Blurb:
Two soldiers, former lovers, each think they are saving the other from a South American drug cartel, all the while rehashing their broken relationship.
Green Beret Shane Cullen has been undercover for the DEA with a South American drug cartel. Eighteen months into his assignment, and unbeknownst to Shane, the cartel's number two man is captured by the U.S. Marshals and starts to talk. Shane's mission becomes endangered. His Special Forces commander calls in a favor and pulls in Shane's former lover and teammate Elliott Hutchens for an extraction.
Elliott hasn't seen Shane in almost two years, since his lover walked out on him. But Shane's in trouble and doesn't know it, so Elliott can't refuse the mission. Getting himself captured by the cartel in order to force Shane to rescue him is the easy part. The hard part comes when Shane discovers he's the real extraction, not Elliott. Shane's bad temper ended their relationship once before. Will it get in the way again or can these two soldiers work through their issues and find their way to a happy ever after?
3.5 Stars
A nice love-story about a couple of military guys, but without much (any, technically) military action.
The title of my review pretty much tells you about the tale, which is well-written, and which hits all the things I need in a romance - a bit of angst, a bit of heartbreak, a bit of self-realisation that tells you you've been a bit of an arse, some proper talk, a desire for the same future, a HEA being discussed, with said HEA being lived and about to be cemented.
Why not a 5 Stars then, if it hit all my triggers? It was VERY rushed and the blurb implied more than the book offered, and that's without disrespect to the author. Had she made this into a longer tale, with the guys' backstory, instead of just summarising it that they'd worked together, split, and now one was rescuing the other, then it would have been a top tale. As it was, the guy who supposedly needed rescuing (the one sent in to rescue the other who was deeper inside), was only taped with cheap duct tape and was nearly free when he got 'rescued', and said rescue happened without anyone knowing and without any gunfight or pursuit, and they were suddenly away and safe. Really? In Latin America, in drug smuggling country?
I did like that they'd seemingly missed each other and hadn't moved on, and that they both had regrets, but seeing that their whole split was due to one's temper that made him jump to conclusions and act rashly, killing their partnership and lives together, the other forgave far, far too easily. For military guys, they were a little too open and too touchy-feely with their feelings.
This had huge potential to be a great tale, but for me, was only just over an OK tale, as nothing got fleshed out, nothing got hashed out and all ended and concluded far too easily. Still, I liked the overly-romantic feel to it, if that's not a contradiction in terms.
ARC courtesy of MLR Press and Bayou Book Junkie, for my reading pleasure.
The title of my review pretty much tells you about the tale, which is well-written, and which hits all the things I need in a romance - a bit of angst, a bit of heartbreak, a bit of self-realisation that tells you you've been a bit of an arse, some proper talk, a desire for the same future, a HEA being discussed, with said HEA being lived and about to be cemented.
Why not a 5 Stars then, if it hit all my triggers? It was VERY rushed and the blurb implied more than the book offered, and that's without disrespect to the author. Had she made this into a longer tale, with the guys' backstory, instead of just summarising it that they'd worked together, split, and now one was rescuing the other, then it would have been a top tale. As it was, the guy who supposedly needed rescuing (the one sent in to rescue the other who was deeper inside), was only taped with cheap duct tape and was nearly free when he got 'rescued', and said rescue happened without anyone knowing and without any gunfight or pursuit, and they were suddenly away and safe. Really? In Latin America, in drug smuggling country?
I did like that they'd seemingly missed each other and hadn't moved on, and that they both had regrets, but seeing that their whole split was due to one's temper that made him jump to conclusions and act rashly, killing their partnership and lives together, the other forgave far, far too easily. For military guys, they were a little too open and too touchy-feely with their feelings.
This had huge potential to be a great tale, but for me, was only just over an OK tale, as nothing got fleshed out, nothing got hashed out and all ended and concluded far too easily. Still, I liked the overly-romantic feel to it, if that's not a contradiction in terms.
ARC courtesy of MLR Press and Bayou Book Junkie, for my reading pleasure.
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