Meghan Young’s new novel, Ruthless is the intriguing story of a young woman who falls in love with an American soldier while serving in the military. The interesting part about her love affair with this soldier is that it is completely unapologetic. The fact that she openly loves someone in the armed forces and openly calls herself a partner suggests that she has a deep understanding of the male gender and of love. The other interesting thing about her is that while serving in the army she not only develops an admiration for the men she often refers to as ‘her guys’ but she also develops a deep relationship with another woman, referred to as the Pilot, whom she clearly adores.
The novel opens up at the end of the Vietnam War, where a now grown Meghan has just given birth to a daughter named Hope. During these times in her life she has barely spent any time apart from her job as a nurse because of the trauma of war. She comes to a realization when she returns home that while her body has changed for the better, her spirit has yet toara more. This, she correctly decides, is because her love for her husband has not waked enough to allow her to move on from their marriage. Her determination to follow her dream and pursue her career leads her to move to Los Angeles, California and pursue what would become a marriage between her and the Pilot she had fallen in love with in the first place, although she still longs to be loved by her husband.
In the meantime, back in the United States the pressures of juggling a marriage, a daughter, and a career are beginning to take their toll on the people around her. One day she meets someone in New York whose views are very much like what she had found in her own self-reflection process in regard to her own identity, and she decides to marry him. Her path in life becomes one of many different nationalities and professions throughout her lifetime.