For Mike and Will,
"No Flag" meant "come home alive", but will their love
survive what happens next?
Captain Mike Kelley
does not ignore his intuition, so when sexy bartender Will Hayes captures his
heart, Mike embarks on a mission to win him over to a Domestic Discipline
relationship. Will accepts with one caveat: Mike must promise not to renew his
Army commission. Mike agrees, and they spend a year building a life together,
getting married, and starting a business.
Only days before their
café's grand opening, Mike receives news that threatens everything he and Will
have built. The Army invokes the Stop Loss military policy to involuntarily
extend his commission and send him back overseas. Will, left alone to cope with
the café, must rely on the support of old friends who may be no longer be
trustworthy. Through emails and Skype calls, Mike and Will keep their love and
structure alive...until the day a horrific terrorist attack occurs on Mike's
outpost.
Mike awakens in a
hospital with a devastating injury and no his memory of the attack. As the only
survivor, Mike's memory may be the key to national security. Mike struggles to
cope with his injury and Will struggles to support the man who always held him
up. Both fear they have lost their previous relationship. Will has Mike back
rather than a folded flag, but in the aftermath of war, can they rebuild the
life they had before? Especially when those closest to them may not have their
best interests at heart?
I almost don’t know where to start discussing this
book. I suppose I should say first that
I really, really liked it. Not quite
love, but close. The story was emotional
and drew me right in. I get the purpose
of Stop Loss, but I think it is royally unfair, and only should be used in the direst
of circumstances. Mike and Will had everything set to embark on a life together
when the government decided to play games with their lives. I support those who
step up to serve our country, but that support includes letting them go when
their service is over. Of course, then
Mike gets hurt and it made me even angrier at the injustice of it all. (Angry at the situation, not the book. The
book was quite good.)
I loved the “no flag” catch phrase. I don’t have a whole lot
of experience with the military, so I’m not sure if that is a common saying or
not, but it tugged at my heart every time the guys used it.
Mike’s rehab and rekindling of his marriage were also very well
written. I really felt how devastating and frustrating the whole situation must
have been for them both.
Now, I am going to say something about a book that I don’t
think I have ever said before in a review --- I wish the book would have moved
a little slower. I know! Really! It’s just
that I felt some of the build of the romance and the character development
suffered a bit with the quick pacing. I like to fall in love alongside the
characters, but the romance was too rushed for that here. There wasn’t a whole
lot of build to the sexual tension/chemistry.
It worked out okay because there was a lot of story to carry me along
without it, but the book could have benefitted from about ten pages of romance expansion
to fill it out.
This book is listed in erotica, but I didn’t see it that way
-- more of a straight-up M/M romance. The sex is there, but not overly
described in long, vivid detail. The DD
relationship added to Mike’s character. As someone who suffers from OCD, he
needs exacting structure in his house hold. Will understood this and did all he
could to accommodate. That said, I
thought Mike took the discipline a little too far a couple of times. It kind of
made me hate him just a little.
Will was a wonderful character. (Mike was good too, but I connected
more with Will.) Their character development was fine. But the supporting
characters could have benefitted from depth.
The “bad guys”, Mike’s commanding officer and Will’s friend Casey, did
not feel real to me. I could guess that Mike’s boss was probably a homophobe,
but that was never explored. I wasn’t sure if he enacted Mike’s Stop Loss
provision purposefully, or if the order came from someone else. As written, he
seemed like a douche for douche’s sake. I
also didn’t buy Casey’s weird crush on Will.
Maybe it’s because I didn’t have a clear picture of her motives. Her
actions seemed extreme for someone who didn’t have some sort of fucked up back story.
I wanted to know what it was. Seth waffled between clueless and supportive, but
I never really felt I knew him. Another ten pages could have been added to
flesh out some of these side characters. For me, that would have elevated this book
from a four to a five star.
Overall, I give No
Flag...
Plot - 5 bookmarks
Character Development
- 3 bookmarks
Love Story - 4
bookmarks (What was there was wonderful. I just wished it was less rushed.)
Dream Cast (otherwise
known as who I pictured while reading) - Wentworth Miller (Mike), Zachary
Levi (Will), Ashley Benson (Casey).
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