Stephanie Tyler
Pub. Date: November 2009
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 400pp
ISBN-13: 9780440244349
ISBN: 044024434X
Edition Description: Original
Lieutenant Jake Hansen has survived some of the riskiest missions known to man. But now the wounded Navy SEAL faces his toughest job yet: smuggling Dr. Isabelle Markham out of Africa without triggering an international incident. Not easy to do when the gorgeous hostage happens to be a senator's daughter - and about as easy to resist as an oasis in the desert.
If it weren't for Jake, Isabelle would still be halfway across the world,where rebel forces left her for dead. The special ops warrior may have saved her life, but she doesn't need him to protect her now. Tell that to the ruggedly handsome hunk in full battle fatigues who's just been assigned as Isabelle's personal bodyguard. Close quarters aside, Isabelle won't let Jake anywhere near her heart - until danger throws them together again. And nothing in the jungles of wildest. Africa could prepare them for passion this wild. This crazy. This hot.
At the beginning of Chapter one, the story take us to the earliest time where Isabelle had travel to African Congo, to work for 'Doctor Without Borders' hoping to make different, but she was kidnapped, raped and beaten to death by Rafe who is the ruthless mercenary. She was left for dead, but struggle to stay strong and alive. She thought she was going to die until she met Jake who came to rescue her.
Now forward to the present, Isabelle return back to the Congo and join the military because she want to put her skills as a plastic surgeon to good use. But Isabelle is in danger again and Jake wasn't too happy when he was assigned to bodyguard Isabelle. Because his position as a SEALs and he thought that Isabelle feeling for him was because of his heroic act from rescue her in African Congo two months ago. Jake also knew that it mean to be near her at at all time. And he was not happy about it. He couldn't help remembering what happen two months ago rescue and he wanted to forget about it. But as the story move along, they learn about each other secrets and the brutal story of what happen to her that night at the African Congo. At same time Jake promise to protected her and kept her away from the enemy that seek her, no matter how much he tried to stay away from her.
I really did enjoy this book. I like that I gotten to really know and understand Isabelle and Jake, they hold interested to the story for me. I felt their physical and emotional scars when it was reveal about their history background while they both try to fight for their attraction and feeling for one another. And the childhood life for Jake just seem so sad for him that I'm just glad he was brought up by a loving family who take him in their life. I love his interaction with his two 'brothers'. They just seem to fit together as family should be. And he had a loving father who love him and his 'brothers' no matter what. I'm looking forward to read about the two 'brothers'. There are secondary characters and lot of other characters you will meet later. They well also have their HEA. I know that there are too many characters in the book, that it seem to take the focus away from Jake and Isabelle story. But it didn't bother me at all because I like that each couple/characters story do intertwine within the story and in the future books.
There are lot of telling and not enough showing in the book. Some scenes were skipped but were told of what happen later but we don't get to see it happen, which I would have like to really see. This isn't a big compliant but it one of the thing I thought it would have made the story more enjoyable for me. But I really do love the book. The book is right in the same pages as Suzanne Brockmann, who I also love. But of course every authors have their own writing style and you can tell the different with both the authors. I highly recommend this book to everyone who like romantic suspense/military
Most readers, if not all, probably know that Stephanie Tyler also write under another pen name Sydney Croft, co-write with author Larissa Ione. It is an erotic romance with a blend of paranormal, science fiction, military romantic suspense (an ACRO Agency series - agency for covert and rare OPs.)". In the past, I read Sydney Croft's Riding the Storm a first book to the ACRO Agency series. It been a long while since I read that book and I never started book #2 yet. I am hoping to catch up on this series before I could read Stephanie Tyler brand new Shadow Force series, starting with Lie With Me. I'm really excited about this because after reading Tyler's Hold series books (I really love each installments of the books!), I'm hoping that the next series will be as good :)
Since I lost my record of books I have read over the last 3-4 years, I now have to start all over again - eh! So I'm not sure when I started reading this book, but I'm thinking it was in March 2010. I notice I started drafting on April 11. So I'm now just posting this review. Sorry for the delay. I still have other pending reviews to post but will try to do it as quickly as I can. I'm also going by memory of this book, so I hope I have everything I want to say here. I also hope the details are as I remembered it. Sorry if I miss up. Happy Reading! :)
Grade: 4.5 stars
draft: 4-11-2010
edited: 7-27-2010
edited: 8-1-2010
edited: 8-22-2010
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