The Falling : A Brightest Stars Novel – Todd Anna (2022)

Karina is twenty and proud of the independent life she is building for herself at Fort Benning, Georgia. The dutiful daughter of an officer, a supportive sister to her troubled twin brother and a caring friend to her roommate Elodie, she always puts other people’s needs before her own and takes pride in fixing broken things, from the house she has just bought to the fragmented family she works hard to keep together. Having grown up around an army base, Karina knows the background noise that follows men and women home from war. When she meets Kael, a handsome soldier nearing discharge, she is intrigued by his brooding presence and enigmatic silence. As their uncertain friendship begins to develop into something more, Karina tries to piece together Kael’s story. Emotionally closed off and recovering from wounds and other trauma after two deployments in Afghanistan, he challenges her desire to help him heal through her work as a physical therapist. Karina also wants to trust him, despite her insecurities and anxieties, but that trust is fragile, like the preciousness of a soldier’s life, and can vanish in an instant. At a crossroads, Karina and Kael find their relationship tested by the one thing Karina cannot accept, forgive or understand. The Brightest Stars trilogy continues with The Burning and The Infinite Light of Dust.