Title: Wait for Me
Author: Kris Jacen
Publisher: MLR Press
Length: 168 Pages
Category: Contemporary
Reviewed By: Taz
Blurb: The hardest job is waiting.
Master Sergeant Jeff “Mackey” MacNamara has been waiting for THE ONE for years. First it wasn’t too safe to find a partner and now his schedule is a nightmare with training soldiers and deployments.
Scott Ash has found where he always was meant to be after a brief bout of idealistic do-gooder after college. He loves his job as a child care director, if he could just find someone to love — perfect might cover it.
A chance meeting when Scott is doing a favor for a friend starts them on a journey that could take them to forever, it’s just a matter of waiting.
Review: Wait for Me, Kris Jacen’s debut novel, was a joy to read. For anyone who knows Jacen, they will see right away that she has drawn from personal experience when writing this lovely story about love and commitment. Jeff, a career military man, faces many obstacles that people who aren’t in the services face. Let alone the forced separation caused by deployments, the fear for those at home, especially if the worst should happen, is something many probably don’t know about. Add to that the effect of serving and the resulting PTSD issues upon return, and we get an inside glimpse into a very special population of people.
But she doesn’t stop there. We also get to see the brotherhood of men who serve together, the tight-knit family that members of the military create well beyond their biological families, and the strength of those who remain behind and protect the home our heroes return to after fighting for our country. In all of these things, the author does an excellent job of giving the reader an inside view of two awesome men, Jeff and Scott, as well as the extended cast of characters who surround her two protagonists.
There is a casual, conversational style to the narrative, Jacen’s personality shining through in each scene and interaction, paired with lovely descriptions of the inner thoughts and struggles associated with love and military. As with any new author, there were some things I would have loved to see more of. I would have loved a bigger dose of the struggle caused by separation, as well as the tension created by said separation (and the PTSD that follows). But other than wanting more, the book did not contain the typical newbie pitfalls that most authors fall into.
Overall, a wonderful book, one you will enjoy: long enough that you can sink your teeth in, but never dragging.
You can buy Wait for Me here:
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The Novel Approach Reviews 
Thank you for the review. It sounds like this would be something i like. I’ve put it on my TBR list.
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