Yes, I'm a big John Hart fan and have read all his books. I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one and it didn't disappoint! This one was set during the time of the Vietnam War and focuses on a family - the father a police detective, a mother, and three sons. The oldest son, Robert, was killed in Vietnam. After he was killed, Jason, the second son enlisted. Then there's Gibby, the youngest son, who is still in high school. Jason, came back from Vietnam dishonorably discharged, was a heroin addict, had served prison time, and was estranged from his family. The family, after feeling they had lost not one, but two sons, would do anything to hold on to and protect Gibby.

When Jason comes back to town after serving his prison sentence, Gibby spots him at the local quarry during senior "skip" day. They arrange a day to spend together. That day Jason has two girls with him when he meets up with Gibby and they have an adventurous day.

Later, a woman is found murdered. She had been horrendously tortured. The police start digging and begin to look at Jason due to his prison history and the stories of the many he had killed in Vietnam. Gibby wants to prove Jason is innocent. Their Dad doesn't know what to think, but it doesn't look good for Jason.

This book is a thriller - and yes, some of it is really gory! But it is also a coming of age story. It is told from Gibby's viewpoint and he does a lot of growing up really fast. And, it's a family drams as well. There's a lot wrapped up in this book and I was riveted to the story for the entire read.

Kudos John Hart for another great novel! Can't wait to see what he writes next!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press through Netgalley for an advance copy of this book!

I disliked this book. It is filled with the worst type of criminals. If you like to read about sadistic murderers who dream of torturing young women, you will love this book.
However, I could not put it down. It is well written and the story moves quickly. The characters are complex and are well developed by the end. The last 50 pages are spellbinding. For that reason I gave it 4 stars.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

John Hart’s newest novel is about a family. The father is a policeman in the town, one son died in Vietnam, another, Jason, came back and is just out of prison for murder, and the third son, Gibby.
Jason is home and trying to connect to his younger brother. A woman is murdered then another kidnapped. The police suspect Jason then Gibby.
Gibby is determined to clear his brothers’ name. As the story progresses new truths come to light from Jason’s past.
I really enjoyed this book. The writing was great, and the story moved along. It took me a long time to figure out what who and why.
Thank you, Net Galley, for an advanced copy for an honest review.

This is an action packed story, right from the start.
1972, North Carolina.. Jason French returns home after a dishonorable discharge from the Marines after three tours in Vietnam.
He tries to reconnect with his younger brother Gibby (18) the only brother he has left because their older brother Robert was killed in the war.
The parents....Dad (a cop) and mom ..don’t want Gibby to associate with Jason as he has a history of violence and drug addiction.
They hang out anyway and when a murder happens to one of Jason’s ex girlfriends, he is falsely accused and thrown in jail. Gibby knows Jason is innocent and is working to find the evidence to prove it.. all while facing much danger himself.
There are many other well developed characters and a lot more to this story but you need to read it for yourself. 😊

John Hart is a great author! Four of his other books were 5 star reads for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC!

Jason is back in town after spending 18 months in prison. He doesn't go home but his father's partner spots him and lets his dad know. Gibby is 18 and the youngest son. Since Jason's twin Robert was killed in Viet Nam and Jason served almost three tours and came home a changed person, their mother wants nothing to do with Jason and keeps Gibby on a short leash. Jason wants to have a relationship with his brother and Gibby is more than willing even though his Detective dad and mom don't approve.

The family portions of the book were very gut wrenching for me. I loved Jason and could not understand his mother's attitude. This book has a lot of components to it that keep you turning pages. The book was very well put together but there were some areas that were a bit unbelievable, that's why the 4 star rating, but it makes you think.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read and review this book.

The Unwilling by Author John Hart is my second book that I have read by this author.

This book was an exceptional read. I find this author’s books grab your attention right away, and keep you engaged till the last page.

The Unwilling is a book that takes place during the Vietnam War, and has characters and a storyline that is both raw and emotional. A story about family, and brothers that connect in so many ways.

A book I would recommend for those of you who like a book that will not leave you for a long time!

