Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

When Travis Stephenson returns home for a 4 week leave from the Marines stationed in Afghanistan, everything has changed since a year ago.

His girlfriend broke up with him through a letter to tell Travis that she was now seeing his brother, Ryan.

His parents are splitting up after a hard year living together.

He has lost one of his closest friends from his Marine friends and is being haunted by his memory.

There is one interesting development that happened since he came back home. He got punched by a girl who didn't care that he was back home from Afghanistan. She was just mad he was hitting on her after ruining her life for the last 4 years.

But Harper got over her anger toward Travis when they started to hangout more often during his leave.

Oh, Travis still did things to make Harper mad. But there is an attraction between the two of them that they are unable to hide from.

Travis has 3 more years left dedicated to the Marines, but he is being haunted by the memory of his friend that died in Afghanistan. Will anything go back the way it used to be? Or will there need to be a different kind of normal to get used to now that he's been at war? Read Something Like Normal by Trish Doller to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
It must be the month to read YA books about going off to war for me! While I didn't really enjoy the book While He Was Away by Karen Schreck, I absolutely loved this novel by Trish Doller! It was tough, humorous, but also devastatingly sad and emotional.

Travis is a tough guy. Especially after being a Marine for a year. But he is still vulnerable even though he doesn't show it to anyone.

After everything that has changed in the last year, Travis is just bidding his time to get back to Afghanistan. He doesn't let anything touch him emotionally.

But after meeting Harper again, things started to get interesting. I loved Harper. She didn't treat Travis like a fragile thing, but let him have it right from the beginning.

And I really enjoyed how this novel was through Travis's perspective - the solider's perspective. I think Doller did a great job portraying how a solider can feel after being in line of duty for so long to come back to "normal" and not feel normal one bit.

I would recommend this book to anyone - no matter gender or age. I think it can be relatable to any reader, no matter if they haven't been to war. It is also a short book, just 214 pages and is really easy and fast to read. Even though it's a smaller book, it will impact all readers in some way and make them really think after they are finished with the novel.

I'm not sure how else to say how wonderful this book was except to go buy or check it out at your library to find out for yourself why I think everyone should read this novel to experience all of the emotions that I just went through!

Go get it. Now! :)