THE WAY HOME is a companion story in Cindy Gerard's new One-Eyed Jacks series. Jess Albert has been living the lonely life of a military widow since her husband J. R. (Jeff) was supposedly killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Alone for nearly four years now, she is running her general store business at Lake Kabetogama and filling her life the best way she can to keep going. She had been intrigued by Tyler Brown, a former military pilot that she had met the year before when she provided arms to the One-Eyed Jacks team. When he re-enters her world, Jess decides that she's finally ready to move on with her life.

J. R. Albert, long presumed dead, has been severely wounded in Afghanistan, and suffering from memory loss. He is being cared for by a young Afghani woman and her father; hidden away in their home. Not remembering that he has a wife, Jeff has become close to Rabia, who has cared for him for a long time. Rabia, a widow herself, is attracted to Jeff; and it is not long before their closeness moves their relationship into an intimate direction. When Jeff learns that there is an American military encampment not too far away from Rabia's village; he sends her to make contact with them and let them know that he is alive and trapped.

In the meantime, Ty's relationship with Jess has grown and flourished. He is spending more time with her in Minnesota, and less and less in his home in Florida. Ty is helping her in her general store; then decides he wants to stay close to Jess. To that end, he makes plans to start a plane chartering business to ferry fishermen and tourists. Secure in Ty's feelings for her, and that he will never leave her for months on end the way her husband did; Jess succumbs to love again and agrees to marry him.

Finding that J. R. is actually alive, the One-Eyed Jacks and the Black Ops, Inc teams organize a joint operation to bring him home to a wife he didn't even know he had. The last part of the book is a wild thrill ride as the team's head into to mount a harrowing operation behind enemy lines to rescue J. R. But after all he's been through, and loving Rabia as he does; can he ever really find his way home?

THE WAY HOME is more love story than it is a Special Ops suspense story. There is the thrill of the operation to bring J. R. home; but the book is at its heart a love story.

The narrative is told in the points of view of Jess and Jeff (J. R.), switching back and forth between them. THE WAY HOME is both poignant and heart-warming, and with a special dash of the thrill that is the One-Eyed Jacks. It looks like Cindy Gerard has another winning series here.

Book Summary

Four years ago Jess Albert got the news that her husband Jeff was killed in action in Afghanistan, and a painful void entered her life. The more time passed, the more acutely she felt that emptiness. But when Tyler Brown, former military hero and all-around alpha male, shows up a year after she'd last seen him, Jess gradually begins to realize there is one thing that can make her feel whole again--love.

As they're planning their wedding and new life together, Jess receives shocking news: her husband is alive, under the care of a young Afghani woman hiding him from the Taliban. Even as he sees their happily-ever-after slip away, Ty arranges for the One Eyed Jacks and Black Ops, Inc. teams to make a daring and dangerous rescue mission to bring Jeff home. The hardest thing Ty or Jess has ever done is to let the other go.

When Jeff returns to Jess, broken physically and emotionally and with no memory of their history, they try to heal their marriage and each other. But as time brings them together more as friends than lovers, an unexpected development helps them see the true way home, to the people they love.

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