I am not one to give up on a book, but this is one of the very few that I just couldn't get into, much less finish. The style of writing isn't for me.

I just didn't care for this book and didn't finish it. I couldn't care about the characters.

IndieReader Publishing Service and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Armor of Glass. This is my honest opinion of the book.

A troubled Marine rides the rails, contemplating his life from the war, to the women he has loved and lost, and his abusive past that affected his very existence. From ruining his relationships to floundering through life, the man he has become is searching for the man he was meant to be.

With a choppy writing style that made the book very hard to read, Armor of Glass is written more like a nonfiction memoir than a fictional account. Perhaps the writing format was intentional, but I just could not form a connection to the character or his story. Armor of Glass was clearly not the book for me and I would hesitate to recommend it to other readers.

I finally finished this book! This book is written in the first person. The story teller is by a an whose nickname was Brick. There's not a lot of conversation going on but a lot of Brick's thoughts, descriptions and opinions. It just wasn't very interesting to me. Brick was married several times and a lot of the book was about his extra-marital affair and the toll that took on his children. He joined the Navy, transferred to the Marines. I like a lot of dialogue. I think you find out a lot about the characters that way. I finished it and am ready to move on. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.

I loved the way this story is written as though it's a memoir! The main character is quite believable in his actions, both in his career and his personal life. The ending was satisfying, though I had to reread the last few chapters to really appreciate what happened. I would recommend this to those who enjoy an emotional saga.

This book is not the type what I usually read but I am truly that I did. It has a lot of military detail which I found interesting but basically it is a family saga and a love story depicting the many trials and sacrifices made the men in the military and their families. The characters are very well drawn and the story very well written, I received this book from the publisher to read in exchange for a honest review. I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE WHO LIKES THIS GENRE.

If this book had been a short story that just included the last couple chapters, it would have been fine, because that's the truly interesting part of the novel. Everything that comes before that is an unhappy former Marine who spends a couple hundred pages complaining that all of the women in his life are slutty, weak, inferior shrews who would never get anywhere in life if it weren't for him and other men taking care of them all the time. So I guess if reading a chauvinistic diatribe is your jam, then this is the book for you. If not, maybe grab anything else.

Armor of Glass by R. M. A. Spears is a so-so novel that reads like an autobiography.

"A lieutenant colonel once warned me I was brutally honest. I considered myself a realist, not a skeptic or cynic. What I thought to be brash and bold, many took as ass and a hole. I think not, therefore I am not. I settled on my first nickname, Brick..." Brick is a hard-working every-man. He has been a husband, father, soldier, Marine. Brick feels beleaguered and put upon by almost everyone in his life. He is skilled at making poor decisions and life choices that he subsequently blames on other people. He blames everyone for his mistakes except the one woman he loves and never married - Cameo.

Armor of Glass features a disagreeable main character who feels sorry for himself and throws blame at everyone else even though he brings many of his problems as an adult on himself. The abuse by a coach when he is young is unforgivable. He should have had some kind of counseling for this since it is implied that this determined the course of his whole life. However, his affairs and throwing blame toward his wife who he portrays as treating him wrong is untenable. If you are sleeping around and so is your wife, it is not evil of her but okay for you because you feel your lover is your long-lost love. And this guy really doesn't like women; or he likes them, but it's all about what he wants out of them and them meeting his every need. There is no question of his even thinking about meeting a woman's needs, because it's all about him. Someone needs therapy here, even though they don't believe in it.

Although the cover says it is a novel, the description says it is based on a true story. After finishing reading Armor of Glass, I felt repulsed and regretted the time spent reading it when I thought it was a poorly organized memoir. Then, when I thought perhaps it might be a novel, it was still not good, but not as bad. Wade into this one at your own risk and decide what you think; 2 stars if it's really a novel.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/01/armor-of-glass.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1888967869