Thank You to Goodreads, Author John Hart , and St. Martin's Press for my advanced copy to read and review

#TheUnwilling #NetGalley

I love John Hart and have read everything he's written to date. This one didn't disappoint at all. A very hard read, but necessary. He writes stories with such emotion and heart, you think about them for days afterward and nothing else will do. Cannot wait for his next novel. This one is harsh and probably has trigger warnings for some.

This is a Vietnam era story that is centered around a family with three sons. The two oldest boys are twins. Both were deployed to Vietnam. One came home in a coffin and the other came home alive, but extremely damaged. The surviving second twin is named Jason. He has been involved with drugs and is in prison. The father is a detective on the local police force and the mother is very fragile and quite obsessed with keeping the two brothers apart.
The youngest son, Gibby, is now ready to graduate from high school. His parents have been very strict and have kept him sheltered and isolated. They feel they “lost” their two older sons and are trying to save the youngest. When Jason is released from prison, his parents are determined to keep them apart.
What happens next is what kept me riveted to this book. Jason wishes to reconnect with Gibby but he also knows his parents want nothing to do with him. Jason brings havoc, fear and an unfortunate introduction into the darker side of life to the entire family. There is violence and murder that might be disturbing for some. This is my first book by this author, John Hart. I plan to read more. I enjoyed his writing and this book gets 5 stars from me.

I didn't necessarily want to give this book 4* [NOT FOR EVERYONE], but as I couldnt wait to return to reading it...

John Hart has long been on my to-read list--and I was not disappointed.

Set in the South at the time of the Vietnam War, The story of Jason French, a decorated, drug-addicted killer/Vietnam vet returned home after his release from prison. His older brother, Robert [the good brother], was killed in Nam, His father is a police officer and also a vet--the Korean War. Jason is estranged from his family--lots of drama and some backstory.

Compulsively readable thriller but also extremely gruesome. I was compelled to find out the why--the motivation for Jason's darkness and also that of X--an inmate at Lanesworth, the penitentiary Jason "served in-- and his obsession with Jason.

A dysfunctional family tale with psychopaths mixed in--particularly X, but also Reece.

Raw, Dark. Violent. Prison/corruption.

On the not gruesome side: the support between Gibby and Chance [best friends and high school seniors] and the young, first love of Gibby and Becky. Some lightness mixed in with a very dark story.

The ending--no spoiler from me. Ok, Not sure how I might have ended it/wanted it to end.

Thanks to NetGalley, Publisher and Jon Hart for the advanced copy of The Unwilling in exchange for my honest review. Jon Hart; award winning author, is one of my favorite writers and I was excited to read his latest book. The story takes place in the era of the Vietnam War and focuses on the wars impact on a family. Mom, dad and each of their three sons experience their own grief and consequences. Played out through the voice of the youngest son, the plot follows the paths taken by his brothers and parents during a time when feelings were not openly expressed and PTSD was not recognized as anything more than battle fatigue. Jon Hart again excells in character development, the anguish and fear experienced with loving and navigating the human experience. The book was very moving but should come with a trigger warning. The torture and violence tipped the scale for me. I would have preferred if the book stayed with the emotional and psychological storyline. I will keep reading Jon Hart's books for the depth and understanding he is able to so eloquently write., and give The Unwilling 4 stars.

I enjoyed this, but don't feel that I can add anything helpful the many helpful reviews already out there. I'll just recommend it to mystery fans. This is a solid bet from a consistently good author.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

The “Unwilling” is an excellent book, and so well written. I could not put it down. It is a haunting, thrilling mystery wrapped around a family- a detective/husband / father, a mother/wife and their three sons. The story is set during the height of the Vietnam war and the affect of the war on this family. 2 sons fought in the war, the third and youngest son “ Gibby” is about to graduate from high school and desperate to honour his brothers as he strives to become a man. The horrifying murder mystery that unfolds is completely captivating.

Set in the South at the height of the Vietnam War, The Unwilling combines crime, suspense and searing glimpses into the human mind and soul in New York Times bestselling author John Hart's singular style.

