Incoming

Title: Incoming
Series: Veterans Affairs #1
Genre:
Pages: 288

What if what you need could cost you everything you've ever wanted?

Bartender Troy Johnson is pretty sure he’s gay, but since he’s spent the eight years since high school in the Army, so his actual gay dating experience is, well, zero. But he's out of the army now, and far from West Virginia and his conservative family. If the hot Veterinarian he’s been undressing with his eyes wants to go on a date, Troy is more than willing to jump in.

Troy is everything Dmitri’s ever wanted in a guy: gorgeous, smart, and funny. He likes dogs, he has the sexiest trace of an accent, and his kisses set off fireworks in Dmitri’s entire body. Too bad Dmitri is getting the hell out of this small town as soon as he can.

But Troy has secrets he won’t tell, and the demons he’s running from are hot on his heels. When sparks fly on a hot Fourth of July weekend, both men find that the past is not easily left behind, and the future is never as clear as you hope.

After reading blurb I just HAD to read it, but this book was not what I had expected. It was better. I expected "easy" romance, a vet with some problems but nothing serious and of course sweet unbelievable end. I got something completely different. There was nothing easy about Troy and Dmitri's relationship, they were struggling to cope with everyday life' problems and with their past. Troy's problems were serious and it was painful to read how depressed and lonely he was.

What is more, the story brings up the issue of veterans problems, how difficult their life after military is, how difficult it is to get back to civilian world once back from war zones.

It was my first book by this author but it won't be the last one.

Amazon reviewer

Heat beat down against the roof of Troy Johnson’s truck. He’d scored the shaded spot in Vincent’s employee parking, but that didn’t mean much when the temperature hovered around ninety-five.
He checked his watch. Fifteen more minutes before he could go into work and not look like he had no life.

He flicked through his phone half-heartedly. He could read, he had some ebooks on the phone, but nothing interested him. He hung his arm out the window and drummed his fingers against the metal door. He wasn’t bored; God knows he was no stranger to boredom. Army grunts raised figuring out ways to beat the boredom to an art form. He could amuse himself for a day with shoelaces and some rocks.

This was a different feeling, instead of having nothing to do; he had almost too many choices. For the first time in a long time, he had no externally imposed routine or schedule. School didn’t start for another six weeks. He could go to work or not, if he didn’t care about being fired. It had only been a couple of weeks. He could drive up into the mountains and camp, or get dressed up, drive to Denver and hit the bars. No one would know, either way. And, he feared, no one would care. A box of maps sat on the passenger’s side of the bench seat, taunting him with miles of dirt roads stretching across the top of the Rockies.
None of it sounded appealing. He kept waiting for something to feel important, for something to come along and make him want to get out of bed in the morning. He liked his job, but it wasn’t anything important. Maybe when school started, he’d feel more satisfied.

He sometimes wished someone would just tell him what to do. He remembered feeling like this his senior year in High School. Graduation had loomed on the horizon. Everyone around seemed so excited about finishing school and finally getting started on their real lives. All he could think was, oh God, what do I do now? When the Army recruiter came in to talk, he offered a path, a purpose, and an identity.

Now here he was, pathless again. He couldn’t go back; he was done with the military, but he couldn’t find a way forward either.

He sighed, resting his head back against the seat, and turned up the radio. Two more songs and he’d go inside.

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