Captured Jasinda & Jack Wilder

Love is never easy. It’s especially difficult when you love a career Marine. I knew the risk when I said “I do”, but I chose to love Thomas anyway.
War took him from me, and now I’m alone. Struggling and desperate. There’s no hope, no future. Just the endless cycle of day-to-day survival. But a letter returned will change all of that. Hope and companionship, and even love, often come from the last place you’d think to look, when you least expect it.
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I was a lost, broken soul, a Marine tortured by the memories of what I’d endured. When I visited that old farmhouse in rural Texas, all I wanted to do was return the letter. Keep a promise. What I got was healing. Understanding. The chance to find a measure of peace when all I’ve ever known is war.We both lost everything. But in each other, we found something worth fighting for.

What an emotional roll-a-coaster ride this books was for me. I had to 'sleep on it', before writing this review and still it's not coming out easily.
The book is written by two points of view, Derek's and Reagan's, in first person perspective.
When the war, Afghanistan, the battle is seen by Derek's eyes, it was so real I felt like I was actually there in the scene, seeing, feeling, experiencing it all with him. When he and Tom are captured and hold as prisoners of the war, everything Derek experiences is so powerfully described, I was not only in tears, but crying while holding on to my Kindle. Same was with Reagan's loneliness, sadness, and sorrow. It is heart rending, her instincts to survive admirable, her endurance commendable.
They are both so broken, raw, crumbled by the reality, hardship of their life. The scene when Derek and Reagan meet again is gut wrenching, beautiful, agonizing.
I was half way through the story, and I felt I was dehydrated from crying, but even though the tale was emotional, it was also so beautiful and real. I took a break at that point and wondered where will this story go from here, because there was still half of the book left.
But as I continued to read, the whole book's tone changed into a graphic, very detailed, foul language ridden erotica with great length, the first love scene taking over 20% of the over 400 page long novel . And mind you, I'm not spartan. I think beautifully written love scenes are part of romantic novels. I'm all for that passion and sex are included in the book, as long as the book is not written around it nor is the storyline weakened or rushed because of it. I feel like this was the case here. There was very little of the emotional connection Derek and Reagan had, or the connection between Derek and Tommy. How the relationship developed from there was focused mainly on lust and passion. The ending felt rushed on so many levels, and I was left with a feeling that they were together mainly because of the lust and loneliness was too overpowering in their lives.  Or was that what the authors were trying to communicate, that the love grew from the passion over the time?
Many times the timeline was rushed by time passing by, and the developments only described by remembering in inner reflections. I felt like I lost the connection I had for the story and the characters in the beginning, and was left with many questions in my mind, wondering.

As the first half of the book was so excellent, I wanted to gather all the spoons in the house and bang them together, and for the second half, all I could just say was 'what happen here', I had think long on how many spoons I will give for Captured. Yes, it is a memorable story, I absolutely loved the first half, it captured me and my mind and emotions, the second half made me think and ponder, take a step back again and evaluate. And now that it has been couple days after I finished the story, the thoughts that I'm left with from this story, convince me that it does deserve the five shiny spoons. This book is something you need to experience yourself, like were Wounded, Stripped, The Missionary from these authors, just be prepared -- they come with a powerful impact, if you let them.

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Captured