He came home a hero and lost the only woman he’s ever loved… JohnI have no idea how to survive without my beloved Ava. She had no choice but to move on with her life during my six-year deployment and has now married Eric. I hate him for taking her from me. I’d prefer to wallow in my depression and heartbreak, but the whole damned world wants a piece of the SEAL Team leader who helped capture … wants a piece of the SEAL Team leader who helped capture the world’s most-wanted terrorist. I need help handling the relentless requests, and when Ava sends her new sister-in-law to manage the media circus for me, I’m prepared to hate her on principle. Her brother took my Ava. What else do I need to know about her?
Julianne
It takes five seconds to realize Ava’s ex is going to be the most complicated and difficult client I’ve ever had, but the opportunity to represent the most celebrated man in the world could make my career. I’m determined to do the job, even if I dislike John from the moment I meet him. And I like everyone. So much so that my brothers worry about me being exploited by those who would take advantage of my unwavering love for others. But John… He’s in a class by himself, and his bitterness is a festering wound that I begin to wish I could somehow fix for him. The more time we spend together, the more our mutual disdain morphs into something that feels an awful lot like desire. There’s no way I can want this man, or so I tell myself, and when Eric finds out I’ve developed feelings for the man causing trouble in his new marriage, well…
That’s going to be a hot mess.
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The highly anticipated followup to last year’s FIVE YEARS GONE, ONE YEAR HOME is here, and it’s the story FYG readers have been waiting for! Navy Captain John West lost his leg, his two best friends and the love of his life during an endless six-year deployment to capture the world’s most wanted terrorist. Now that his beloved Ava has married someone else, there’s nothing left for him except a media circus after the release of a video that shows him squarely in the middle of the terrorist raid. Now, the whole world wants a piece of the reluctant hero, and he’s floundering. Ava sends her new sister-in-law, Julianne, to help John deal with the media onslaught, and when sparks start to fly between the two of them, they quickly realize that sometimes the worst possible thing can lead to something you never could’ve seen coming…
An outstanding sequel to Five Year Gone. Loved it.
This book is pure perfection!
This is a follow up of Five Years Gone and is about Captain John West and how he is coping with returning to civil life after loosing so much.
He is a very strong person and the only one who can deal with his grief and sorrows is Julianne, his publicist and sister of his greatest nemesis. Their relationship is forbidden but at the same time it is so right since they connect in a way that it is undeniable. Together they make sense and it is a beautiful love story and second chance for love for both of them (since both have their hearts broken by someone else).
This book is full of emotions and it is the one that you cannot put it away and turn every page. Just make sure you have tissues with you…
I just loved this book and cannot recommend it more!
ONE YEAR HOME is here! This is the highly anticipated followup to last year’s FIVE YEARS GONE by Marie Force. When sparks start to fly between Julianne and John, they quickly realize that sometimes the worst possible thing can lead to something you never could’ve seen coming…
One of my TOP book of 2019
I LOVED everything about this book. I had been anxiously awaiting this book since 5 Years Gone. Marie Force did NOT disappoint!
Julianne & John should not get together based on John’s history with Julianne’s sister in law, but the heart wants what the heart wants. I cried NUMEROUS times throughout this book. John’s story will bring you to your knees, but such is the price of war. Julianne is the perfect balm to his soul. This book is perfection!
It’s FINALLY HERE!!!
The highly anticipated followup to last year’s FIVE YEARS GONE, ONE YEAR HOME is here, and it’s the story FYG readers have been waiting for!
Navy Captain John West lost his leg, his two best friends and the love of his life during an endless six-year deployment to capture the world’s most wanted terrorist. Now that his beloved Ava has married someone else, there’s nothing left for him except a media circus after the release of a video that shows him squarely in the middle of the terrorist raid. Now, the whole world wants a piece of the reluctant hero, and he’s floundering.
Ava sends her new sister-in-law, Julianne, to help John deal with the media onslaught, and when sparks start to fly between the two of them, they quickly realize that sometimes the worst possible thing can lead to something you never could’ve seen coming…
Returning to a hero’s welcome, but having lost the one thing that kept him going for six long years has made John West an angry, bitter man. With nothing to look forward to, he’s waiting for the time that he can disappear quietly from the limelight, and just exist. Before he can do that, though, John has obligations to fulfill, and not even his cranky ‘leave me alone’ attitude will keep Julianne Tilden, his newly assigned PR rep from making sure that he does.
