I've been addicted to Rachel Lee's Conard County series and it's spin-offs, since reading Exile's End when it was released back in 1992, and her dedication to writing deeply moving novels about America's wounded warriors and their sacrifices has more than earned my admiration and respect. Having said that, I find myself in a quandary about how to rate this novel, which grabbed me from the very first sentence of the prologue, kept my interest, but just didn't quite deliver all the angst and drama I have come to expect from her work, which is why I can only give this novel 3.5 stars. I liked it but I didn't love it.

The novel opens as Sergeant Gil York arrives at the Watkins Funeral Home in Conard City, Wyoming, where he's brought home the body of his best friend and fellow Green Beret, Al Baker, for a burial with full military honors. That's when he learns that the person who will be playing "Taps" at the funeral is Al's cousin, Miriam (Miri) Baker, who teaches music at the local high school. Gil is concerned that since she and the deceased were close, she might not be able to get through it without breaking into tears, but tough it out she does, earning Gil's respect. After the funeral, Miri asks for a way to contact him. Al had mentioned him often during his brief visits home, and she knows that Gil has memories of her late cousin that he might want to share with the family.

Fast forward one year and Miri is nervously awaiting Gil's arrival at her home for dinner. They've been corresponding via e-mail since the funeral, except for two months when there was no contact--and when Gil did get in touch, she learned that he'd been wounded, had spent time in rehab, and was now going home to his family in Michigan. One week later, he contacts her again, asking if Al's family would mind a visit from him, and she assures him that they would love it, and that Al's mother has been planning a big barbecue the following day, the first thing she's been happy about since her son's death.

When Gil finally arrives, the man who Miri thought looked like granite poured into a uniform at the funeral is gone. In his place is wounded version of that man, more casually dressed, and clearly in pain. Even after a year of e-mail correspondence, Gil still hasn't told her much about himself--he's not good at communicating, especially since so much of his military career has been spent on highly classified missions. When Miri encourages him to stay at her home rather than the local motel during his visit, he accepts, and after the barbecue the following day, where he meets the many wounded warriors living in Conard County, he expects to move on, but a blizzard changes his plans, and he and Miri are stuck inside her home for the next three days, and it's here that I began to have a problem with this novel.

After being wounded, shot five times, had his hip and pelvis shattered and then burned when he was too close to an exploding grenade, Gil hurts--a lot, and he's still got more surgery ahead. Miri tries to get him to unwind and loosen up, but he never really does. He does have the thousand-yard stare occasionally, but because I'm familiar with PTSD, I expected a strong flashback, something to bring these two relative strangers closer together, especially due to their forced proximity, but these two never really open up to each other, yet suddenly the faint mutual attraction turns into sex, and for this reader it all happened out of the blue and way too soon. Additionally, we really aren't given much information about Miri, other than the fact that she's a music teacher and that she loves her job. She's certainly not a shy virgin, but I really felt that Ms. Lee didn't give her enough of her backstory to really understand her character.

Once the blizzard ends, it's time for Gil to move on, he has another stop to make and more surgery ahead, but suddenly Miri unleashes a load of anger at him in quite a tirade, which seemed to come out of nowhere, and it was the first sign we had that she had a backbone, but I felt that it was too little, too late. I would have preferred that we saw her slowly-building anger throughout the story, at least we'd have been given more insight into her character.

Yes, there's an HEA ending, and yes, this is a well-written novel, as are all of Ms. Lee's other novels, but I have high expectations of this author and this novel simply left me wanting more, more background, more emotional build-up, and more drama. It's not a bad read, but it just wasn't up to the high standards I've come to expect from the Conard County series.

I voluntarily read an advanced reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.

It was a just-okay read for me. Nothing bad other then it dragged and it took me several days to finish. I like stories that capture my interest immediately and have all the right feels so that I can't put it down!

A Soldier in Conard County (Conard County #55) is a fast-paced romantic read that happens over a short period of time. The plot is interesting and full of romance. I would have enjoyed reading this novel more if there was more depth or substance. The characters are underdeveloped and need more of a backstory to help the overall story mesh better with the plot.

This book was interesting. The romance happens over a very short period of time but you get snippets of how there was a spark or attraction there before Al's death. He was trying to play matchmaker and I feel like it would have been more interesting if a little more focus was placed on that.