Review: Point of Contact by Melanie Hansen

Point of Contact by Melanie Hansen
Carina Press, Goodreads, Amazon
Novel: 451pgs

4.5 Pants Off

Blurb:  Only love can heal an impossibly broken heart

There’d forever been a thread running through Trevor Estes’s life—his son, Riley, strong and constant like a heartbeat. But when Riley is killed in combat, everything in Trevor’s life unravels into a mess he doesn’t know how to mourn.

Then Jesse Byrne, Riley’s friend and platoon mate, arrives on Trevor’s doorstep with a box of Riley’s things. Jesse’s all-too-familiar grief provides an unlikely source of comfort for Trevor: knowing he’s not alone is exactly what he needs.

Trevor never imagined he’d find someone who fills his heart with hope again. As the pair celebrate Riley’s memory, their unique bond deepens into something irreplaceable—and something neither man can live without.

But diving into a relationship can’t be so simple. Being together means Trevor risking the last link he has to his son…leaving Jesse to wonder if he’ll ever be enough, or if Trevor will always be haunted by the past.

 Review

Note to Self: The next time you see your GR friends saying how a book made them bawl and breakdown please effing take it at face value and realize that they were actually bawling their eyes out and not playing around.  

This book broke my heart, broke it again, and then broke it one more time while putting it a tiny bit together. Melanie Hansen didn’t come to play with us when it comes to Point of Contact, she really didn’t come to play. 

Trevor Estes is scared, he’s very scared. He’s dealing with the fear of a parent whose only child is in the army and he’s about to do his first deployment. His fear is bone deep and he wants to stop Riley from leaving but when your children grow up they make their own decisions, and sometimes you can’t protect them. So, Trevor will support his baby and send him of with a smile and wave but with a prayer in his heart for his boy to comeback to him, for his boy to comeback to him safe. 

A going away party for Riley and his young friends is the last thing Trevor can give these boys because they are going to fight a war that will make them men far sooner than need be. A hostile run in with Jesse one of Riley’s friends almost brings the party mood to a standstill but there is far bigger things to worry about. Trevor will have to say goodbye to his little boy, the baby he had way too young and a time when it was them against the world. 

The story then gives you glimpses of father and son time apart. Riley’s time in the army and also counting down to D-day (death day). The fact that its coming is there from the beginning. It the author does a thing where you get to know Riley, you get to see him as a son and as a friend and he’s not just the man you’ll know will die. This is also his story and when the moment happens you realize you were never prepared and it will wreck you. I can’t remember the last time I cried for a book like this (well not since Protection by S.A Reid).  

We then move into the after where his dad Trevor and his best-friend Jesse have to learn to live without him. Trevor’s grief is crippling and every word of every chapter made me super weepy. As a mother (or as someone who just loves a person) I can only imagine and also as a mother your mind goes to places that is sobering and running amuck with fear. It was sometimes too much. 

The love story is a slow progress and it never implies that it’s a way to heal. Yes, two men suffering from grief come together to get through it but feelings went and snuck in. They celebrate the life of a loved one and embraces a love so fresh and new. 

Trevor through out the entire book made me sad his love for his son was very real, their connection was beautiful and I just enjoyed reading about their relationship. Jesse, while his first impression was a bad one, you get to know him and eventually fall in love with the man he is and the man that war has shaped. While falling in love with your deceased friends father might not be what he had expected but it was everything he needed. Together they walk the steps to healing and yet Riley remains an intricate part of their relationship.

Seriously, this book had me wrecked and at the time I was upset with myself for reading it because it made me so sad but I’m happy I did read it because it was a beautiful well written story. Point of Contact has filled my quota for emotional reads for the rest of the year, I can’t be out here in the streets with red eyes and runny nose.  

I am irrecoverably wrecked and I will be thinking about this one for a long time.