When Marie Force released FIVE YEARS GONE, I was enraptured from the first page, and could not put it down. To realize that there was more to come, that Marie was going to give us the rest of the story, John West’s after, I could not have been happier, because I was not ready for the story to be over. She has totally hit the mark with ONE YEAR HOME, writing with the same angsty, passionate voice that made the first book such a win for me.
I adored everything about this book. John and Julianne are perfect together, bringing out things in each other that allow them to be the best version of themselves. This is a story about forgiveness, both of self and others, of taking a leap of faith and saying ‘Yes,’ to what comes next, even if it’s uncertain and uncomfortable, and, most of all, it’s about love, the kind of limitless love that stretches boundaries and sets us free.
It’s helpful to have read FIVE YEARS GONE before diving in to ONE YEAR HOME, as Ava and Eric have a part in this book, too, and it helps make sense of the way that John’s and Jules’s story unfolds. Marie has done a fantastic job of bringing things full circle, and easing the heartbreak that all of these characters have gone through. ONE YEAR HOME is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I could not have enjoyed it more.
One Year Home by Marie Force is an emotional contemporary, military romance told in multiple POVs. Although the story can be read as a standalone, it is a sequel, so Five Years Gone should be read first.
John has returned home wounded from his secret mission with the SEALs to bring down an infamous terrorist. After being deployed for so long, his return has been difficult. He is heartbroken and struggling having lost everything he cared about while overseas. Due to some leaked video footage revealing his identity and role in the mission, the media is relentlessly hounding John for interviews.
When Julianne meets with John to potentially become his publicist, she knows she’ll have her work cut out for her. They don’t get off to a good start, but despite his prickly manner, she’s sympathetic to his situation. After all, Ava, her new sister-in-law and also John’s former fiancee, recommended her for the job. Julianne knows this can’t be easy for him, and she wants to help.
I loved John and Jules’s story! They were both likeable characters with complexity and depth. The author masterfully tackles issues of PTSD and societal re-entry with respect and sensitivity. Some major themes explored are grief, healing, and starting over. Although the subject matter is very weighty, the story didn’t feel overly heavy because there was humor sprinkled throughout which brought balance. I highly recommend it!
*** I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC. ***
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better. I loved the first book Five Years Gone and didn’t know what to expect from this one. But, as usual Marie blew it out of the park. This one follows John and the ordeal that he goes through now that he is finally home. It is beautifully written with so much emotion that you won’t be able to put it down. Jules and John just fit. This book is beautiful, real and has just a touch of Marie’s humor. I absolutely loved this book.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with Five Years Gone’s sequel but I was fascinated! I loved Five Years Gone and I always felt that poor John shouldn’t have ended alone and shattered like he did. He was a hero, he loved Ava so completely and lived for her all the time he was away. He definitely deserved his own HEA and his story was fantastic!
The beginning of the story shows a morose and depressed John West. Never mind he’s a hero, everyone wants to know him and thank him for the huge service he did to the world. He wants nothing of the action, he just wants to go somewhere to be alone; and yet he knows he’s in a dangerous emotional state and needs to snap out of it. Except, how can he when he lost his two best friends and his leg in the raid where his team killed the world’s worst terrorist, and he also lost the love of his life, Ava?
In the huge public relations mess he’s in, enter Julianne, Ava’s new sister-in-law, to the rescue. She may look proper and prim, like a Mary Poppins lookalike, but she’s feisty and brave. She faced John West surliness with snark and snapped him out of his depression. It was a beauty so see! I loved their interactions and loved how he slowly but surely and with great reluctance, recovered his good temper and decided to be a nice guy. As he evolved into this laughing, good tempered guy, he changed from a seriously handsome guy into a dangerously handsome man. Poor Jules had no defense against all that hunkiness.
Marie Force wrote a story with a lot of heart and angst and humor. We live with these wonderful characters the evolvement of John into the wonderful guy he was before the tragedy, we see a Julianne who rose over her professional insecurity and rose as a PR star, and we suffer with Ava and Eric through their initial marriage woes. What happened to John and between John and Ava has deep repercussions to all four characters and it was great to see how the author handled it. I have to say, I wasn’t a fan of Eric in this book, I rather saw him as a whiney jerk. I loved Muncie, John’s helper during his recovery, and I laughed out loud at the scene with the retainer. This was one of those books that you read in one day because it’s so entertaining, full of wonderful characters, and had a love story that just enthralls you and makes you happy at the end.
