On Broken Wings

This addition to the Wild Aces fighter pilot series (after Fly with Me) catapults a military widow and her late husband’s friend through grief, guilt, and lust in an emotionally raw love story. One year after Dani Peterson’s husband, Joker, died, her life is still in a holding pattern, suffused with unrelenting grief. Joker’s friend Alex “Easy” Rogers has been helpful to Dani, but also a bit distant. Dani is unaware that Easy has been in love with her for years. He kept his feelings buried out of respect for Joker; now that Dani is widowed, Easy’s guilt and stifled lust are a tedious seesaw of feelings. On the eve of Easy’s Afghanistan deployment, he and Dani become lovers. A predictable sequence of events has Dani and Easy facing their fears and their increasingly complicated relationship. Cleeton realistically re-creates the emotional devastation wrought by a young spouse’s sudden death, followed by a gradual realization of the healing power of love. (Jan.)