Book 2 - You Know When the Men Are Gone

Synopsis: This is a collection of 8 short stories that are loosely connected together due to all of the people in the stories having something to do with Fort Hood in Texas. There is a mix between stories about the women left behind when the men go to war, and stories about the men themselves.

My thoughts: From the beginning, I was very annoyed because the book cover didn't make it clear that this was a book of short stories, rather than a novel. I don't have anything against short stories, but I need to be in the mood to read them.

All of the stories had a very negative feel to them, which I can't believe is how it is all the time in the military. Not everyone cheats, or gets cheated on, when in the military. Not everyone dies, or loses someone. Marriages don't always end in divorce after the war. But, in this book, they all did.

The worst part of this book was that you get just enough of the story to start caring about the characters, and then the author leaves the ending wide open and unfinished. I can understand doing that every once in a while, but not for every story. That isn't good writing. That is the lack of being able to close a story. I think the author did a very large disservice to all military families.

Rating: 2 out of 5 (It gets 2, rather than just 1, because I did start to care about what was going to happen to some of the characters.)