Outstanding! This author always give you a story you can sink your teeth into and come out the other side just a little different. This story is exceptional. The emotions were flying with the tragedy of the heroic John coming home physically impaired to find the love of his life gone. One is a killer but the two together have this magnificent hero fighting to recover from both and it is inspirational and heartbreaking. John’s struggles as a returning war hero rang true and had me twisted with sadness for his plight especially with the media attention. Who can blame him for his bad attitude? But it brings the wonderful Julianne into his life to deal with the media. She’s bright, sympathetic and just lovely with a little steel to her personality that’s she needs to deal with the prickly John. I loved the twist of her being a part of John’s ex’s life. Bring on the complications! These characters are spectacular and their journey is so heartfelt and captivating as they get to know each other with the challenging obstacles they face alone and together. Marie Force has given us another truly powerful story with a broken hero so layered with heroism, strength and sexiness, and when he finally sees what’s in front of him instead of what’s behind him he is heart melting. And there stands the beautiful, patient Julianne. These two had my heart thumping! I have to give a shoutout to Muncie. Love him too. There are not enough stars for this story. Loved it! I voluntarily reviewed an ARC.
This book will take you on a roller coaster ride of emotions. The story of John West is full of heartache, despair, sorrow and darkness, but as we see the way his life changes after being home and meeting Julianne, his PR rep for the foreseeable future, his story changes. This is a story of growth and of overcoming the worst life has to throw at you. It is also a story of friendship, compassion, love and a belief in oneself as well as those you care about most. Ms. Force has written a beautiful story about a man who has experienced some of the worst this life could throw at him, but finds that if he holds on and counts on the right person, anything is possible and happiness can be his.
I was so excited for One Year Home and I was not disappointed, John’s story was everything I expected and so much more and this book will certainly be on my list of best reads for 2019.
There are only so many books that blow your mind and this story is one of them and I’m also really not sure my mere words can do this book justice so I’m just going to tell you how this book made me feel. I also think you need to read this book with no expectations so I’m not going to write a review that’s full of spoilers I’m just going to say this is MUST READ!! I thought nothing would top Five Years Gone how wrong was I because John’s story touched me on so many levels as he stole a piece of my heart that I’m really not sure I will ever get that piece back. I loved watching John and Julianne get to know each other and I loved watching their bond grow and develop. Marie Force has give us a beautifully written love story, it will make you cry, it will make you sigh but it will also make you smile as this couple find the HEA they so deserve. I highly recommend this book but please read Five Years Gone first. Brilliant read that has all the feels.
What an incredible and heart wrenching story. I felt on the edge of my seat throughout “Five Years Gone” and anxiously awaited “One Year Home”. But I am utterly amazed at the talents of Marie Force and the beautiful book she has written. Her characters have captured by heart as she revealed the healing of her characters. This is truly a MUST READ book and worthy of 10 stars.
Oh my gosh!!! My heart literally felt like it was breaking in this book!! I felt for each one of these characters!! John, Jules, Ava and Eric had to work through so many things. SO many emotions, so many feelings.
I started this book and couldn’t really adult that much because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Were they going to get their happy ending? Was it going to be too much for each couple?
Was Jules actually going to do something for herself instead of what everyone else thought she should do? She was the kind of person that always did for everyone else and she wanted John more than anything. Would she be able to do it??
I can’t wait for you to read these two books! They’ll leave you thinking of the sacrifices that the military men and women make so that we’re safe. What they leave behind to do their job.
I absolutely loved this book and series!! Gives you insight on what our troops deal with when they come home from a long deployment. How much their families lives change while they are gone. This is a touching story about John who has lost so much while on deployment and how he is trying to get his life back and move on. Julianne is his PR who slowly helps him to find his way back to his new normal while they fall in love and overcome some obstacles.
4.5 stars–ONE YEAR HOME by Marie Force is the follow-up story line to the author’s FIVE YEARS GONE wherein a soldier returns from war, five years after disappearing without contact. This is Captain John West, and publicist Julianne Tilden’s story line. Although ONE YEAR HOME can be read as a stand alone I recommend reading FIVE YEARS GONE for backstory and cohesion.
Told from four first person perspectives (John, Julianne, Ava and Eric) ONE YEAR HOME follows four people interconnected by our story line hero. Six years earlier Captain John West disappeared, in the wake of the attack on a US Cruise ship, leaving a broken hearted Ava Lucas struggling to make sense of what happened and why. Fast forward five years wherein John West returns home, a shell of his former self, only to discover that the woman he loved had fallen in love with someone else. Now one year later Captain John West is tasked by the US Navy to become the face of recruitment playing upon the public’s sympathies for the hero who helped take down a terrorist organization. But all is not well in John West’s life as he struggles to move forward without constantly looking back. With the recommendation of his former lover Ava, John will hire publicist Julianne Tilden, the sister of the man with whom Ava fell in love. What ensues is the acrimonious but building relationship and romance between John and Julianne, as they come to terms with loss, love, heart break and second chances.
