I’ve received two email messages asking for Navy SEAL romance recommendations.
I WONDER WHY.
So list night I asked on The Twitter if anyone would be interested in a reader-generated list of recommended SEAL and special forces romances. The response was very, very positive.
AGAIN. I wonder why. (Not.)
So if you’re thinking a military hero would totally rock your reading socks right now, bring it on. Lynn Raye Harris said last night that she would want to learn more about any “Special Forces romances…. Army’s Delta Force is pretty bad ass. Marine’s Force Recon aren’t slouches either.” Hell, yes. And we’re not limited to US military special forces. Bad Ass Mounties are totally welcome! Bring on a Special Forces Good Shit vs. Shit to Avoid!
My obvious recommendations are Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters series, beginning with The Unsung Hero. This was, incidentally, one of the very first books I reviewed here back in 2005.
There’s also Brockmann’s Tall Dark & Dangerous series.
An early thread about this topic yielded a bunch of different recommendations, including Catherine Mann’s Wingman Warrior series.
Finally, Jill Monroe has a SEAL series for Harlequin Blaze, the first of which features a SEAL instructor hero recovering from an injury. Because, you know, those who can, do, and those who can’t make the very best of badass teachers.
But many of these recommendations are for older books, and I know a lot of military heroes have been published since. What are your favorites? Got a recommendation for a reader looking for some military romance heroes?
Mackenzie’s Pleasure by Linda Howard
Breaking Point by Pamela Clare – so exciting! Great former SEAL hero and what an hot cover!
Midnight Man, Midnight Angel by Lisa Marie Rice
Kiss and Tell by Cherry Adair
Virgin River series by Robyn Carr
Pursuit by Elizabeth Jennings (aka Lisa Marie Rice)
Rhonda Nelson has military themed Harlequin Blazes (I liked Letters from Home)
The Soldier and the Baby by Anne Stuart
Elle Kennedy has a hot military series (Out of Uniform)
Home for a Soldier by Tatiana March
Her Last Line of Defense by Marie Donovan
SEALed and Delivered by Jill Monroe
Coming Undone by Stephanie Tyler
Lucky’s Lady by Tami Hoag (ex-military)
Midnight Rainbow by Linda Howard (ex-military)
Ev thanks for the link to the free Amazon book. Just downloaded it.
I love Stephanie Tyler’s Shadow Force and her Hold series, both of which are mouth watering HOT, HOT, and did I mention, HOT? Also a big fan of Cindy Gerard. Just give me a man in uniform-or maybe I should say a man out of his uniform….hmmm delish!
I second Lora Leigh’s earlier Navy SEALs books. For me, Live Wire was the only one that didn’t live up to the expectations I had for the conclusion to that series. Start with Dangerous Games.
Darn it! Now I’ve added at least 20 more books to my Nook wish list and I’m going to have to update my Half Price Books List. Y’all are so not helping my motivation to save for grad school. 😉
No one has mentioned Fiona Brand. She wrote a series of books for SIM based around NZ’s SAS. *fans self* WHOO! Those were HOT.
In order:
Cullen’s Bride
Heart of Midnight
Blade’s Lady
Marrying McCabe
Gabriel West: Still the One
And BTW, Mary Daughtridge’s latest (Sealed Forever) just went on sale yesterday. And her first (Sealed With A Kiss?) is free for the Kindle through Amazon right now.
@Carin:
Snork! So did I. And I immediately had a hot flash. 😉
WV: run35 … yes, even I, sporting more than a dozen knee surgeries and two replacements, would run 35 laps for a SEAL. :-p
Oh I gotta go with Cindy Gerards.. BLack OPS Inc… gotta love these military special forces guys..
Show No Mecey Bk1
Take No Prisoners Bk2
Whipser No Lies Bk3
Feel the Heat Bk4
Risk No Secrets Bk5
With No Remorse Bk6 (being released in July 2011)
there is also her Bodyguard series too.. Great books
Another, me too! The second they mentioned a Spec Ops group was responsible, I guessed it was SEALs and thought of Suzanne Brockmann. I’ve also thought that I’ll bet her backlist is about to go back on the New York Times lists because they’ll sell like hotcakes.
If anyone is interested in non-fiction books about SEALs (because they are just as hot in real life), Dick Couch writes some good ones. “The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228” is really good.
Also, while not a romance at all, the fiction title “Suffer In Silence” is a thrilling read about a SEAL candidate going through training. It’s by David Reid.
Oh, and let’s not forget to give our fictitious sisters a shout out – everyone needs to watch “GI Jane” this weekend and watch Demi Moore become the first female SEAL!
What about Pregnesia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pregnesia was a book about naval seals; in a trilogy about Navy Seals. The hero was on-duty/ former Navy Seal
Pregnesia by Carla Cassidy
and look her up to read the other two books in the series.
Well, sometimes romance novel covers with hunks on them can’t stand up at all to real life. The New York Times published a picture of a Navy Seal near Fallujah. Here’s the link http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/05/05/world/05seals.html
Got to say this guy is fine. Notice what appears to be a knife wound. This is the real stuff and it is so much better than the slick models posted on covers. Sigh! I want to thank the novelists who give us just a smidge of a taste of the hard world these guys—real life heros standing between us and harm—endure all the time.
The UK’s SF boys are rather coy as well. They’re definitely not as “open” as they seem to be in America.
In the US, it’s the Delta Force guys that don’t exist. I wouldn’t be totally shocked to learn that a Delta Force troop or two was involved in the assualt on bin Laden’s compound. Since the government can’t admit they exist, they’d never give credit.
