I got introduced to Rebecca Yarros’ through other book blogs back in 2017 or 2018. However, I didn’t start reading them until 2019 and even though this is one of her first series translated into Dutch, it wasn’t my first book actually. However, I picked up the first installment of this “Flight & Glory” series back in 2019, but it only took me until now to pick up Hallowed ground, the fourth book in this series. We return to Ember and Josh, and therefore it’s absolutely impossible to read this book without reading Full Measures, the first book in thi series. It’s also recommended to read the rest of the series, but the necessity of doing so is less than with the first book. Please beware of spoilers for this book in this review. Was I able to enjoy this story with a gap of a few years left between the books?e

About the book

Hallowed Ground by Rebecca Yarros
Series: Flight & Glory #4
Published by Entangled on January 25, 2016
Pages: 416
ISBN: 9781649375698
Genres: Contemporary, New adult, Romance

There are some debts you can’t repay.

Josh Walker is loyal, reckless, and every girl’s dream. But he only has eyes for December Howard, the girl he’s craved since his high school hockey days. Together they have survived grief, the military, distance, and time as they’ve fought for stolen weekends between his post at Ft. Rucker and her college at Vanderbilt. Now that Josh is a medevac pilot and Ember is headed toward graduation, they’re moving on—and in—together.

Ember never wanted the Army life, but loving Josh means accepting whatever the army dictates—even when that means saying goodbye as Josh heads to Afghanistan, a country that nearly killed him once before and that took her father. But filling their last days together with love, passion, and plans for their future doesn’t temper Ember’s fear, and if there’s one thing she’s learned from her father’s death, it’s that there are some obstacles even love can’t conquer.

Flight school is over.

This is war.

My review

As I’m already familiar with books by this author, the rest of this series and as I mostly love this author’s contemporary and emotional stories, its needless to say that I was having high expectatins for this novel. Usually I’m not the biggest fan of revisiting couples from romance novels years later in a different book, I always find an epilogue satisfying enough. Still, I was wondering what would happen to Ember and Josh and how they would deal with the situation they are getting into and that especially Ember never hoped to have to deal with again. I expected to be invested in this book from start to finish and I’m happy to report that all my expectations for this book were met.

In this story, we revisit Ember and Josh, who we’ve met in the first book in this series. Back then, Ember lost her dad who was killed on a military mission in Afghanistan. Josh was on that same mission. After they ran into eachother in town, they started spending more time together, which led to them living together now all those years later. Meanwhile, Ember is studying at her dream university whilst Josh finished flight school and is trained to become an army pilot. Now, he is about to embark on his first official mission, earlier than expected. Both Josh and Ember are having a hard time adjusting to this new reality, but they are not aware yet of the difficulties they will be facing. All characters have been written really well, as I’m used to from this author. Elaborating characters and ther troubles and feelings is one of Yarros’ strongest qualities. We get to know Ember and Josh better and learn more about their feelings. One thing is obvious, despite all their struggles, their love for one another runs deep.

As I’d already expected, I was sucked into this book right away. The writing is easily flooding and very accessible to read. Yarros uses a dual POV narration for this book, just like with the other books in this series. Again, this works very well as Ember and Josh are thousands of miles apart from one another for a good portion of this novel. This way, we get to know both their feelings and thoughts which is very useful to understand their motives and actions better.

I’m in my character driven romance era, because this book again ticks all those boxes. The plot is there to support the characters in their relationship and growth. Therefore, certain heavy topics are addressed. The most important ones are trust and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS). These themes are, in my opinion, handled with care. The author has experiences with military life since her husband is in the army and that shows. However, the plot is inferior to the character growth that takes place once the story unfolds. I was intrigued by this book from start to finish and there are no unlogical situations out there. Since the plot only has a supporting role, it feels a little bit nonsense to really analyze it further.

I’m happy I finally picked up Hallowed Ground by Rebecca Yarros after leaving it on the TBR for so long. It was nice returning to Ember’s and Josh’ story and to see how their relationship unfolds. The heavy themes adderessed in this book provide depth and room for character growth. There is one final book in this series in which we follow Morgan, I’m really curious to get to know her character better and how she will deal with certain past events.