Under Fire - Elite Force 3 - Catherine Mann
Feb 5, 2019 11:21:30 GMT -7
Banana Boat and newenglandlady like this
Post by secretromancejunkie on Feb 5, 2019 11:21:30 GMT -7
Under Fire – Elite Force 3 (of 4) - Catherine Mann
Rating 3.5 / 5.0
Heat 6/10
Genre Romantic Suspense (active Military)
I was rather underwhelmed by this book. It had a great story line. The two MCs were both strong when it came to doing what needed to be done. The author used several plot devices, however, that are not to my personal liking. So others may like the story quite a bit more.
The h and her dog break into the H’s jeep, which is parked on base, while he’s finishing up after a training session. The H is off the base and partway home before he realizes someone is in the vehicle. She pleads for his help (they’ve worked together before) and he takes her home to hear her story.
The h used to work civilian rescue missions, with her trained dog(s) in disaster areas. She met the H while he and his Pararescue team were assigned to the same disaster relief area. They shared one memorable kiss and he wanted more when the mission was done, but she refused to return his calls. Now she trains therapy dogs for soldiers with PTSD. One of those soldiers told her about a plot that starts high up in the military, and then people started threatening her and following her.
The H takes her back to base to have her story heard by someone he trusts. On the way they are shot at and nearly run off the road. The adventure takes off from there.
The plot devices that the author used which kept me from enjoying the story more are:
1) The H and h meet before the story begins. When the story starts, they already have strong feelings for one another, which we don’t get to experience the development of. It’s like coming in halfway through. The H claims to have fallen in love with the h on that rescue mission. But the reader gets to experience none of this.
2) The villain is known from early in the book. There are 4-5 chunks of several pages each from the villains POV. Kind of kills the suspense for me.
3) There are two couples in the story – one main, one less so. Honestly, the intimacy between the secondary couple was more emotional than the MC’s. I felt that it considerably lessened the MC’s story to have the other couple’s POV on their own story.
My final “complaint” is that I was disappointed by the lack of information wrt training therapy dogs and getting them connected to their new owners, and/or the rescue missions with dogs. I had been looking forward to seeing that in the story but it just wasn’t there. There are lots of dogs in the book. But there is very little about how they work. All we know is that the soldier with PTSD is calmer when his dog is with him.
The author writes well. The suspense was fairly well done (except the exposed villain). The main problem was that I found the romance to be merely OK.
Rating 3.5 / 5.0
Heat 6/10
Genre Romantic Suspense (active Military)
I was rather underwhelmed by this book. It had a great story line. The two MCs were both strong when it came to doing what needed to be done. The author used several plot devices, however, that are not to my personal liking. So others may like the story quite a bit more.
The h and her dog break into the H’s jeep, which is parked on base, while he’s finishing up after a training session. The H is off the base and partway home before he realizes someone is in the vehicle. She pleads for his help (they’ve worked together before) and he takes her home to hear her story.
The h used to work civilian rescue missions, with her trained dog(s) in disaster areas. She met the H while he and his Pararescue team were assigned to the same disaster relief area. They shared one memorable kiss and he wanted more when the mission was done, but she refused to return his calls. Now she trains therapy dogs for soldiers with PTSD. One of those soldiers told her about a plot that starts high up in the military, and then people started threatening her and following her.
The H takes her back to base to have her story heard by someone he trusts. On the way they are shot at and nearly run off the road. The adventure takes off from there.
The plot devices that the author used which kept me from enjoying the story more are:
1) The H and h meet before the story begins. When the story starts, they already have strong feelings for one another, which we don’t get to experience the development of. It’s like coming in halfway through. The H claims to have fallen in love with the h on that rescue mission. But the reader gets to experience none of this.
2) The villain is known from early in the book. There are 4-5 chunks of several pages each from the villains POV. Kind of kills the suspense for me.
3) There are two couples in the story – one main, one less so. Honestly, the intimacy between the secondary couple was more emotional than the MC’s. I felt that it considerably lessened the MC’s story to have the other couple’s POV on their own story.
My final “complaint” is that I was disappointed by the lack of information wrt training therapy dogs and getting them connected to their new owners, and/or the rescue missions with dogs. I had been looking forward to seeing that in the story but it just wasn’t there. There are lots of dogs in the book. But there is very little about how they work. All we know is that the soldier with PTSD is calmer when his dog is with him.
The author writes well. The suspense was fairly well done (except the exposed villain). The main problem was that I found the romance to be merely OK.
My reading dates were around the same.