushed ending. This kind of ties into the previous complaint because I felt like Mike and Jolene needed more time to really move forward. Jolene spent 95% of the second half of the book in the throes of grief and PTSD. She was not in any shape to actually work on anything other than trying to get better. But then her bratty daughter runs away and all of the sudden she's better? I know that's not what we are supposed to believe, and the character does start going to therapy, but the abrupt change in Jolene's attitude was unbelievable. And apparently she was able to abuse alcohol and prescription drugs for weeks with no withdrawal or other adverse affects. I wish the book was about 50 pages longer and we could have seen a more gradual healing for Jolene, and also for her marriage.

3. Betsy. What a brat. I know that teenage girls can be obnoxious, but this selfish little $%# takes the cake. She had zero depth. She was just a one-note spoiled brat whose mother let her get away with whatever she wanted.

4. Jolene's characterization. I think I understand what the author was trying to do with Jolene. She wanted to show the drastic difference between before-deployment Jolene and after-deployment Jolene. But the way she went about it was to make Jolene a super upbeat, Pollyanna type character.
Every situation that would arise would have her spouting out some sort of cliched platitude about 'finding the silver lining' or 'looking on the bright side of life' or some other overused, saccharine nonsense. Then after her accident she is the exact opposite. I think we could've seen the difference even if the author had just made her a normal person, without all the Pollyanna-isms.

Other odds and ends:

1. Why can't Betsy be in the house by herself? She's twelve. I was watching other people's children overnight at that age. But her dad gets home late one night and she's run away and thrown a major tizzy fit. Also, she isn't old enough to be in the house by herself after school, but earlier in the book when Mike wasn't there Jolene went out for a super-early-morning jog?? Okey dokey.

2. Apparently at one point Michael was 'literally at the end of his rope.' Yes, I understand that it's supposedly acceptable to use literally like this nowadays, but I literally despise when people say literally when they mean figuratively. And yes, it is very nitpicky.

All in all, while I appreciate all of the research that she put into this story, I ultimately feel like it just wasn't all that compelling.