Early Book Review: Until There Was You by Jessica Scott

Until There Was You is the second book in the Coming Home series by Jessica Scott. It is scheduled for release on October 8 2012. Captain Evan Loehr is a black and white kind of guy, always following the rule book. Captain Clair Montoya is fiercely loyal to her friends and cares about the lives of her soldiers, and is willing to bend some rules in order to protect others. They share an instant attraction, and in the amount of emotional and physical scars they carry. They each need to come to terms with their own demons, and decide if love is enough of a prize to risk everything else.

Until There Was You contains a brilliant and believable blending of romance into the real lives of our military. I have yet to read anything by another author that makes the story so authentic, rather than a romance with a dash of warfare or a military with a romantic sidebar. Scott makes the two seamless, bring the characters to life. Evan, Claire, Sarah, Reza, and other characters are flawed and absolutely real. They have painful pasts, are stubborn, and are also genuinely good people. The detail and realism involved in how people deal with the day to day while deployed, and when home, is stunning and sometimes heart rending. By the time I finished the book I felt like I knew the characters, deeply cared for them, and still find them in my mind a week after finishing the book.

I only have one complaint, and it is not with the quality of Until There Was You. If I had read this book without reading Because of You first, I would have had nothing negetive to say. However, I am still desperate to find out what happens next to some of the characters and in the larger plot line of Because of You, and it was not here. I will keep reading, and keep hoping that the story I am looking for is continued in the next book, which I have to wait for January to read.

I highly recommend reading Until There Was You as soon as it comes out. It can be read as a stand alone book, with no carryover storyline to confuse new readers. When you fall in love with Scott's writing, go read Because of You which is absolutely amazing. I cannot wait for the third book in the series, Back to You which is scheduled for release in January 2014, so that I can see where Scott will take us next.