Remember your first love? That "jump" your heart made whenever you saw him? There were all those firsts you shared: first love, first kiss, and the inevitable first broken heart. Maybe sometimes you wonder what your former flame is up to or what would have happened if you stayed together? Imagine your old boyfriend showing up on your doorstep, years later, after you married someone else? This is Isabella McNeil’s dilemma in Lightning Strikes Twice.

Dark-haired beauty Isabella is always a little in love with Luke Mitchell all through high school. She’s too shy to show him. Instead, they remain friends, close friends, sharing almost everything. Isabella dreams of telling Luke when the time is right how she feels. It just hasn’t been right with graduation and the prom, not to mention finals, all crowding in at the end of the year. Before she gets the opportunity to break the big news, she finds out from the biggest gossip in school that Luke is leaving for the Army. Talk about working under a deadline.

Luke Mitchell’s home is more like a prison and the warden is definitely his father. His father works him harder than two ranch hands and still badmouths him. On one level, Luke realizes his father is a self-absorbed tyrant, but his treatment still hurts. The only ray of light in his stormy world is Isabella. Some days if it wasn’t for her bright smile or caring attitude, he couldn’t make it. That’s why it is especially hard to leave her when he heads out for boot camp. The Army is his only chance at improving his life and himself. Perhaps, if he’s lucky, and Isabella feels the same way he does, she’ll wait for him.

After a tender parting after graduation, things go downhill. Luke and Bella start a long distance courtship through letter writing, but it isn’t the same as an in-person romance, especially when Deacon Brodhi comes sniffing around. Deacon is determined to break up the burgeoning romance between Isabella and Luke. He spikes Bella’s drink and assaults her. Weeks later, when Bella turns up pregnant, big brother, Jack ramrods a shotgun marriage through despite his sister’s strenuous objections. Luke finds out through Jack that Isabella is married. Outside of the Army, there doesn’t seem to be much to fill the gaping hole left in his heart by Isabella’s abrupt departure. Unfortunately, he stills love her -- no matter what.

The story is a familiar one with an endearing couple, Luke and Isabella, finding true love only to be separated. The context seems to be rather twisted though. No girl marries her rapist. Isabella could have filed assault charges or left. Loving parents, which are what Isabella is supposed to have, would sense the wrongness of the situation, perhaps send her away as many parents did in that time period—a long visit with a distant relative. Luke seems equally stymied by inaction. He would have received several leaves including one after boot camp, another after Ranger training, including regular liberties. Their correspondence seems a bit awkward, too. The total isolation of Isabella and Luke doesn’t ring true. Jack, as Luke’s only source of information, is a far stretch, since Luke left a gossipy little town which is filled with plenty of informants that that would love nothing better than to send gossipy little missives to Luke. The bad guys including Deacon and Luke’s father are too evil, making them little more than cardboard cutouts. This story is reminiscent of a melodrama.

Lightning Strikes Twice has the beginnings of being a very sweet, sentimental love story, but loses its way by trying too hard. The couple could have lost touch if Luke was forced to go on a year long, no contact tour. Isabella doubts Luke and takes up with someone else is a possible division tactic. There are a dozen different ways to divide the two without bringing in a stereotypical heavy. A few tweaks can make this story more realistic and compelling. I would like to see more research into the military aspect.
Reviewed by Morgan Wyatt
Copyright © November 2006