After his tour of Afghanistan ends tragically, Nessa Bruce is looking forward to welcoming back her husband, Jake, and getting their little family back on track. However, Jake doesn’t show up and Nessa and her teenage daughter Poppy are made to presume the worst. There’s so much to love about Jessica Thompson’s book, not least the bittersweet love story of Nessa and Jake. However, from the get-go, this whole relationship is compromised by the opening prologue which sets up another love in Nessa’s life - that of childhood sweetheart and best friend, Will. Given this opening it seemed that Will was going to be the main man and so the story of Jake and Nessa felt somewhat diminished, which was a huge shame. Having said that, however, Thompson does well to create two very different yet equally worthy main men in Will and Jake and for once this was a love story in which the reader really invests in both relationships. However, again I felt the prologue dictated and limited the narrative too much, rather than letting the story and relationships develop more organically and less predictably. Although the ending was surprising and hard-hitting, the events in the aftermath felt undeveloped and the ending point of the final chapter didn’t wrap things up for me. A final point of contention for me was the subplot which surrounded Nessa and her younger sister Kat’s childhood. This felt largely underdeveloped and a bit forced for much of the narrative and I thought the strength of the main story was sufficient without needing this secondary storyline. However, the final twist at the end did give the story some substance. For me this book had bags of potential and lots of great points but was just held back by some of the other issues. I would still happily recommend it to readers and believe it’s one to discuss with friends. (JC)
The Waiting Game, by Jessica Thompson, asks how long would you wait? The summary says: "Nessa Bruce waits for her husband to come through the double doors. She'd waited for him to return home from Afghanistan for what felt like forever, and now the moment was finally here. But Jake isn't... Jake Bruce hasn't come home, and it looks like he never will. Nessa's life - and that of her daughter Poppy - is turned upside down in an instant. What has happened to the elusive man at the centre of their world? They hold on to the hope that he is still out there somewhere, alive... but as time passes by, Nessa is forced to look at her life, at the decisions she has made and the secrets she has kept. For maybe somewhere within it all lies the answer to the question she's desperate to answer - where is the man she loves?" The Waiting Game is out in August 2015.