Ask, Tell (Ask, Tell Series Book 1)

EJ Noyes illustrates the emotional chokehold that DADT trapped lgbtq service members. Our heroines Sabine, a trauma surgeon and her commanding officer Rebecca are lesbians forced to hide by the Army’s homophobic policy. Ask, Tell is set in 2009 FOB(forward operating base) hospital in Afghanistan. Rebecca’s stateside gf breaks up with her while she is deployed. I can’t imagine the internal fortitude it requires to navigate the emotional turmoil of ending a long-term relationship under the mandate of keeping it a secret, all the while in a war zone. I didn’t understand the ramifications of DADT before reading this. Rebecca and Sabine are attracted to each other but how could you even know if each other is gay if you’re forbidden from the subject. If discovered, you could lose everything. Army career officer Colonel Rebecca Keane, commanding officer of FOB Military Hospital Khost Province Afghanistan is a trauma surgeon. Rebecca is single but wears a wedding ring to ward off unwanted attention. She has been attracted to her subordinate Sabine since meeting. Noyes is masterful weaving the threads of a complex tapestry ending in lovers connecting overcoming mountainous obstacles. I am so grateful for our lgbtq service members who served under such hostile conditions.

I served before and during DADT in the USAF. I dealt with issues like this but stayed stateside. This story is so very well written. Thank you EJ Noyes for doing justice to the issues of the times. The characters are well developed, the suffering of the characters is well explained and necessary to the story. I am looking forward to reading the next in this series. If you are thinking about military service, or have or are still serving, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

4.5 starsCaptain Sabine Fleischer is a general surgeon in the US Army working in a combat zone in Afghanistan. Dealing with the daily trauma that comes through her operating theatre, Sabine is clever, quick and funny. On her second rotation, she's an old hand, knows the game and plays it well.Her best friend Mitch is also a surgeon in the same unit. Everyone suspects they're a pair, not knowing that it's safer for them to see that when both Mitch and Sabine are homosexual. Set during the time of the policy, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT).” Mitch and Sabine hide in plane sight, always careful not to reveal the truth and be forced from the Army.Their boss is the enigmatic, and meticulous, surgeon Colonel Rebecca Keane. She runs the surgical unit with precision expected from a career soldier. However, subtle cracks in the facade start showing when Sabine is around.The constant separation from her long-term partner back home, Sabine knows that their relationship is suffering and isn't sure it can be saved. So when she starts to suspect that her crush on Rebecca is reciprocated, things start heating up. However the war, and the Army, is going to get in the way.This was a cleverly written work. Noyes has managed to describe life in a surgical unit in a combat zone well, without it being too traumatising to the audience. She's also grappled with the difficulties of living with the DADT policy, without it crushing the story.What was so unexpected was that it is written in the first person. It is really rare to read a romance, let alone something which has elements of a thriller in it. It was captivating as a result.Sabine is really well drawn as the main character. Rebecca is less well drawn as the story is told from Sabine's perspective, but I still had a good sense of who she was by the end of the book. It was probably less than I wanted to know about her character though.What Noyes handles really well is the difficulty of knowing when to add in detail, and when to skip over chunks of time that is less interesting. She's managed this really well, without the story ever feeling episodic. I won't tell you the precise details of some of the examples of this because it will spoil the story for those of you wanting to read it for the first time.It was as fascinating look at life in the army during this time, and life as a surgeon on the front lines.

I was overwhelmed with the emotions I felt reading this book. It's a "can't put it down series". I laughed, cried & had very warm feelings for the characters in the book. I felt like I was participating in the action. I want more, a 5th book, a movie, something letting me know they got married & lived happily every after.I just didn't want it to end. E.J. Noyes, you are a wonderful writer. I hope to read more of your books.

This is a first-person story of a MASH-type female surgeon in Afghanistan and explores the Don't Ask Don't Tell notion prevalent in the US military with regard to gays. She has a crush on her female superior and the story follows this relationship. What a totally mind-blowing book, the emotion positively oozes from almost every page, I have never been reduced to tears so many times during one story. The description of the ambush particularly shredded me, the author must have had a very very emotional conversation with someone who had been through such an experience. I cannot praise this book highly enough, it has left a lasting impression on me.

Having read a number of rave reviews of this author's books, I thought it was about time I read one!The style is unusual - first person, present tense (I read another book in the same style recently - Kris Bryan's 'Jolt', but this was much better!). At first I wasn't sure how much I was going to warm up to our narrator, Sabine, but she really grew on me. The love story is really well done and the 'impossibility' of how it must have felt for those in the US military under DADT is powerfully portrayed. But this also had a lightness; some of Sabine's sibling banter with her sister, Jana, had me LOL-ing. And when I felt tears streaming down my face after the events from Chapter 26 onwards, I knew this had me...I'm moving straight on to the sequel...

Loved this book and couldn't put it down. The story is told through Sabine who is a Doctor serving in Afghanistan for the American military. In the Military there is a ruling for Gay or Lesbian Serviceman "Don't Ask, Don't tell" and they have to be quiet about their sexuality or they could be kicked out of the Military. Sabine has a bit of a thing for her boss Rebecca Keane which you find out that the feelings are mutual. After the breakup of Sabine relationship with her girlfriend, Sabine is sent home for R&R and to sort out after her relationship breakdown.On the final 2 days Sabine gets a visitor. To find out you've got to read the book. Great secondary characters in Mitch, Amy, Sabines sister etc. I would love to know what happens next as I feel that there could be a follow up. Definitely one of My Favourites

As a former soldier myself during the Afghan war and the DADT days, this was a very realistic take on exactly how it felt - were you over thinking every look, the desert gossip, the dear "John" letters, trying to figure out how to make things work...I have lived every single one of these situations and to see them reflected back was kind of liberating and made me feel...seen. I lived the writing style too, the first person perspective lets you really get a sense of how exactly Sabine is experiencing everything. I already can't wait to read the sequal.

Takes a few chapters to get into the story but once your into it you are hooked.Gives you a insight of what soldiers have to put up with in the conflicts of war.Thank goodness the USA changed there mind's about same sex couples in the forces .Becks and Sabine the two main characters really get to you and how these medics deal with the trauma page turner to the end.