Chris Brennan is ready to start his new job as an AP Government teacher and baseball coach at Central Valley High School in rural Pennsylvania.  However, Chris is not a teacher or a coach, and it quickly becomes clear that his real profession has nothing to do with education.  He studies the students in class and pays particularly close attention to the boys who are also on the baseball team.  He performs social experiments both during and outside of class to further analyze the personality traits of his students which will help him accomplish his undercover mission which is both secretive and dangerous.  As he gets to know the students, their families, and other members of the community, he finds it increasingly difficult to maintain the necessary distance required between an undercover federal agent and the life in which they must become immersed.  As lines between his personal and professional life continue to blur, tragedy strikes the community.  Chris must decide whether to keep his undercover persona in hopes of getting to the bottom of a complicated and dangerous mystery or reveal himself and risk losing everything.  It’s a race against time as Chris tries to save lives, including his own.

Trigger warnings: mild language, suicide, murder, mild sexual content

Why I read it: recommendation in online book club

My thoughts (may contain spoilers)

Jolene was no stranger to tough times and heartache.  She was left to fend for herself when her alcoholic parents were killed in a car crash when she was 17, and the wounds from that traumatic time never fully healed; however, she was left with a certain sense of personal responsibility when it came to choosing happiness over despair moving forward in life.  All day, every day, Jolene chose happiness.  What once was an endearing quality that attracted Michael (her husband) to Jolene turned redundant and…essentially annoying…as the years passed by in their marriage.  They had hit a new low as a couple.  Their pre-teen daughter was struggling to survive middle school growing pains and friendship betrayals, Michael’s case load as a lawyer was growing by the second and, to top it all off, the spark that had once ignited their relationship eventually burned-out leaving Michael angry and Jolene hurt.  Amid her personal woes, Jolene served her country as a military helicopter pilot, but was currently in the Reserves when she received the call to serve alongside her best friend, Tami (also a pilot in the Reserves) in Operation Iraqi Freedom half a world away from her family.  As nobody in her family supports her and her chosen career, Jolene reluctantly leaves her family in turmoil as she serves her sworn military duty in fighting for freedom.   Michael is hardly prepared for life as a single dad, and his world is further turned upside down when the unthinkable happens.  It will take changes of heart, forgiveness, acceptance, and an unimaginable amount of strength and commitment to repair the damage of a broken resolve as well as a broken heart.

Why I read it: Recommendation from a friend

Trigger warnings: PTSD, substance abuse, mild language, war/battle scenes

My thoughts (may contain spoilers)