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Fall Out: Courage Always Stands its Ground
She's in over her head this time...
She wears a saber, a red sash and the infamous "crass mass of brass and glass," the United States Military Academy ring. The Army/Navy Game, the 100th Night celebrations, spring leave, and the highest of all cadet days, graduation, await Jan Wishart's final year at West Point. It should be the best one in her notable cadet experience. But graduation and commissioning as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army may never happen for Jan. Instead, she might be sent to the Consolidated Brig, for female military convicts.
Her friendship with Dimitri Petrov, a diplomat's son and a rising star in the Soviet Army, may derail everything she's fought so hard to achieve. When their relationship takes a dark turn, Jan becomes embroiled in something that will test her stamina, her faith and her friendships, as never before. But like honor, duty and leadership, courage always stands its ground.
Susan I. Spieth is a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the author of the awarded Gray Girl Series. More information can be found at: www.GrayGirlseries.com or www.SusanISpieth.com
She wears a saber, a red sash and the infamous "crass mass of brass and glass," the United States Military Academy ring. The Army/Navy Game, the 100th Night celebrations, spring leave, and the highest of all cadet days, graduation, await Jan Wishart's final year at West Point. It should be the best one in her notable cadet experience. But graduation and commissioning as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army may never happen for Jan. Instead, she might be sent to the Consolidated Brig, for female military convicts.
Her friendship with Dimitri Petrov, a diplomat's son and a rising star in the Soviet Army, may derail everything she's fought so hard to achieve. When their relationship takes a dark turn, Jan becomes embroiled in something that will test her stamina, her faith and her friendships, as never before. But like honor, duty and leadership, courage always stands its ground.
Susan I. Spieth is a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the author of the awarded Gray Girl Series. More information can be found at: www.GrayGirlseries.com or www.SusanISpieth.com
300 pages, ebook
Published September 2, 2019
14 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Susan I. Spieth
7 books29 followersSusan I. Spieth graduated from West Point in 1985 and served five years in the Army as a Missile Maintenance Officer. After completing her military service, she attended Seminary where she earned a Master of Divinity degree. She is an ordained clergywoman in the United Methodist Church, having served five churches as Pastor/Associate Pastor for seventeen years. Susan and her husband have two children and live in NJ.
The Gray Girl Series depicts authentic experiences of the early years when the United States Military Academy first admitted women cadets. Jan Wishart is both heroine and troublemaker. She and her friends sometimes create their own dilemmas but mostly solve the larger issues they face while at West Point in the early 1980's. Gray Girl: Honor Isn't Always Black and White is the first book in the Gray Girl Series. Area Bird: Duty Doesn't Always Follow the Rule is book 2. Book 3 is Witch Heart: Leadership Always Requires Sacrifice. Book 4 is Fall Out: Courage Always Stands it's Ground.
More recently, Susan has published a non-fiction book about her first-time visits to 50 churches. It's a candid look at worship styles in various denominations. Also, an informative read about the basics of the Christian faith.
For more information, please visit: www.susanispieth.com
The Gray Girl Series depicts authentic experiences of the early years when the United States Military Academy first admitted women cadets. Jan Wishart is both heroine and troublemaker. She and her friends sometimes create their own dilemmas but mostly solve the larger issues they face while at West Point in the early 1980's. Gray Girl: Honor Isn't Always Black and White is the first book in the Gray Girl Series. Area Bird: Duty Doesn't Always Follow the Rule is book 2. Book 3 is Witch Heart: Leadership Always Requires Sacrifice. Book 4 is Fall Out: Courage Always Stands it's Ground.
More recently, Susan has published a non-fiction book about her first-time visits to 50 churches. It's a candid look at worship styles in various denominations. Also, an informative read about the basics of the Christian faith.
For more information, please visit: www.susanispieth.com
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 29, 2019
This was my favorite of the Gray Girl series. Jan Wishart is the cadet who has the worst luck in the world, but never backs down. She also says the things that I wish I had said when I was a cadet. In her final year at West Point, she is determined that she will have a good year and finally escape the gray walls of West Point. Making it to May 22, 1985, and throwing that white hat into the air is her goal. You know that won't be easy, but still you root for Jan. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but her adventures this year involve a visiting Russian cadet, a mail thief, a train tunnel that runs under the Plain, and vomit desecrating her brand new car.
I feel like the details of cadet life are captured in this book, but my favorite parts were the sections with commentary from Jan in her present life. I feel like she captured so perfectly the love/hate relationship so many of us have with West Point. We are proud that we went there, but sometimes the toll on our psyche was just too much. This book needed the distance of thirty plus years to be written because it needed that time to process all that West Point meant.
I feel like the details of cadet life are captured in this book, but my favorite parts were the sections with commentary from Jan in her present life. I feel like she captured so perfectly the love/hate relationship so many of us have with West Point. We are proud that we went there, but sometimes the toll on our psyche was just too much. This book needed the distance of thirty plus years to be written because it needed that time to process all that West Point meant.
