DIK Reading Challenage Review for April

Hard to Hold
by Stephanie Tyler
Pgs 370
Bantam Dell
Modern Romance

Modern  romance?  More like Military romance.  There are a few writers using the military as the backgrounds for their romances.  Most use the SEALS and the Marines.  Sorry all other branches of the military, get your own writers...

This, like many military romances are steeped in realism.  The lifestyles are real, the combat situations are real, and the violence is real.  Just pick up any newspaper and read it for yourself, without the romance, of course.  This may turn a read off, most readers read to escape life not read about it in a fictionalize setting.  Don't let that turn you off Tyler's book.  It is well written with characters a reader can get involved with and care about.  It's set in war torn Africa.  Not many books are set in the Dark Continent.

This book grabs you and takes you on a journey you may not be prepared for, but one you will appreciate the deeper you get into the story.  Hart to Hold is the first of a trilogy involve three SEALS, friends from childhood.  These men grew up fast and hard, circumstances took their innocence, youth and almost their lives.  You get introduced to all three friends in Hard to Hold, thought the book is about Jake Hanson and his opportunity to re-claim his humanity and his life.  The opportunity comes in the form of Dr. Isabelle Markham.

Both Hanson and Markham have issues, quite a few revolving around trust.  Together they learn how to trust each other and their own decisions.  For two people who find love a hard emotion to own, much less to hold on to, once trust is earned and given, love connects the two and they complete and complement each other.  It's not an easy road.  The twists of the plot keep the reader guessing who to trust, who to believe in and who to either cheer for or to hate.  It's a great ride.

I give Hard to Hold 5 WOOTS! I can't wait to get my hands on the other two books.