Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThis exciting story lives up to the promise in our hero's sexy blue eyes! Five swooning stars!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 14, 2022
HOLY HOTNESS! That cover! I swear, a girl could get lost in those sexy blue eyes, which is how I ended up buying this book. I just had to know if our hero lives up to the promise in those eyes, and he does! Jared Fraser is that irresistible combination of tough and tender, lethal and loving, which makes his story as exciting as that cover (well, almost).
Here's a bit of the plot. (WARNING: Some spoilers ahead, but I won't reveal the ending.) Jared is a former combat medic and Air Force Special Tactics Pararescueman called "Knight" for his ability to save people needing help. He currently works for Black Defense International, a team of hardened mercenaries hired to protect innocent people. Needing a break from the violence of his job, Jared rents a remote mountain cabin for a few days of peace and quiet. Does he get the peace he craves? Nope.
He finds a wounded woman in the cabin's driveway, bleeding and shivering in the snow. Suffering from amnesia caused by a blow to her head, the woman has no idea who she is or what happened to her. Naturally, Jared's protective instincts kick in, along with his natural physical response to this lovely, mysterious young woman.
We eventually learn that she's Libby King, an employee of Ninja Solutions, a company working on military AI applications, including an exoskeleton with an AI component that could take over on the battlefield. The company hopes to sell Renaissance Iron Man (RIM) to the Army for millions of dollars, but RIM has serious flaws, and its chief software engineer (Paul Hicks) has evidence of those flaws on a memory card, which he intends to take to the Army. He gives a backup copy to Libby in case something happens to him. When the head of Ninja Solutions (Daniel Weir) learns of Paul's intentions and the memory cards, he hires thugs to eliminate Paul and Libby and retrieve the cards.
We learn all of this gradually, because the plot revolves around the romantic attraction between Jared and Libby as she slowly recovers her memory. After Jared wipes out three thugs who track her to the cabin, he takes her to his house near Annapolis, where they're soon enjoying long sessions of steamy sex. Chatty Libby and quiet, broody Jared have entirely different personalities, but they are so good together! Inevitably, their lust soon turns into love.
Excitement builds when Libby returns to Ninja Solutions to retrieve the memory card she hid in a plant on her desk. Jared and his team of fellow Black Bandits are stationed around the building, prepared to keep her safe at all costs. But when Weir and his cohorts kidnap Libby via a rooftop helicopter, can our heroes find her before it's too late? I'm not saying, but this thrilling confrontation has surprises I never saw coming. And the epilogue contains a real shocker!
Now that I've met Jared's fellow Black Bandits, I'll definitely be reading more books in this exciting series. Jared's story (and that cover!) easily earns five swooning stars from me.