Gibby's older brothers have already been to war. One died there. The other came back misunderstood and hard, a decorated killer now freshly released from a three-year stint in prison.

Jason won't speak of the war or of his time behind bars, but he wants a relationship with the younger brother he hasn't known for years. Determined to make that connection, he coaxes Gibby into a day at the lake: long hours of sunshine and whisky and older women.

But the day turns ugly when the four encounter a prison transfer bus on a stretch of empty road. Beautiful but drunk, one of the women taunts the prisoners, leading to a riot on the bus. The woman finds it funny in the moment, but is savagely murdered soon after.

Given his violent history, suspicion turns first to Jason; but when the second woman is kidnapped, the police suspect Gibby, too. Determined to prove Jason innocent, Gibby must avoid the cops and dive deep into his brother's hidden life, a dark world of heroin, guns and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

What he discovers there is a truth more disturbing than he could have imagined: not just the identity of the killer and the reasons for Tyra's murder, but the forces that shaped his brother in Vietnam, the reason he was framed, and why the most dangerous man alive wants him back in prison.

This is crime fiction at its most raw, an exploration of family and the past, of prison and war and the indelible marks they leave. John Hart's novels always leave the reader feeling raw and exposed, and The Unwilling does just that. Highly recommended.

This was an interesting book. I think at times I REALLTY enjoyed it, but at other times was VERY disappointed. I am not 100% sure how to explain "why" but just it didn't flow right at times. it broke back and forth between people, and there was several characters that I had a hard time connecting with. When i don't connect with characters, it makes it hard for me to enjoy/feel for them. While the storyline was interesting and had a bunch of twists and turns, the lack of flow made it choppy and tough for me to follow along. I really like John Hart and think he is an excellent writer, I just didn't think this was his best work.


Thanks to John Hart, Netgalley, and Macmillan Publishers for providing me with an advanced reading copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

You can't really go wrong with John Hart. This book is set during the Viet Nam war down in the South. There are three brothers who are all very different characters which allows Hart to go into all kinds of emotions and views of Viet Nam, though not in an overt way. You can root for the underdog brother and then be left wondering about how exactly the war affected him. Plenty of twists and turns and raw emotion. And it is one of those books that you're not going to want to put down until you get to the end of it.

<i> The Unwilling </i> is a novel of desperation where a family suffers from one son’s death, another’s imprisonment and now the alienation between the parents and their children. The primary protagonist eighteen-year-old Gibby who loves his two brothers but now must walk the bridge built between his brothers, himself, and their parents. <i> The Unwilling</i> is the seventh novel by multiple award-winning author John Hart.

Gibson (Gibby) French is a popular boy in school. He has lots of friends and he likes to hang out at the quarry. He realizes his brother Jason has been let out of prison when Jason shows up at the quarry shows off for all of Gibby’s friends. In spite of his parents’ warnings, Gibby agrees to spend the next day with Jason. Jason brings two girls with him. Jason’s girlfriend Tyra is a particular show off and flashes a bus load of prisoners who are not pleased. Gibby makes it home safely but Tyra ends up getting brutally murdered and Jason is blamed. Against all odds Gibby tries to help prove that Jason is innocent.

John Hart does a masterful job of describing the personalities of the primary and secondary characters in the novel. I am particularly impressed with how he slowly reveals Jason’s personality and then asks the reader to completely reverse their initial impressions of his character. One of the secondary characters, Chance, is also very interesting as he struggles to decide who he is and what he should become.

The novel is fast pace and interesting throughout. I do find it particularly violent and grtoesque at certain points but this seems to be important for understanding the intrinsic insanity of some of the characters. Hart also does an excellent job of taking us back to the horror of the Vietnam war and how many people were irretrievably changed or lost in those jungles.

