PLAYING ARMY
by
Nancy Stroer
UpLit / Domestic War
Publisher: Koehler Books
Publication Date: June 25, 2024
Page count: 292 pages
SCROLL DOWN FOR GIVEAWAY!
SYNOPSIS:
It’s 1995 and the Army units of Fort Stewart, Georgia are gearing up to deploy to Bosnia, but Lieutenant Minerva Mills has no intention of going to war-torn eastern Europe. Her father disappeared in Vietnam and, desperate for some kind of connection to him, she’s determined to go on a long-promised tour to Asia. But the Colonel will only release her on two conditions—that she reform the rag-tag Headquarters Company so they’re ready for the peacekeeping mission, and that she gets her weight within Army regs, whichever comes second. Min only has one summer to kick everyone’s butts into shape but the harder she plays Army, the more the soldiers—and her body—rebel. If she can’t even get the other women on her side, much less lose those eight lousy pounds, she’ll never have another chance to stand where her father once stood in Vietnam, feeling what he felt. The Colonel may sweep her along to Bosnia or throw her out of the Army altogether. Can you fake it until you make it? Min is about to find out.
CLICK TO PURCHASE!
ENJOY AN EXCERPT:
I sucked in my gut and forced the top button of my BDU trousers through the hole. Pounds never melted off me like they did in the diet pill commercials. As I wrestled with my body’s ill-fitting container the latrine door opened and two pairs of boots tromped in. Specialist Pettit’s voice floated over the sound of running water. “Not to be mean or anything, but female commanders are the worst. And Lieutenant Mills is the absolute worst. I worked for her for two years in Personnel and she ragged on me the whole time.”
Whoa, shit. Enemy inside the wire. I stopped breathing altogether and leaned so close to the stall door my eyes crossed.
“Hey, now.” That was Lieutenant Logan, my replacement at my old job. Female soldiers carved their hierarchies along different lines, never straight down the military ranks, and new alliances were being tested. Would Logan stick up for me, officer to officer? “It’s a short-term thing. She won’t be here long.” Instead of reproach, Logan’s voice was edged with mirth. “The colonel needs a body in that chair until a real commander comes in, and now that I’m here, Lieutenant Mills is over strength. She’s the body.”
My face grew hot. Real commander? Body? I clamped my lips shut against the urge to burst out of the stall, roaring. I imagined inhaling the entire room then blowing them away with the release of my torso, all tightly packed plastic explosives and buckshot. These two, Logan especially, had no freaking clue.
REVIEW:
4 stars!
Excellent storytelling and compelling reading!
Playing Army by Nancy Stroer is a fictional account
of a fairly new female lieutenant in the U.S. Army set in Georgia beginning in June
1995. Tasked with the daunting mission of squaring up a struggling Headquarters
Battalion, she strives to fulfill her orders so she can gain an anticipated
transfer to a post in Korea. However, Army protocol and cultural practices and
soldiers used to getting away with lax conduct add to her challenge at every
step.
Lt. Minerva Mills seems like a nice woman, a regular gal,
and someone you’d be comfortable having as a friend. But she’s somewhat
isolated as a female officer and, as is often the case, her female counterparts,
such as Lt. Logan, are happier dragging other women down rather than raising
them up every chance they get.
Part of the story is shown from the perspective of 1st
Sergeant Indigo St. John, a highly capable, no-nonsense female NCO with a keen
sense of how to get things done and done correctly. She doesn’t suffer fools
gladly and views Minerva with a jaundiced eye. She, too, has the same walking
papers as the lieutenant to get the Headquarters Battalion back on the straight
and narrow.
The plot moves at a fine pace, with additional storylines
enhancing the main. Min’s desire to get to Korea stems from her true goal of
visiting Vietnam, where her Air Cav father went MIA during the war. Side
stories regarding battalion personnel kept things interesting and me absorbed
in Min’s progress; there was always something going on. The dialogue clearly
conveyed the attitudes of her male colleagues, some accepting at times, but
many an accurate picture of what it was like for women in male-dominated fields
in the mid-90s.
The author’s writing style is compelling and descriptive. I
soon had vivid images in my mind of each of the main characters and the various
settings. I could almost easily imagine the muggy Georgia heat outside and
inside Min’s battalion office (without having to step outside into my own
version here in Texas.)
I recommend PLAYING ARMY to readers of contemporary and
women’s fiction, especially those interested in military or 1990s settings.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nancy Stroer grew up in a very big family in a very small house in Athens, Georgia and served in the beer-soaked trenches of post-Cold War Germany. She holds degrees from Cornell and Boston University, and her work has appeared in the Stars and Stripes, Soldiers magazine, Hallaren Lit Mag, Wrath-Bearing Tree, and Things We Carry Still, an anthology of military writing from Middle West Press.
She’s a teacher and a trainer, and an adjunct faculty member of the Ellyn Satter Institute, a 503(c) not-for-profit that helps individuals and families develop a more joyful relationship to food and their bodies. Playing Army is her first novel.
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
Click below to enter!
A randomly drawn winner will be awarded a $25 Amazon/BN gift card.
I would enjoy reading this story.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to checking this book out. Thanks for hosting.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great story.
ReplyDelete