Kayla Williams is one of the 15 percent of the U.S. Army that is female, and she is a great storyteller. With a voice that is funny, frank and full of gritty details (New York Daily News), she tells of enlisting under Clinton; of learning Arabic; of the sense of duty that fractured her relationships; of being surrounded by bravery and bigotry, sexism and fear; of seeing 9/11 on Al-Jazeera; and of knowing she would be going to war.

With a passion that makes her memoir nearly impossible to put down (Buffalo News) Williams shares the powerful gamut of her experiences in Iraq, from caring for a wounded civilian to aiming a rifle at a child. Angry at the bureaucracy and the conflicting messages of today’s military, Williams offers us a raw, unadulterated look at war (San Antonio Express News) and at the U.S. Army. And she gives us a woman’s story of empowerment and self-discovery.