This is the excellent book for those who love murder mysteries and want to understand how war, crime and violence can damage people and their families. I give it a 4 on 5 because the violence, although necessary, was unnerving at times. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very good book, I had a hard time putting it down. This is almost like a coming of age story but there is a dark side to it. The book is set in the 1960’s, Jason French is fresh out of prison and wants to visit with his brother. Jason had done a few tours in Vietnam and had been dishonorably discharge from the Marines, sent back home where he got involved in drugs, was caught and sent to prison. He’s out and looking to catch up with his brother and back to living. Part of that living involves hooking up with his brother and two female friends. During the drive, they end up behind a prison transport bus, ironically the same prison that Jason had been released from though none of the others are aware of that. One of the young ladies is drunk and talks Jason into pulling up beside the bus where she takes off her top and flashes the inmates inside. That fairly innocent action has a very big ripple, that drives the rest of the book. Jason’s brother, Gibson (Gibby), and his father a homicide detective, get caught up in the clutches of some very bad people. How they deal with the adversity is captivating. I highly recommend, thanks to Netgallley and the publisher for the ARC.

When one older brother is the ghost whose death haunts your family and the other brother is a deadly legend whose release from prison conjures all the ways in which war has destroyed your family, how do you find yourself? What is your identity? Are you forever compared to the dead and the changed or can your separate yourself from the grief and the tragedy long enough to discover who you are?
Gibson is the youngest of the three French brothers. The older two were both lost to Vietnam, one in death and one in rumors and drug addiction, but when Jason French returns to Charlotte after his release from prison, his actions set into motion a roller coaster of violence, death and discovery that will change everything Gibson thought he knew about his brother, his family, his best friend, and himself.
I could not put this book down. It was a really different read for me, fresh and engaging and addictive. I had to keep those pages turning until I reached the ending and the resolution. So tense and suspenseful that at times I felt like I needed a break, but I just couldn’t tear myself away. The plot moved quickly and there was an urgency to every twist and turn and new development. Each point of view, no matter how large or small, built the momentum, surging forth like a tsunami just waiting for a shore to crash upon.
I really enjoyed the characters from young Gibby, who changes so much throughout the story, to sweet Chance, who is so loyal and so afraid, to Detective French, who as a police officer caught between family and duty, must choose between his two remaining sons knowing every decision could spell doom for one of them.
Without giving anything away, I will just say that this book is graphic and gripping and emotional and a truly engaging read. I will certainly be reading more by John Hart and cannot recommend this one enough.

The Unwilling by John Hart, published by St. Martin's Press is a stand-alone, full length, crime - mystery - thriller, suspenseful, unique.
The storyline is set in the seventies of the last century.
William French is a Detective, married with three sons. Two were in Vietnam, one came back and has the scars to prove what he's through. When women start to vanish, the two brothers become suspects and they have to prove their innocence.
The Unwilling is an unique story that hzad me in suspense from start, over the unexpected twists and turns to the last page. A great read, 4,5 stars.

I am a long time John Hart fan and his new book will continue to add to his legacy as a fantastic writer in his genre. The Unwilling is a thriller but it is so much more. It's about love and family, brothers and friendship, war and grief.

The Unwilling takes place in North Carolina during the Vietnam war and centers around the French family. The father is a police detective who is trying to keep his family together, the mother lives her days in grief as she over-protects her third son. The three sons are Roberts who was killed in Vietnam, Jason who was dishonorably discharged after three tours in Vietnam has just gotten out of prison, and Gibby, a high school senior who desperately misses his brothers. When Jason returns from prison, he wants to re-connect with his younger brother. He doesn't want to see his parents because his mother made no secret of the fact that she wished he had died instead of her favorite son, Robert. When Jason and Gibby spend a day together, Jason brings along two females. One of them, does something stupid in a drunken moment and it changes everything. When she is found murdered a few days later, Jason is the major suspect and Gibby is also suspected when the second woman becomes missing. Gibby is determined to prove that his brother is innocent so he goes into the underground of drugs and violence to try to meet people who can give him information on his brother. What he finds out helps him better understand his brother but it also puts his life in great danger from the person who wants to put his brother back in jail.

This novel is a real page turner and doesn't get resolved until almost the end. The characters are well written and strong as they each try to help out other family members. It's a dark and gritty book that will take the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions and full of characters that won't soon be forgotten. I predict that this book will be a MUST READ book for 2021.