Sean Bean is Sharpe in the TV series?! How did I miss this information? This changes everything. OK, I have to go now, but you guys already got all my recommendations anyway. Except I think Susan Andersen has some with ex-special ops heros? Susan Anderson? Possibly someone else entirely. Sorry ladies, I’ve got tv shows to download.
Umm, Delta Force is Army—great guys but… if there were more forces than SEALs involved, the reports would have said “joint operation”. If there were more than one nation involved, the reports would have said “combined operation”. Words are meaningful 🙂
Forgot to say that Michelle Obama and Jill Biden (a military mom) are leading Joining Forces, an effort to help military folks and their families. Worth a look.
Gennita Low wrote a series about special ops-types that I super love. It’s hard tracking some of them down, but they are TOTALLY worth it. Her manly-men are awesome/hot/tough without being dicks and her women are definitely not TSTL wallflowers, but also awesome and ready to get stuff done.
Ahh, okay. Duly noted. Thanks for the correction.
Re groups involved and how to describe them: several of the reports I’ve heard on NPR mentioned “J-SOC”, Joint Spec Ops Command, which does imply multi-component involvement. While the shooters on the 3d floor may all have been Seal Team Six, there was at least one high altitude air support, which although unidentified was presumably for communication/command and control purposes (something was relaying the SEAL head cams back to the Situation Room), so probably USAF. Even though those guys weren’t on the ground with guns, it takes some steel to just fly into Pakistan without permission – the Pakistanis do have fighter jets. We’ve sold many to them. And I’d imagine the helicopter pilots were probably Army.
I too saw the NYTimes photo (nice with my coffee at 0dark30) and thought “Knife in the back! Wow!” Now I don’t want to hear it was something mundane like sharp corner of his mother’s granite counter.
(This thread is distracting me from revising THE SOLDIER, my Golden Heart nominated paranormal Special Ops hero/ Army doctor heroine manuscript – I’ve longed described it as “a paranormal Suzanne Brockmann”!—and I couldn’t ask for a better reason to procrastinate!)
Oh, also Sarah Black: mostly m/m (like The Lincoln County Wars and Idaho Battlegrounds), but also combo (Border Roads has two couples, m/m and f/m ), and f/m (Colorado Gold). She’s a vet, as is most of her family.
Hmm, think everyone else I know has been mentioned.
jcscot: Thanks!
Perhaps borderline military, but the heroes of Tara Janzen’s Steele Street novels are of this ultra secret unit run out of the pentagon (if I remember correctly). They also drive classic american muscle cars.
Oh. My. Gosh. YUMMMMMMM!! Joy, thank you for sharing that lovely picture.
@ JoyK and Jessica E…
He’s pretty, but I promise you his command would have TORN HIM A NEW ONE for allowing himself to be so recognisably photographed – at the very least, that tattoo across his shoulders (and the one on his arm) should have been covered or blurred out. Either that or US SF is getting really freaking slack about keeping their identities and faces secret, because…yeah, I think I’ve met him in passing once, and if I can tell from that photo…
(I’ll be sure to call my husband heroic more often. It’ll distract me from his inability to close doors behind him!)
I’ve got to fill you guys in on Andy McDermott – again, it’s not strictly romance – ok – let me try and explain what it is – it’s archaelogical mystery madness with an ex-SAS lunatic and a not-very-Lara-Croftian female archaeologist running around getting into lots of trouble and falling in love.
I think he’s up to book 6 now and I love all of them!
Also Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, while not strictly special forces (he’s an ex-Military Police officer) “gets a girl” in just about all of his books and they are can’t-go-to-bed until I’ve finished suspensefully terrific.
Two of Jennifer Cruise and Bob Mayer’s collaborations had army special forces or former army special forces heroes in them. Don’t Look down and Wild Ride.
I was so happy to read about Navy SEAL romance book recomendations. I think Susanne Brockman does a fabulous job writting about those Navy hero’s. I also have to recomend Marliss Melton. Her first book is Forget Me Not and so far has I believe five other books that have been published after that one. She writes really well, seems to research her work, and her characters relationships are well developed. Check her out!
http://www.marlissmelton.com
Rebecca: Also Agnes and the Hitman. (I always forget Bob Mayer characters are ex/retired/active military).
Cathy B: Definitely not romance, but the Reacher books are fun. (Also one of the few cases where I enjoy infodump.)
I remember reading a really good Mills & Boon where the hero had been in ?Vietnam [from memory] and was both physically scarred and having flash back nightmares. The heroine was having powerful dreams where she effectively shared his nightmare [without knowing him at all]. So, when they met, they were healing for each other and the sex was VERY hot and scorched the pages of the book [GG]
LOVE Suzanne’s series. The third installment of my soon to be published trilogy entitled HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME KILL ME will have a former Navy Seal as a hero. Coming from Entangled Publishing in August/September/October. I’d love a trashy review. 🙂 Lucy
You must read Kaylea Cross and her Bagram Special Ops Series, which is about Navy SEALs. I have to say she is now on of my favorite authors in this genre, right up there with Suzanne Brockmann for me. There are 5 books in her series:
Out of Her League
Cover of Darkness
No Turning Back
Relentless
Absolution
Once you start reading make sure you have a clear calendar because you won’t want to stop. They are excellent additions this genre!
Happy Reading!
I came on here to mention Kaylea Cross’s books too 🙂
It’s a 5 book series, but really the second one (Cover of Darkness) starts the military suspense going.
She has books about SEALs, a Ranger and a Delta Force member. I love how well researched her books are. She’s also got another Special Ops series coming out with Carina this fall.
Her website is: http://www.kayleacross.com