FIGHTING ABSOLUTION by Kate McCarthy- Review & Excerpt Tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 10, 2019
“She’s a combat medic.
He’s SAS, and her best friend.
They weren’t supposed to fall in love.”
At fifteen, Jamie Murphy finds herself broken and alone, convinced she doesn’t need anyone.
Until she does.
Bear is the boy behind the fence, the one who was there for her when no one else was.
Until he’s not.
Left with nothing, Jamie joins the army hoping it will give her purpose. The last thing she expects is the best friend from her past to reappear in the dusty plains of a war-torn country. No longer the boy she once knew, Bear is now a man: big, bearded, and SAS—one of the army’s elite.
Soon Jamie finds herself not only fighting against her enemies, but her feelings for a man who left her once before. Can she risk losing him all over again?
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REVIEW: FIGHTING ABSOLUTION by Kate McCarthy is a contemporary, new adult to adult, military romance story line focusing on Jamie ‘Warrior Girl’ Murphy and Kyle ‘Bear’ Brooks.
Told from dual first person perspectives (Jamie and Kyle) FIGHTING ABSOLUTION covers several years in the life of Jamie ‘Warrior Girl’ Murphy and Kyle ‘Bear’ Brooks. Landing in foster care after the death of her father, fifteen year old Jamie Murphy struggles to find her place in the world. Meeting Bear, the young boy who lives in the home behind the foster care facility but a young boy she only knows by talking through the fence when left all alone, gives Jamie something to look forward to every day. ..but one day Bear does not return leaving Jamie struggling with yet another loss. Two years would pass and Jamie would enrol in the army where she will find her purpose helping those who need her help the most. But another loss finds Jamie facing her future alone until she discovers the boy she once called Bear, has been with her all along. On leave together, Kyle aka Bear and Jamie would travel across Australia discovering the who and what of their heart and souls. What ensues is the building relationship between Jamie and Kyle, and the potential fall-out as our leading couple continue to butt heads about the present and the future.
Jamie knows loss better than most but the continuing losses and the atrocities of war begin to take their toll on our story line heroine. Unable to forgive herself for sins of the past, Jamie pushes towards a life that continues to spiral out of control. Kyle Brooks never forgot about the young teen he knew only as Warrior Girl but meeting Jamie Murphy while stationed overseas in Afghanistan gave Kyle a chance at forever if only he and Jamie could survive the ongoing war.
The relationship between Jamie and Kyle is a friends to lovers/second chances of a sorts for two people who met one another when they needed it the most. The continuous loss of life and destruction begins to eat away at both Kyle and Jamie leaving each a shadow of their former selves. But injuries force Kyle to walk away from the army, injuries he hoped would push Jamie to walk away, herself. The Sex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, animated and sympathetic secondary and supporting characters including Jamie’s best friends Erin Tennyson, Jake Tanner, and Colin Wood; Jake’s sister Fin, and his childhood friend Ryan Kendall. Jake, Colin Ryan, Kyle and Jamie all see time together in the war in the Middle East.
FIGHTING ABSOLUTION is a story of family and friendship; love, loss and grief; forgiveness, struggle, depression and absolution. The premise is real and raw; the romance is captivating; the characters are energetic and lively. FIGHTING ABSOLUTION is a heart breaking, emotional and spirited story of survival and love.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
I roll and flail, my air mattress squeaking like a little bitch.
Bear laughs and I turn. He’s watching me, thoroughly amused. “I’m not here for your entertainment,” I hiss, my back aching from an uncomfortable sleep.
“Someone needs her coffee.”
“Did you poke a hole in my mattress?”
“No, but there’s something poking a hole in my—”
“For the love of god!” I rise up, the knife from beneath my pillow in hand. “I’m gonna stab yours just for that.”
“No!” He laughs, half-rising from his own bed, warding me off with his massive paws. “That damn thing is probably why you woke up on the ground.”
I lunge across the tent, my knife jabbing straight into his inflatable mattress. It tears a long, deep gash in the corner. Air hisses out in a wheezy rush. “What in the actual fuck?” he shouts, falling back with a stunned laugh. “You’re such a bitch!”
The knife drops from my hand, and I double over, gasping with laughter while the airbed deflates around him, sinking him slowly to the ground.
“Now neither of us have a bed!”
“Oh well.” I tuck my knife away. “We can start on those bottles of red tonight until we can’t feel a damn thing, and then it won’t matter.”
I unzip the tent and step out, my jaw cracking from a yawn that stretches my face. “Bring me coffee!” he orders from inside the tent.
I turn my head, sneaking a glance his way. He’s standing over his duffel bag, clad in nothing but a tight pair of bright blue cotton boxer-briefs. It’s almost a physical punch. I linger a moment before I look away, back to the ocean, trying to dispel the image, but my mind won’t let it go. The wide, muscled shoulders, his tattooed arms, the thick washboard abs, his body scarred from combat and a lifetime of hard and heavy training.
I shiver with a sense of longing and have to remind myself that it’s just Bear as I start on the coffee. The same Bear who laughed his ass off when I tripped on the edge of the jetty in Broome and fell in the water. The one who snores like a freight train after one too many beers. The one slowly turning into a mountain man because he hasn’t shaved since we left. The very same Bear who tips his head back each night in his camp chair and makes me scratch his head with my nails while he sits there and whimpers like a little girl.
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Kate McCarthy grew up in a small town outside of Port Macquarie, Australia. Raised in a house just a short walk to the beach, Kate enjoyed the peaceful, relaxed atmosphere and friendships that come from being raised in a friendly, small town area.
She now resides in Brisbane, Australia, a city in the state of Queensland where she works as an accountant, along with a sideline wedding cake business and her writing.
She is married with two children, has two dogs and house in the suburbs, and a pile of friends and family dotted all over the country that help keep her sane.
When she’s not busy running after naughty kids, filthy dogs, crunching numbers, piping buttercream and writing books, you can find her curled up in bed in the early hours of the morning reading new books and re-reading old favourites. Her favourite books are the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward in which she longs to eventually join the brotherhood and change her name to Phierce Mutha.
