Book Review: Point of Contact by Melanie Hansen

Blurb:

Only love can heal an impossibly broken heart

There’d forever been a thread running through Trevor Estes’s life—his son, Riley, strong and constant like a heartbeat. But when Riley is killed in combat, everything in Trevor’s life unravels into a mess he doesn’t know how to mourn.

Then Jesse Byrne, Riley’s friend and platoon mate, arrives on Trevor’s doorstep with a box of Riley’s things. Jesse’s all-too-familiar grief provides an unlikely source of comfort for Trevor: knowing he’s not alone is exactly what he needs.

Trevor never imagined he’d find someone who fills his heart with hope again. As the pair celebrate Riley’s memory, their unique bond deepens into something irreplaceable—and something neither man can live without.

But diving into a relationship can’t be so simple. Being together means Trevor risking the last link he has to his son…leaving Jesse to wonder if he’ll ever be enough, or if Trevor will always be haunted by the past.

Jewel's rating:



It's been quite some time since I sobbed while reading a book. I was beginning to think I'd just become too cynical. Well, I sobbed while reading this book. Multiple times. I knew, from reading the blurb, what I was in for, but even the knowledge of Riley's death didn't save me from emptying a half a box of kleenex when it happened. And the tears didn't stop there. Turns out I needed a good cry a lot more than I thought I did.

Point of Contact is a story about grief and healing and new beginnings and love. It's about taking the stattered pieces of your soul and building something new from the shards and realizing that while the grief will never completely go away, you do how to live along side it. Like everything, grief is a process.

The story is broken up into two parts -- Before and After. If you've read the blurb, you can probably guess that the event that defines the two parts is Riley's death. Melanie Hansen doesn't just tell us that Trevor's son and Jesse's friend dies. No, she takes us on the journey of getting to know the man Riley is and what he means to Trevor and Jesse so we can experience the full impact of the grief once he is killed in combat.


Trevor has always definied himself as Riley's father. Becoming a dad - and single father- at the tender age of 18 meant that Trevor never really did those things that young singles tend to do. But he has no regrets becausee Riley is the best part of himself he could imagine. Letting go when Riley decided to join the Army was a difficult ask, but never even getting to say goodbye when his son is killed in combat shattered him.

Jesse is no stranger to losing someone who means the world to him. He lost both his parents when he was a teenager. They were very close and he took it hard. Watching his best friend die, however, was soul-wrenching. Helping Trevor through his grief also helps himself, though, and what started as a tentative bond through grieving Riley's death became so much more.

I loved this book with my whole soul. It broke me and it put me back together again, and now that I've finished reading it, I don't know what to do with myself. Point of Contact while angsty as fuck, was an amazing read. I don't regret a moment of the pain.

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