Review: The Long Night by Jessica Scott

17 May of 2016 by ButtonsMom2003

Reviewer's Rating: 5

5.0Overall score

This was a hard story to read but so worth it.

The Long Night: A Novel of Suspense By Jessica Scott

Mystery / Suspense / Military

Released May 16, 2016

Self-published

Synopsis

Whatever it takes, just come home to me. Promise me, Sam.

In eight months, Staff Sergeant Sam Brown will become a father. But first, he has to survive his fourth tour in Iraq. On his last night home, he tries to pretend that everything is fine, that the war is fine, that his life is fine.

But as he returns to the war zone, things are anything but fine and the promise he made to his fiancé takes on a desperate edge. As things spiral down, Sam starts to wonder about that promise.

How high is the price he will pay when the long night comes to an end?

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

This was a hard story to read but so worth it.

I really can’t remember the last time I read a book that wasn’t classified in some way or another as a romance – I’m actually not sure that I ever have. But… Jessica Scott is one of my favorite authors (I have many and the order of the list may change from time to time but she is always on it) and I wanted to read this book.

I’ve been on her ARC list for quite some time but she warned me that I might not want to read this one because it’s not a romance and because it’s very dark. I am so glad I ignored her warning. The reason that I’ve loved her military-themed romances is pretty much the same reason why I loved this story – it’s real, even if it’s fiction.

I know good authors have a “voice” – that something that makes their writing recognizable – but it never hit home as much for me as it did when I read this story. It’s so unlike her romance books and yet it is like them. Confusing I know. I think I would have suspected that she was the author even if she had used a different pen name.

I like Jessica Scott’s romance stories because they depict things that seem very believable to me. I usually don’t care if the romance stories I read are really believable or not; I read romance as an escape from everyday life. But when I discovered her romance books I embraced them for how “real” the stories seemed. I don’t know if it’s true or not but I credit the realism to the fact that she has been, and still is, a soldier.

Sorry for the talk about romance books when I’m writing a review for something described as “A Novel of Suspense.” I mention all of the romance things because I want other readers of her romance stories to not hesitate to read this one.

Yes, this is a dark story. If the real horror of being in a war zone is only half as bad as what happens in this book it’s nearly unimaginable. Especially to someone like me who has no military background or persons close to them who have served in the last 30+ years. However dark this one is, it is a very gripping and compelling read. It’s one of those stories that I didn’t want to put down and yet I had to at times in order to process it a bit before I could read more.

I think this book invoked every emotion there is for me. Parts of the story were shocking and at the end I had tears running down my face. But amidst all of the darkness, I found a few passages that made me smile. Here are a couple of them:

Even listening to Lewis bitch was better than braving whatever unkillable diseases were growing on the inside of the shower stalls in Iraq. The last time his feet had started itching, he’d lost a toenail and had attempted to kill whatever it was growing between his toes with lighted gasoline. His brigade surgeon had been somewhat less than impressed. But the burned skin had grown back fungus free. A little pain had been worth it.

She smiled into the camera. “You’re laughing at me, I can tell.”

He matched her smile with his own. “I’m not. Really.” But he was, because it felt good. Like
sunshine pouring into the emptiest part of his soul.

“You are. You suck.”

“You suck.” He adjusted the headphones on his ears.

“And you like that.”

Sam coughed out loud. His damn dick perked up at her words. “Don’t.” His voice thickened.
“I’m in the middle of a public call center. I can’t walk out of here with a hard-on.”

Faith wasn’t dissuaded. “I miss you inside me,” she whispered.

“Jesus, Faith.” It took everything he had not to adjust his pants. “Knock it off. You’re going
to make me look like a sex offender.”

“Can I see it?”

“No, you can’t see it. What part of ‘public internet cafe’ do you not understand?” But his lips curled into a smile. Goddamn, he missed her. “I’ve got to get ready to go.”

She traced her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue. Sam was going to need to stop by a
Porta-Potty on the way back to his bay. “You’re killing me, babe. Please stop,” he whispered.

The Long Night may not be a romance but I would call it a love story. Jessica Scott remains firmly rooted in my list of favorite authors. Thank you for writing such a compelling story that convinced me to try something different and venture out of my reading comfort zone.