The Soldier's Wife — Joanna Trollope

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN LOVE AND DUTY COLLIDE?

Dan Riley is a major in the British Army. After a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, he is coming home to the wife and young daughters he adores. The outside world sees those reunions as a taste of heaven after months of hell. But are they? Can a man trained to fight adjust again to family and domestic life? And how will the family cope, if he can't?

He's up for promotion and his ex-Army grandfather and father couldn't be prouder. The Rileys are united in support of Dan's passion for his career. But are they really? His wife, Alexa, has been offered a good teaching job she can't take because the Army may move the family at any time. Her daughter Isabel hates her boarding school -- the only good educational option for Army families -- and starts running away. And Dan spends all his time on the base, unable to break the strong bonds forged with his friends in battle.

Soon everyone who knows the Rileys is trying to help them save their marriage, but it's up to Alexa to decide if she can sacrifice her needs and those of her family to support Dan's commitment to his work. How much, indeed, can Alexa, Dan's wife, sacrifice her own needs and fulfilment to serve his commitment to a way of life that demands everything not just of him, but of her and the children as well?