Series: Coming Home #2
Released: October 8, 2012
Military Romance
Loveswept
Reviewed by Mandi

Last year I read and really enjoyed Jessica Scott’s debut, Because of You. I like military romances and this book was right up my ally. Her latest release, Until There Was You didn’t deliver the same emotional impact as her first. It starts out well as we are introduced to Captain Evan Loehr and Captain Claire Montoya. Evan is a West Point grad and does everything by the books. He rarely lets his guard down and never dates army women. But then he meets Claire, and she distracts him. They start to work together to prepare their soldiers for deployment to the Middle East. Evan follows the rules, and they start to butt heads when Claire pushes to reform the training mission to better suit the soldiers for what obstacles they are actually going to face when they arrive overseas. Evan plays the game of politics more, knowing you can’t go nilly-willy (is that a professional army term?) and change the training schedule just because you want to. You must follow protocol, suck it up, and obey orders.

So these two butt heads a lot. At first I enjoyed the tension between them. They both realize there is a spark of chemistry, but they have to decide where this romance fits into their military life, which is both so important to them. After awhile though this tension gets old. They kiss, and then they push each other away. And then they have over the shirt action, and push each other away. Then they are in bed and guess what? They push each other away. I never felt a true romance develop. It felt more like they were sating their lust for each other, rather than love building.

Besides the romance we have a side story about Sergeant First Class Reza Iaconelli, who is best friends with Claire, even though she really shouldn’t have that relationship with him. Reza is a bit out of control, drinking and partying way too much. Because Claire doesn’t really have  family, she counts those that she moved up through the ranks as family – meaning she would do anything for Reza. She blurs the line of captain and friend, and she has to come to a decision as to what side she is going to take. I felt this was a predictable set up and I could guess where this was all going to towards the end. Similarly, Claire has issues with some of her team and trying to get them to train a certain way. These supporting story lines just didn’t interest me. They fell flat and were boring.

After reading (and enjoying) book one, it ends with two supporting characters, Trent and Laura with a cliffhanger of sorts for them. I was very surprised and sad not to get their story next. I guess their situation is just hanging in the balance – I do believe they will star in book three.

Overall, while this does have some nice sexual tension, it missed the mark in the overall romance department.

Rating: C

Recent Reviews:
The Book Pushers – C
Under the Covers – 4/5
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