Come Back To Me, Melissa Foster (5 stars)

From Melissa’s website: Tess Johnson has it all: her handsome photographer husband Beau, a thriving business, and a newly discovered pregnancy. When Beau accepts an overseas photography assignment, Tess decides to wait to reveal her secret—only she’s never given the chance. Beau’s helicopter crashes in the desert.

Tess struggles with the news of Beau’s death and tries to put her life back together. Alone and dealing with a pregnancy that only reminds her of what she has lost, Tess is adrift in a world of failed plans and fallen expectations. When a new client appears offering more than just a new project, Tess must confront the circumstances of her life head on.

Meanwhile, two Iraqi women who are fleeing honor killings find Beau barely alive in the middle of the desert, his body ravaged by the crash. Suha, a doctor, and Samira, a widow and mother of three young children, nurse him back to health in a makeshift tent. Beau bonds with the women and children, and together, with the help of an underground organization, they continue their dangerous escape.

What happens next is a test of loyalties, strength, and love.

When I think about this book, I still get overcome with emotion. I read this book in two evenings. The last evening I was clutching my IPad, tears streaming down my face, until past midnight. I couldn’t put it down. I needed to be with Tess until the end.

There’s so much I want to tell readers, but so little I want to give away. From the first page, we are thrown into Tess Johnson’s life, a vibrant woman who has just found out she’s pregnant and soon discovers her husband is presumed dead. She fights desperately to hold onto him, refusing to believe he’s gone.

The reader knows he’s alive and trying to get back to her, but it’s her desperation and heartache driving the story. Her husband, Beau, is in a foreign land, facing challenges he can only begin to understand. The family he encounters there deserves freedom, and I felt for them and their struggles, but I wanted him to make it home to Tess. He survived a helicopter crash, but could he survive the escape to freedom?

My heart ached through every phase of Tess’s grieving process. Two friends stuck with her through everything: Kevin, Beau’s best friend, and Alice, her co-worker and best friend. Their mutual affection brings them together, ultimately in a way they weren’t expecting. A new friend, a potential client named Louie, enters the picture and helps Tess move forward.

The ending is exhilarating and heartbreaking. We journey through Beau’s trek home and Tess coming to grips with reality only to be thrust into them finding their way back together. The results are not cookie cutter or expected. No simple running into his arms. When they come back together, nothing will ever be the same again.

Melissa Foster crafts such a fine story woven around people we can relate to and care about, that you trust where she takes you.

Every reader defines a good book differently. But if you rate yours based on memorable characters who pull you into the pages with them, like I do, this is the book for you.

Please note: I read this book as an ARC and will be participating in the blog tour, but in no way was a positive review guaranteed or asked for. My opinion is just that, mine.

From Melissa's Amazon page: Melissa Foster is the bestselling, award-winning author of three novels, Megan's Way, Chasing Amanda, and Come Back to Me. She has also been published in Indie Chicks, and anthology. She is the founder of the Women's Nest, a social and support community for women, and the WoMen's Literary Cafe. Melissa is currently collaborating in the film production of Megan's Way.

I am the proud owner of Megan's Way and Chasing Amanda, and I look forward to sharing those reviews with you soon. Melissa is not only a talented writer, she's someone who wants to build up other writers and give back to readers. She seems to have boundless energy! Please check out WoMen's Literary Cafe for first looks at amazing indie books. 

And now, enjoy the Come Back to Me video: