I'll Be Home for Christmas: A Coming Home Novella by Jessica Scott

I’ll Be Home For Christmas: A Coming Home Novella.  Jessica Scott. Grand Central Publishing. November 2013. 100 pp. e-book ISBN #: 9781455554249.

Sergeant Vic Carponti and his wife Nicole are one very HOT couple.  He covers every stressful situation with jokes and a positive attitude, and Nicole supports him in every minutes because she realizes the horrendous stress of his work when he is in Iraq fighting a war that leaves far too many wounded or dead.  Their romantic life is not only sizzling but creative when they are both together and apart, with the addition of “dirty” letters and videos fueling their insatiable desire for each other. Each has very significant fears, however, that never get displayed, or at least rarely.  How close are they to losing each other?

Off to Iraq Vic Carponti goes, arriving at a scene where IED attacks alternate between constant frequency and dropping off that provokes even more tension as one knows the absence of attacks presages something awful.  Into this mix there are some crude and irritating soldiers of different ranks who seem to delight in demanding conformity, not realizing the need for the Sergeant’s levity in the middle of indescribable tension.  But nothing holds Carponti back, that is until one of his best buddies is seriously injured and has to be flown to Germany for the extensive treatment necessary to save his life. 

When the attacks and Glenn’s injuries loom large, Vic finds himself unable to call Nicole because he fears “losing it.”  Yet he relies on her constant presence by Skype to keep him strong.  They both have friends whose relationships collapse from the inability to handle the constant strain.  They lack the passion Vic and Nicole so clearly have for each other; but Jessica Scott doesn’t make this into a fairy tale.  The dangers and realities of war-time military life are clearly and potently depicted but without becoming maudlin beyond credibility.

Vic will be coming home to Nicole, alive but different from his latest service.  The reader anxiously awaits how each will adjust to their new poignant stressor but will not be disappointed.

Jessica Scott knows how to present the hottest sexy moments and succinctly present the brave moments too often ignored by an American public who have idealistic images of war that are blown apart herein.  Fine, fine balance, Jessica Scott, that is both exhilarating and powerful!!! Very, very nicely crafted!