Fighting Absolution by Kate McCarthy
Release Date: September 10, 2019
Synopsis
Fighting Absolution, an all-new standalone contemporary romance by USA Today Bestselling author Kate McCarthy.
At fifteen, Jamie Murphy finds herself broken and alone, convinced she doesn’t need anyone.
Until she does.
Bear is the boy behind the fence, the one who was there for her when no one else was.
Until he’s not.
Left with nothing, Jamie joins the army hoping it will give her purpose. The last thing she expects is the best friend from her past to reappear in the dusty plains of a war-torn country. No longer the boy she once knew, Bear is now a man: big, bearded, and SASβone of the armyβs elite.
Soon Jamie finds herself not only fighting against her enemies, but her feelings for a man who left her once before. Can she risk losing him all over again?
Fighting Absolution is a friends to lovers romance and features characters from Fighting Redemption, but is written as a standalone.
Review
4 emotional stars
Writing this review without spoilers will be tricky as the synopsis brushes a big element of the book under the rug!
And not speaking of it feels like not doing this book justice but so is the reviewβs lawβ¦.
Anyway letβs focus on the characters and all the emotions I felt while reading this book!
Β β Jamieβs the type that if you told her not to do something, she would not only do it twice, sheβd take pictures too, all while giving you the middle finger.β
This is the best quote to describe Jamie!
Jamie has lost her dad in an awful accident and has been placed in a foster home.
She carries so much guilt and grief.
Throughout the whole story she will fight for absolution. She will fight to save lives. She will join the army in the hope of discovering who she is, what her path is.
With no family left, she thinks no one needs her and thatβs just sad.
When Jamie met Bear for the first time, she was a teenager grieving the loss of her father. She existed under a dark cloud. Feisty and rebuking at first, Bear was not discouraged by her attitude. He saw right through it. Day after day he became her anchor and she became his.
Years later they will meet again in the army.
They will fight at first and they will both experience an awful loss.
Bear is ..like a huge bear but all marshmallow inside.
He is huge, muscled, an SAS fighter. He is the one to crack jokes and poke others till they leave their bad mood behind. His coping mechanism faced with the horror of war is humor.
And Bearβs big weakness are kids!
βBear: I want kids. Lots of βem. I havenβt told anyone this before either, but I want to be a dad. So bad. I want to find a girl and fall in love. I want to know what it feels like to look at someone knowing I could never live without them. I want to get married. I want to watch her walk down the aisle towards me, my heart busting from my chest at the knowledge she was mine. I want to feel my babies growing inside her belly, and watch them grow with her by my side. I want to fill that house by the beach with all their little personalities. Take them camping. Teach them about the Earth.β
Their friendship was a wonderful one. The one you find when you went at war together. When you both experienced grief. When you both are trying to patch the holes in your heart left by too many deaths. Itβs one friendship that will have you go through hell and back if it means saving the other.
I loved seeing their feeling evolve. I cried for their losses. I laughed at their banter and Bearβs antics. And my heart bled for the reason I canβt talk about without spoiling this review.
If you want an emotional story with a brave Little Warrior becoming a wonderful and courageous woman thanks to her best big grizzly of a friend, just read it!
Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YkqAtT
Amazon Worldwide: mybook.to/FightingAbsolution
Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2NZNUco
Excerpt:
After an early night, I wake in the morning with my body sagging into the ground. βWhat the hell?β
I roll and flail, my air mattress squeaking like a little bitch.
Bear laughs and I turn. Heβs watching me, thoroughly amused. βIβm not here for your entertainment,β I hiss, my back aching from an uncomfortable sleep.
βSomeone needs her coffee.β
βDid you poke a hole in my mattress?β
βNo, but thereβs something poking a hole in myββ
βFor the love of god!β I rise up, the knife from beneath my pillow in hand. βIβm gonna stab yours just for that.β
βNo!β He laughs, half-rising from his own bed, warding me off with his massive paws. βThat damn thing is probably why you woke up on the ground.β
I lunge across the tent, my knife jabbing straight into his inflatable mattress. It tears a long, deep gash in the corner. Air hisses out in a wheezy rush. βWhat in the actual fuck?β he shouts, falling back with a stunned laugh. βYouβre such a bitch!β
The knife drops from my hand, and I double over, gasping with laughter while the airbed deflates around him, sinking him slowly to the ground.
βNow neither of us have a bed!β
βOh well.β I tuck my knife away. βWe can start on those bottles of red tonight until we canβt feel a damn thing, and then it wonβt matter.β
I unzip the tent and step out, my jaw cracking from a yawn that stretches my face. βBring me coffee!β he orders from inside the tent.
I turn my head, sneaking a glance his way. Heβs standing over his duffel bag, clad in nothing but a tight pair of bright blue cotton boxer-briefs. Itβs almost a physical punch. I linger a moment before I look away, back to the ocean, trying to dispel the image, but my mind wonβt let it go. The wide, muscled shoulders, his tattooed arms, the thick washboard abs, his body scarred from combat and a lifetime of hard and heavy training.
I shiver with a sense of longing and have to remind myself that itβs just Bear as I start on the coffee. The same Bear who laughed his ass off when I tripped on the edge of the jetty in Broome and fell in the water. The one who snores like a freight train after one too many beers. The one slowly turning into a mountain man because he hasnβt shaved since we left. The very same Bear who tips his head back each night in his camp chair and makes me scratch his head with my nails while he sits there and whimpers like a little girl.
About Kate:
Kate is the USA Today Bestselling Author of The End Game and Goodreads Nominee for Best Contemporary Romance Fighting Redemption, and the Give Me series.
When she’s not plotting or writing, she works as a financial officer.
Kate has two mini me’s (both bookworms to her delight), three Dachshunds named Petie, Maximus and Thor, and a fish named Cash (who unfortunately suffers resting bitch face). She lives in Brisbane, Australia and decided to miraculously stop ageing at 30.
Connect with Kate:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KateMcCarthyAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KMacinOz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorkatemccarthy/
Website: https://katemccarthy.net/
I feel like anything combining theater and the military will be a hit. I’ll have to look into this one.
Please do!
Books to do with grief are ones that always get to me. Especially when it comes to contemporary books, so it sounds like this could be one for me. Great review and dodging around the tricky spoiler π
Olivia-S @ Olivia’s Catastrophe
Thank you so much Olivia!!
This sounds so wonderful and fun! My author list keeps growing because of your reviews:)
Bwahaha Laura I know this is a real problem tied to our blog surfing ways!
I’m not into friends to lovers trope but this sounds pretty intense and emotional! I’m glad you enjoyed it! Great review! π
Thank you Raven! And yes it was filled to the brim with emotions.
Okay, I need this book. Between the synopsis and your review I am sold. I have a big soft spot for military heroes (my husband served for 20 years) and I love the sound of Bear. I have one other by McCarthy on my Kindle (Finding Redemption) but haven’t read it yet. I need to get on the ball and read both!
I had forgotten that your husband was in the army. 20 years that’s a long time Tanya!!! Now you have to tell me what you ‘ll think of this book π