4 out of 4 stars
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The fictional memoir, Back To Serve by Cesare Giannetti is about Nico Corretti, an Army officer who is about to be retired. With being retired, he is able to spend more time with his family, but he feels lost. After officially becoming retired, he sets off on a road trip to go to his new home and start his new life with his family. Along the way to his family who has moved to Florida to get away from the frigid winters of the Northeast, he stumbles across a Russian woman who gives him information that sends him spiraling. The Russian woman’s information causes him to worry about how safe he truly is, and about his family’s.
Nico needs to decide how to react and what to do, which can be difficult while he is trying to adjust to his normal life. However, as he does begin adjusting, he gets dragged back into his career and sent to the Middle East once again. This opportunity holds the possibility for him to avenge his fallen men while also allowing him to further investigate the issues brought up by the Russian woman. In turn, this permits him to seek out the truth, or as much as he could to ensure his safety and his family’s.
I fell hard for this book. It drew me in almost immediately. I loved the action, the flashbacks of Nico’s past experiences, the development of the characters, and their thoughts. This book was well written and enjoyable. It was perfect for me, though I believe it is definitely a book best fit for high school students and adults due to the language used and the themes.
I would recommend Back to Serve to those who enjoy historical fiction. This book was wonderfully written and very intriguing when it came to the plot and characters. I found myself enjoying every little piece of information included in the story, even when there was not much action occurring during those scenes. If it was something small like Nico and his father discussing baseball, a passion which they both share, it would still pull me in.
The fact that so much depth was included in the characters’ lives and personalities made me fall deeper in love with this book. I also really liked the twist in the plot; I did not see it coming and it surprised me. I was definitely thinking like Nico up until that part, so I was very drawn into the plot and the main character. I could not put this book down, so I give it 4 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed how we were given a glimpse of what it would be like for people in the military to retire and have to give up everything they have known to go live a normal, peaceful life. I also like how that even though the book is historical fiction, it shows that people may actually get forced back into military life, even though they were hoping to be with their families. Sometimes, the past haunts us, until we reshape our future.
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Back to Serve
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