October 27, 2019
I have enjoyed this book and the other three in the Gray Girl Series. The stories about each year of "college" in this weird Un-college, The United States Military Academy (West Point) have been a pleasure to read. I like the mystery that is apart of this story. Soviet cadets with US cadets in a visit to West Point brings the two sides of the Cold War together with lots of conflict. Lots of ways to discuss the issues of the military and the training of future leaders. Enjoyed the chapters where "Jan" is looking back at her experiences 30 plus years later and is able to deal with some of the bad experiences and celebrate the good. I think it helps other people process their past too.
November 14, 2019
After reading and loving the first three books in the Gray Girl series, my expectations for Fall Out were high, and I wasn't disappointed! From past Gray Girl experience, I knew that once I started reading I wouldn't want to stop. So I've been holding Fall Out waiting for the perfect day to devote to reading. Yesterday was the perfect cold and snowy day to treat myself to Fall Out. The Gray Girl series is always exciting, captivating, thought-provoking, and a bit emotional for me. The author's insightful details and self-reflection stimulate me to remember, reflect, analyze, forgive, and move on from some of my own Gray Girl experiences. I look forward to following Jan Wishart's adventures as an Army officer!
September 3, 2019
Wow, I am the first to review this book! Since reading the first three books, I have been waiting for the final volume. I preordered on my kindle and read it all today upon its arrival today. While the book is dark, it was very engaging and distracted me fully from my grad school homework. I am the proud mom of a male cadet at West Point, and his journey is nothing like that of the female cadets in the 80s. My dad actually encouraged me to apply back then, but I did not have the athleticism or grit for it and I knew it. I have so much respect for the women who did! This is a great story by a woman who lived through being a female cadet at that time.
September 20, 2019
I very much enjoyed the entire series. As a graduate of another service academy, and in fourth graduating class with women, I can identify with so many of Jan Wishart's experiences. I was fortunate to not have had as many traumatizing experiences, married a classmate and have primarily good memories (the bad ones do fade with time). I do know that some of my classmates had more traumatizing memories, and remember them even 36 years after we graduated.
Thank you, Susan, for capturing the essence of what many of us cannot put into words.
Thank you, Susan, for capturing the essence of what many of us cannot put into words.
October 18, 2019
Great story
I chose 5 stars because it's an amazing story and I found my opinions changing here and there. To be honest, I was glad about Dimitris outcome until I read Jan's take and then I was like, "oh yeah". I didn't want what happened to Drew either. But that's another story. I liked them both. I liked Bevis, who was a blessing in Jan's firstie year. Overall, Jan's journey was hard to live through, but it made me feel that she graduated with the highest level of honor, compared to her peers.
I chose 5 stars because it's an amazing story and I found my opinions changing here and there. To be honest, I was glad about Dimitris outcome until I read Jan's take and then I was like, "oh yeah". I didn't want what happened to Drew either. But that's another story. I liked them both. I liked Bevis, who was a blessing in Jan's firstie year. Overall, Jan's journey was hard to live through, but it made me feel that she graduated with the highest level of honor, compared to her peers.
August 10, 2020
I really enjoyed reading the complete series. Even though the events were fictional, the setting and the life the cadets led was based on fact. It was very eye-opening to me. Our son actually was a plebe the same year that was the setting for the heroine"s 'cow" year. He left West Point after that year after realizing that the Army way of life was not for him. He told me very little about what he experienced during that year at West Point and said he would never be able to talk to me about it. This series of books helped me to understand exactly what he went through that year and why he felt he could not stay there for 3 more years. I can"t begin to imagine what it must to have been like to have been a woman at West Point during those first few years after women were finally admitted. These books, while fictional, definitely had a grain of truth throughout the entire series.
I"m so glad that the author finally wrote about the "firstie" year of Jan. It brought her 4 years at West Point to a conclusion. It was good to see a positive resolution to her final year. I read the author's notes and saw that the episodes depicted in the books had some real life basis.
I would enjoy reading more books by this author. She writes very well.
I"m so glad that the author finally wrote about the "firstie" year of Jan. It brought her 4 years at West Point to a conclusion. It was good to see a positive resolution to her final year. I read the author's notes and saw that the episodes depicted in the books had some real life basis.
I would enjoy reading more books by this author. She writes very well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 28, 2021
What a suprime ending!
This book wears the perfect ending to a four book series. Most four book series do not have the amount of meat this book has raw gripping somewhere between real and fiction. Excellent writer
This book wears the perfect ending to a four book series. Most four book series do not have the amount of meat this book has raw gripping somewhere between real and fiction. Excellent writer
October 19, 2021
We are proud to announce that FALL OUT: Courage Always Stands its Ground by Susan I. Spieth has been honored with the B.R.A.G.Medallion (Book Readers Appreciation Group). It now joins the very select award-winning, reader-recommended books at indieBRAG.
February 8, 2020
Loved the entire Series
I can only hope Susan Spieth continues her writings. She, to me, is a talented writer. Thank you Susan for many wonderful hours of reading.
I can only hope Susan Spieth continues her writings. She, to me, is a talented writer. Thank you Susan for many wonderful hours of reading.
January 15, 2020
I should've stopped after the first two in the series. Book three was a letdown and just too far-fetched, and this one felt much more like a depressing memoir. The major conflict was pretty predictable, also. And still, terrible proofreading. Disappointing.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews