Book Review: Incense & Peppermints

Today's review is on Incense & Peppermints by Carole Bellacera

Settle into a comfortable chair and grab the box of tissue because this book will touch your heart like no other. Incense & Peppermints combines romance and history like I haven't seen in a very long time. The reader has the front row seat on this fantastic roller coaster ride of love, danger, and drama.


Set during the Vietnam War, we follow the life of 21 year-old Cindy Sweets, an Army Nurse who was once excited to be heading to Vietnam to "make a difference there.  To save some lives, or at the very least, to give comfort those who couldn’t be saved." But this young girl from Plainfield, Indiana was greatly unprepared for what she would see, smell, and feel.


Working in Ward 2 of the Evac hospital is nothing like nursing school. The whoop-whoop of the Hueys approaching signaling that mass-casualties will be heading into the hospital. The carnage being something she couldn't imagine nor would ever forget.  Men brought in missing arms, legs, and even parts of their head and brains. She learns quickly that it's impossible to save them all, but it is a difficult pill to swallow. Thankfully she has good friends by her side and a good man that loves her.


Ryan Paul Quinlan, or Quin as he likes to be called, is just one of the pilots on base who job is to fly out and pick up the injured men in the field. With his beautiful green-blue eyes, his curly hair, and strong features, Cindy can't help but to fall helplessly in love with this man who affectionately calls her Cinnamon. Nor can he stop the love he has for her. But any and all American's are in danger during this war so when, after her engagement to him, Cindy finds out that the chopper Quin was flying was shot down, her heart breaks into a multitude of pieces. Quin is gone. 


When our hearts break we tend to do things out of character, make decisions that are extremely poor and Cindy is no different. When she decides to skinny dip in the base pool it's up to her friend David to help her. It was the first time she REALLY saw him. The first time she realized how handsome he actually was. Could she care for him as much as she knew he cared for her? Could she one day Love him?


The way Bellacera has written Incense & Peppermints made the characters more real than any other characters that I have "met" while reading a book. Truth being told, even before I went to sleep after reading it, I cried for Cindy and Quin. More important, I cried for all of the men and women who not only died during the war, but for those who survived it. Yes, the book was that moving for me.  I just think there could be less of those letters from home.

5 stars of 5 stars
Coming this Summer!!