
by Mila Gray
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: December 8th 2015
Genre: Young Adult, New Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Drama, War, Fiction, Death
Rate: 4/5
Synopsis:
In this heart-wrenching tale of love and loss, a young Marine and his best friend’s sister plunge into a forbidden love affair while he’s home on leave.
When a Marine Chaplain knocks on her door, Jessa’s heart breaks—someone she loves is dead. Killed in action, but is it Riley or Kit? Her brother or her boyfriend…
Three months earlier, Marine Kit Ryan finds himself back home on leave and dangerously drawn to his best friend Riley’s sister, Jessa—the one girl he can’t have. Exhausted from fighting his feelings, Kit finally gives in, and Jessa isn’t strong enough to resist diving headfirst into a passionate relationship.
But what was just supposed to be a summer romance develops into something far greater than either of them expected. Jessa’s finally found the man of her dreams and Kit’s finally discovered there’s someone he’d sacrifice everything for.
When it’s time for Kit to redeploy, neither one is ready to say goodbye. Jessa vows to wait for him and Kit promises to come home to her. No matter what.
But as Jessa stands waiting for the Marine Chaplain to break her heart, she can’t help but feel that Kit has broken his promise…
Riley or Kit? Kit or Riley? Her brother or her boyfriend? Who’s coming home to her?
I loved reading Kit and Jessa's romance. The pacing was fantastic. The chemistry was great. I loved that we got both of their point of views, especially where the mystery of who died was concerned. These two were just really heart warming and mature. This is kind of a cross between a new adult and a young adult book because for vast majority of it Jessa is still in high school, where as Kit is 21.
I think this is a story and plot line that is done a lot more in new adult or adult romance that is never really focused at a younger audience. I found this story to be really sweet, but it also brought in the heat and the depth of new adult.
I would have given it five stars, because there wasn't anything specific that I didn't like about it. It just didn't blow me away with all of the feels. It was a great romance and a fantastic read, but it won't be a book that stays with me forever.
This book starts off with this cliffhanger style first chapter that leaves you wondering who dies. I was hooked from the start. I've never read any of Sarah Alderson's books, but I have to say that she is fantastic. I was crying through several different scenes in the book. If you love the Nicholas Sparks plot line, but you want just something more than a cookie cutter book than Come Back To Me is a book you should check out.
I think this is a story and plot line that is done a lot more in new adult or adult romance that is never really focused at a younger audience. I found this story to be really sweet, but it also brought in the heat and the depth of new adult.
I would have given it five stars, because there wasn't anything specific that I didn't like about it. It just didn't blow me away with all of the feels. It was a great romance and a fantastic read, but it won't be a book that stays with me forever.
I definitely recommend Come Back To Me. Fans of new adult and young adult romance will love it. Don't let the mystery of who dies be a deterrent. The romance of Jessa and Kit is great and is teh reason that you need to read this book.
Chapter
1
Jessa
A whorl in the glass distorts the picture, like a thumbprint smear
over a lens. I’m halfway down the stairs, gathering my hair into a ponytail,
thoughts a million miles away, when a blur outside the window pulls me up
short.
I take another step, the view clears, and when I realize what I’m
seeing, who I’m seeing, my stomach plummets and the air leaves my lungs like a
final exhalation. My arms fall slowly to my sides. My body’s instinct is to
turn and run back upstairs, to tear into the bathroom and lock the door, but
I’m frozen. This is the moment you have nightmares about, play over in your
mind, the darkest of daydreams, furnished by movies and by real-life stories
you’ve overheard your whole life.
You imagine over and over how you’ll cope, what you’ll say, how
you’ll act when you open the door and find them standing there. You pray to
every god you can dream up that this moment won’t ever happen. You make
bargains, promises, desperate barters. And you live each day with the murmur of
those prayers playing on a loop in the background of your mind, an endless
chant. And then the moment happens and you realize it was all for nothing. The
prayers went unheard. There was no bargain to make. Was it your fault? Did you
fail to keep your promise?
