Hallowed Ground - Book Review

By Rebecca Yarros

Synopsis

There are some debts you can’t repay…

Josh Walker is loyal, reckless, and every girl’s dream. But he only has eyes for December Howard, the girl he has yearned for since his high school hockey days. Together they have survived grief, the military, distance, and time as they’ve fought for stolen weekends between his post at Ft. Rucker and her schooling at Vanderbilt. Now that Josh is a medevac pilot and Ember is headed toward graduation, they’re moving on—and in—together.

Ember never wanted the Army life, but loving Josh means accepting whatever the army dictates—even when that means saying goodbye as Josh heads to Afghanistan, a country that nearly killed him once before and that took her father. But filling their last days together with love, passion, and plans for their future doesn’t temper Ember’s fear, and if there’s one thing she’s learned from her father’s death, it’s that there are some obstacles even love can’t conquer.

Flight school is over.
This is war.

Review

HALLOWED GROUND is the continuation of Josh and December’s story⎯who we met in FULL MEASURES⎯and as with the series’ debut novel, this story will grip your heart right from the beginning. After surviving a long-distance relationship for the past two years, Josh and December are both very excited to be moving in together, but as soon as they move in, Josh finds out he’s being deployed in a month and will be gone for nine months. With the death of her father still fresh in her mind, December is terrified about Josh returning to the place that has already tried to kill him once before.

Josh and December’s relationship is tested to the limit and you’re left wondering how it can possibly survive. December knows what she signed up for when she started a relationship with Josh, but that doesn’t mean she likes it. She gets put through the emotional wringer and again, her strength is admirable. But sometimes the situation is so bad that she can’t help but break, and my heart broke for her. Don’t get me wrong, I think Josh is a great book boyfriend, but I swear there were so many times I wanted to reach into my Kindle and slap him for his stupidity. Josh also gets put through the wringer, but unfortunately he doesn’t handle it very well. He tries to shield December from everything he’s going through, but it’s his withdrawal that causes their now fragile relationship to suffer even more.

HALLOWED GROUND is not a romance filled with rainbows and puppies. This. Book. Will. Break. Your. Heart. My Kindle told me it would take about six hours to finish, but I recommend you add at least another hour to this timeframe because you’ll be stopping repeatedly to wipe your tears and bracing yourself for what’s about to happen next. And when you think you’ve endured the worst, that surely the story can only get better from here, that surely the author is going to take pity on your heart…BAM!!! Out of friggin’ nowhere the next challenge begins. I believe this is the final book in the Flight & Glory series and it’s a series I’m very sad to see go. Every book in this series has been emotional, heartbreaking, beautiful and real, and I’ve loved each and every one of them.