Meanwhile, Ava and Eric’s relationship is marred by issues of trust and deep insecurities. Struggling with thoughts of what was and what could have been Ava’s guilt and self-doubt threaten her marriage and the man that she loves.
John West struggles with the guilt of survivor’s remorse having lost his two best friends in the Middle East, but lies of omission that destroyed his relationship with Ava Lucas continue to haunt our hero’s life. Moving on from the past including the woman he once loved forces John out of his comfort zone and towards a new happily ever after with the woman assigned to keep the paparazzi at bay. Julianne Tilden fights her attraction to Captain John West, an attraction equalled by John’s desire for our story line heroine. Knowing to get involved with John is tantamount to professional suicide, a decision she will make before too long.. the $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
The secondary and supporting characters are colorful and energetic: Julianne’s sister Amy, and John’s mentor Lieutenant Commander David Muncie. We are reintroduced to Ava Lucas and Eric Tilden (Five Years Gone), as well as Eric and Julianne’s brother Robert and his wife Camille.
ONE YEAR HOME is an emotional and heart breaking character driven story of loss, love, guilt and moving forward. John West’s life was never easy but losing his ‘brothers’ then the woman he loved kept found John focusing on what will never be. The premise is raw and real; the romance is sexy and sassy; the characters are broken and spirited.
TOP 10 RECOMMENDED
In one word for Marie Force, YES. Seeing a piece of John West In Five Years Gone was not enough and boy was he created with justice. The pain he is going through is nothing compared to all the what ifs he has going on in his head right now. I loved that we see a side of John no one has seen and reflects how bad it can imitate real life. Marie Force pulled us in what happens after a soldier comes home, trying to deal with civilization, normal things like texting but most of all just trying to live. These two together not only help each other but create a love they cannot control. All in all this is one book you have to read after Ava’s story. Loved it.
“I received an eBook copy from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own.”
4 1/2 STARS
I’ve so been waiting for this book! One Year Home is the highly anticipated follow-up to Marie Force’s beloved Five Years Gone novel that stole all of our hearts last year. It’s a reawakening of a lost soul with a chunk of forbidden romance added into the mix and quite the emotional roller coaster.
John West already had my heart on a string going into the story, and watching him mourn for Ava was heart wrenching. I really enjoyed Ava and Eric’s happily ever after in the first book, but watching John be the one left behind is hard.
Julianne Tilden is a breath of fresh air. She brings each scene to life when confronting this broken man and forcing him to live again. Their connection sparks early and often.
I highly recommend you read Five Years Gone prior to digging into this follow up story because the first book delivers the emotional punch to let you go into this book understanding the turmoil properly. Overall, the story line as a whole has been amazing and sincerely unputdownable! Amazing characters, great depth to the emotions portrayed by everybody involved and a joy to read!
Rating: 4.5 Stars
John West needs help from a person with a particular skillset. He’s a man with some justifiable attitude. Julianne Tilden has a tough and challenging road ahead of her. Even though this man may be a secondary character, David Muncie has an integral part to this story.
The author does a great job in conveying the frustration and sadness that John feels about what’s going on in his life. She makes it very tough to keep yourself detached from what he’s been through. The next stage in John’s life is what seems to be the focal point. Any personal interactions seem to be secondary.
I feel lucky because my dad never saw action. He was stationed in Cuba during the Korean War. It was interesting to listen to him talk about his experiences. Maybe that’s one reason that I felt so much for John and what he had to endure.
The author may have you thinking about what you can do for our troops. In my copy of the book there was no listing of organizations but as I see the struggles that John had to deal with the Wounded Warrior Project comes to mind. Not everyone can give financial support. Many years ago I had the privilege of welcoming the troops coming home from the Gulf War. A lot of them appreciated that we were there shaking their hand and just saying “thank you”. Maybe you could even do something for the older vets.
The hard part for me was remembering that Julianne was there – in the beginning. In a way, she faded into the background as the author sets up their interactions – he’s a strong character. Even though he may say one thing his spirit is saying, “here I am and this is my story”. Their personal interactions came in time, which just seemed like a natural progression to their relationship. One thing I really loved is that the author let John start the story off as well as end it. We get his first impressions and his last – but in my mind I know his story isn’t over.
I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.