Time seems to have slowed. Kit’s father hasn’t moved. He’s
standing at the end of the driveway staring up at the house, squinting against
the early morning glare. He’s wearing his Dress Blues. It’s that fact which
registered before all else, which told me all I needed to know. That and the
fact that he’s here at all. Kit’s father has never once been to the house.
There is only one reason why he would ever come.
He hasn’t taken a step and I will him not to. I will him to turn
around and get back into the dark sedan car sitting at the kerb. A shadowy
figure in uniform sits at the wheel. Please. Get back in and drive away. I
start making futile bargains with some nameless god. If he gets back in the car
and drives away, I’ll do anything. But he doesn’t. He takes a step down the
driveway towards the house, and that’s when I know for certain that either
Riley or Kit is dead.
A scream, or maybe a sob, tries to struggle up my throat, but it’s
blocked by a solid wave of nausea. I grab for the banister to stay upright.
Who? Which one? My brother or my boyfriend? Oh God. Oh God. My legs are
shaking. I watch Kit’s father walk slowly up the drive, head bowed.
Memories, images, words, flicker through my mind like scratched
fragments of film: Kit’s arms around my waist drawing me closer, our first kiss
under the cover of darkness just by the back door, the smile on his face the
first time we slept together, the blue of his eyes lit up by the sparks from a
Chinese lantern, the fierceness in his voice when he told me he was going to
love me forever.
Come back to me. That was the very last thing I said to him. Come
back to me.
Always. The very last thing he said to me.
Then I see Riley as a kid throwing a toy train down the stairs,
dive-bombing into the pool, holding my hand at our grandfather’s funeral,
grinning and high-fiving Kit after they’d enlisted. The snapshot of him in his
uniform on graduation day. The circles under his eyes the last time I saw him.
The door buzzes. I jump. But I stay where I am, frozen halfway up
the stairs. If I don’t answer the door maybe he’ll go away. Maybe this won’t be
happening. But the doorbell sounds again. And then I hear footsteps on the
landing above me. My mother’s voice, sleepy and confused. ‘Jessa? Who is it?
Why are you just standing there?’
Then she sees. She peers through the window and I hear the intake
of air, the ragged ‘no’ she utters in response. She too knows that a military
car parked outside the house at seven a.m. can signify only one thing.
I turn to her. Her hand is pressed to her mouth. Standing in her
nightdress, her hair unbrushed, the blood rushing from her face, she looks like
she’s seen a ghost. No. That’s wrong. She looks like she is a ghost.
The bell buzzes for a third time.
‘Get the door, Jessa,’ my mother says in a strange voice I don’t
recognize. It startles me enough that I start to walk down the stairs. I feel
calmer all of a sudden, like I’m floating outside my body. This can’t be
happening. It’s not real. It’s just a dream.
I find myself standing somehow in front of the door. I unlock it.
I open it. Kit. Riley. Kit. Riley. Their names circle my mind like birds of
prey in a cloudless blue sky. Kit. Riley. Which is it? Is Kit’s father here in
his Dress Blues with his Chaplain insignia to tell us that my brother has been
killed in action or that his son – my boyfriend – has been killed in action? He
would come either way. He would want to be the one to tell me. He would want to
be the one to tell my mom.
Kit’s father blinks at me. He’s been crying. His eyes are red, his
cheeks wet. He’s still crying, in fact. I watch the tears slide down his face
and realize that I’ve never seen him cry before. It automatically makes me want
to comfort him, but even if I could find the words my throat is so dry I
couldn’t speak them.
‘Jessa,’ Kit’s father says in a husky voice.
I hold onto the doorframe, keeping my back straight. I’m aware
that my mother has followed me down the stairs and is standing right behind me.
Kit’s father glances at her over my shoulder. He takes a deep breath, lifts his
chin and removes his hat before his eyes flicker back to me.
‘I’m sorry,’ he says.
‘Who?’ I hear myself ask. ‘Who is it?’
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Originally from London she has lived in Bali for the last four years with her husband and daughter.
As well as writing young adult fiction under the name Sarah Alderson and adult fiction under the name Mila Gray, she also writes screenplays.
You can find out more at www.milagray.com and on facebook: www.facebook.com/sarahjalderson.
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