Honor Bound is the first book I’ve read by Hallee Bridgeman. Definitely won’t be my last. This book was one of the few ‘read it in two days had to keep reading’ stories of the year. Wow.

The basic premise has Special Forces Captain Rick Norton seeking urgent care for two of his men. They’re wounded while trying to subdue an evil African warlord who is terrorizing his country. Intelligence tells them there’s a small village with an American doctor working for a charity and the men make their way there. They arrive just in time to stop the warlord’s men from killing the doctor and her staff.

From then the battle to save two lives intersects with the fight to keep everyone alive and get them to the capital city to the relative safety of the US Embassy. Dr Cynthia Myers doesn’t keep her pacifist opinions to herself and clashes repeatedly with Rick until their trek though the jungle turns perilous and she’d forced to rely on his skill.

Back in the capital her father and his entourage arrive and put everyone in danger. His new role as the Vice President complicates everything and Cynthia appeals to Rick when events spiral out of control. she begins seeing him in a new light and romance blossoms. But can the pacifist truly love and support a man who fights, even if he’s fighting to bring peace?

As a military wife who has stayed home on her knees through plenty of deployments, this book resonated to my core. The action and emotion is realistic but mixed with enough light not to be overwhelming. The journey to the happy ending is bumpy enough to reflect military life and I couldn’t put the book down. Except for church and sleeping and feeding my children, I read until I reached the end.

Happily, there are three books in the series, all releasing this fall, so you won’t have to wait long for the rest.