Never For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse Guest Review and Guest Post!

He’d give his life for his country. But this time, it’s personal.

Josh Kavanagh burns for vengeance. Parachuting with no backup into a lawless area of southern Venezuela, the Special Ops legend is intent on hunting down the rogue agent who put his wife in a coma. But as soon as he gets feet on the ground, the loyal protector discovers he’s dropped into a trap… and a sex trafficking operation run by the Russian mob.

Fighting his way out and desperate to rescue the victims with minimal body count, Josh plans a daring raid on a remote ranch. But after learning the identity of the mastermind behind the hit on a former lover, the talented operative takes the law into his own hands on a hell-bent solo mission for revenge…

Will Josh’s single-minded thirst for justice finish on the wrong side of a gun barrel?

Never for Glory is the pulse-pounding second book in the Josh Kavanagh thriller series. If you like determined heroes, tough conflict ripped from the headlines, and page-turning action, then you’ll love Lloyd Lofthouse’s pursuit of payback.

Buy Never for Glory to retaliate with deadly force today!

 Never for Glory

Review by Laura

'Josh thought, Of course she does. Once Mia does something, nothing stops her, even if it might get her killed. That pissed him off even more.'

An action-forward novel that asks the question, “who are the real bad guys?” 'Never For Glory,' is a novel by the author Lloyd Lofthouse, and it is the second book in his Josh Kavanagh series. 

Now, I read the first Josh Kavanagh book and, although I did enjoy it, it was a little over two years ago, so I was concerned when I started this one that I might've forgotten some key details about the story building. I should not have worried. Lofthouse plunges the reader in headfirst to the action of the novel, while simultaneously giving you the rundown on everything that you need to know about Kavanagh's character and what is going on in his world. 

This is a feat that few authors can pull of successfully, but Lofthouse does it with aplomb. As a reader, I instantly felt comfortable stepping back into Kavanagh's world and felt ready to see what he was going to get up to in this book. And boy, did he get up to a lot! 

In 'Never For Glory,' Kavanagh must track down an international sex trafficker all while coming to terms with the illness of his wife (she is in a coma) and dealing with the sexual tension that he feels when he meets up with an old lover, Mia. 

I absolutely loved Mia's character. She was so feisty and intelligent, I really felt like I could root for her and I wanted her to beat the bad guys just as badly as I wanted Josh to!

I'm not telling how any of these story lines end up, by the way, but I found myself really shocked at the ending and I cannot wait to see where this series goes next! All 5 stars.

Developing Characters – guest post

Organically Grown Characters

Josh Kavanagh was born at 42 in 2018, from one of several prompts in one of two PTSD support groups I’ve belonged to for years. Each selection of prompts was followed by 15 minutes of timed writing. Then we shared what we wrote.

The prompt I selected the day Josh was conceived was getting out of the military and going home.

In both groups, one at a VA medical campus, and the other inside a community-based Vet Center, writing is one method of therapy offered that may help combat vets understand and manage the trauma that followed us home from war. Some of us fought in the tropics in Vietnam with its wet monsoon season, high heat, and humidity. Others fought in what they call the sandbox, referring to the dry desert heat of the Middle East.

For actual stories from members of those two support groups, Robbie fought all over the world. He wrote his memoir Next Mission in those two groups. If you click the link, that’s Robbie on the cover image he created to show him today living with PTSD and the image in the mirror, representing where his trauma came from.

Robbie served in the U.S. Marines for four years and then transferred to the Army’s Special Forces, where he served for about nine more years as a medic and qualified sniper. Jim Hasse, another member of one of the support groups, was also in Special Forces, serving two tours in Vietnam. Jim wrote about his combat trauma, and a much younger him is on the cover of his Warriors and Friends.

The rule of both PTSD support groups is we never reveal what anyone talks about. Most civilians who haven't experienced war can't comprehend. Still, since Robbie and Jim shared their stories with the world, I’m not breaking any rules. To learn more about their experiences and what they were willing to share, check the links in the previous two paragraphs.

Back to Josh. When I wrote fifteen minutes for that first prompt, I didn’t know that would lead to him as a character in his own thriller series, starting with The Patriot Oath.

The following week, I selected a three-word prompt, heads or tails, and continued Josh’s fictional ride home to his family’s Montana ranch, after one of his brothers picks him up. During that short drive, Josh flips a quarter to help him decide how he’s going to reconnect with his high school sweetheart Rachel, who he hasn’t talked to in 24 years.

After the second prompt, Josh took over and became the representative for all the combat veterans in the two PTSD support groups I belonged to. He started out as a Marine Corps Scout sniper, then became a Navy SEAL, and later transferred to Army Special Forces, and eventually was invited to join DELTA Force. Similar to combat veterans in PTSD groups, Josh has a history of fighting worldwide while battling his own PTSD demons.

Eventually, before finishing The Patriot Oath, I did research to discover other combat vets that shared some of their stories with the world, like Kevin Holland and David Goggins.

There’s an ancient saying, “All is fair in love and war.”

John Lyly’s novel, “Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit,” published in 1578, is the earliest known origin of that phrase. But what does it mean? According to The Idiom, “in love and war, people are not bound by rules of fair play.”

Through my experiences, and the stories of other vets, I learned that the military life and PTSD can be hard on relationships and marriages. But most of us still want and need love. Josh is no different. I didn’t want to glorify and camouflage the reality of love, war, and trauma by following the rules of the romance genre. In combat, Josh’s good at his job, but in relationships, not so much. In reality, war and love are complicated and there is no guarantee that every story ends with a happy ending.

Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman said, “I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.” — Brainy Quote

General Sherman knew what he was talking about, and Josh understands, too. And his story will continue later in 2024, when Fiddling with Death, the third thriller in the Josh Kavanagh series hatches.