B
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Romance
Theme: Mistaken/False Identity, Small Town
Archetype: Diverse Protagonists, Military
This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by BoxerLover2. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Romantic Suspense category.
The summary:
Nico Rosso, author of the critically acclaimed Countdown to Zero Hour, returns with Book Two in the Automatik: Black Ops series—a sizzling romantic suspense in which two undercover operators fight to reclaim a small town from the ice-cold grip of gunrunners
He was her safety.
She was his backup.
Former navy SEAL Ben Jackson knows that sexy “Mary Long” is nothing but a cover; that beneath the stylish clothes and flirty smile is a stone cold super-soldier no one ever gets close to. Until her kiss hits him like one of her sniper rounds. But Morris Flats is no place for a hookup—menace hums through the town, and the more the two operators keep pushing for answers, the more deadly the current seems to run.
For former Special Forces sniper Mary Kuri, flirting with her muscular teammate feels like playing with fire. It’s hard to tell where the cover ends and the real feelings begin. What she does know is they can’t afford to lose focus. Their mission is to gather evidence, and with the gunrunners watching their every move, a single mistake could prove fatal.
It’s two against the world, and Ben and Mary are about to discover that not only do the lives of innocent people hang in the balance, but they’re also fighting to save the rare connection they’ve found with each other.
Here is BoxerLover2's review:
Ben Jackson (a Navy SEAL) and Mary Kuri (a Special Forces sniper) are sent undercover to do reconnaissance by their employer Automatik, a private security company. The company suspects that there is a gun smuggling operation being run out of Morris Flats.
The book begins with an intense scene between local police bullying three teens at a convenience store. Ben is new in town (and he is a black man) so jumping into a police confrontation this early in the mission would not be wise. He gets video of the interaction and shares it with the team, but he does not challenge the police. He can’t risk compromising the mission by getting thrown out of town on the first day.
Ben and Mary meet up at the bar in the hotel in Morris Flats. Since they are not supposed to know each other, they begin a flirtation that is off-the-charts. The chemistry between these two lights up the pages. They proceed to check out the town. Mary’s cover is that of a real estate developer. Ben is selling wrist magnets to athletes. They identify the bad guys (the Mayor and most of the cops) and get ready for their team to put an end to the gun smuggling operation. In-between all that work, they also find time to fall in love.
The book has a lot of acronyms that require a Google check (H2H? Head to head? Or heart to heart? I am betting head to head, but then I am not a gamer). And did I mention that Ben and Mary love their guns? They take them EVERYWHERE. There is nothing like a nice romantic bath between 2 people and their weapons. These two could be stark naked, but you can bet their weapons would be within arm’s reach.
Favorite line:
“I told you I shoot like a girl. That’s why I always hit my target.”
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I liked the sound of this, having never read a story about woman who was a Special Forces sniper. And it’s only about £2.50 on Amazon UK. But the sample I downloaded, which contains that bar scene, didn’t really impress. Perhaps I’ll take a look at it again.
H2H is hand-to-hand combat. Yeah, you kind of need a glossary for this book, but the author is mostly good at making it so you can pick up the meaning from context. Like, someone asks “What’s your twenty?” over the radio and the other person replies by giving their location.
I really liked this book a lot. The suspense plot was suspenseful, the villains were villainous but not ”utterly” mustache-twirling, and both Ben and Mary were great, separately and together. (They’re alike enough that they both need to have a gun within reach while they bathe; there’s a bit where they’re about to have sex and Ben collects Mary’s gun and sets it on the bedside table near her. Now there’s a thoughtful guy.) They’re two competent people who work well together, and two lonely people who understand each other.
The racial aspect of this book is carefully woven in. Neither of the main characters is white (even if Mary is sometimes read as) and it shades every interaction with the people-in-power in this town.
I only had one problem with this book, namely that Automatik itself makes no sense to me, even after reading three installments of the series. See, they’re a black ops law enforcement agency — they use their military talents to bust up criminal organizations, after which the FBI or whoever arrest whichever ringleaders are left alive. And supposedly the public (and the courts, I’m pretty sure) are not supposed to know they exist. I don’t know about you, but this sort off off-the-books activity sets off ”all” the alarm bells for me. Police/AFT/etc. can call on military expertise to do jobs that they don’t want to admit to doing? Um, we’re just supposed to accept that Automatik always do good and always serve justice ’cause we’ve seen into the minds of the team members (four of whom have had books of their own, two to go), and they’re justice-driven. That’s special pleading on the part of the author. Don’t come up with an idea that would be good ”if” it was carried out under ideal circumstances by ideal people, and expect us to just accept it’s a good idea.
Oh, also, fairly terrible cover– I am tired, tired of covers that stick a half-naked model on them and otherwise have no atmosphere whatsoever. Tells you it’s a romance, but what sort? What mood, what premise? What are the characters like– they’re not models standing around a studio looking slightly bored. Could you maybe depict a bit of drama to draw the reader in?
@ Sasha : Yeeeesssssss!!!
Edit: @ Vasha *shakes fist at autocorrect* *Does not bother to change settings though*
IDK, maybe there’s a moment in the book where he’s going, ‘If I stare hard enough into your eyes you might not notice that my pants are falling down and there’s no buttons on my shirt’?
Why is it no ever remarks that the cover model has an outie?? I’ve never seen that on a cover.
I can’t disagree more about the cover. That is a great cover, and I was tempted to buy the book for it alone, except I would want a print edition, and Amazon says it would take 1-2 months and Carina doesn’t appear to sell print on their website. But yeah, I LOVE this cover.
For some reason this book is triggering my grabby hands syndrome.
FWIW – I read a memoir by a woman Air Force officer where she was told that women generally make better marksmen (markswomen?) than men.
I believe this si the third review of this book I’ve read and I see people like it.
I am, however, still staggered that the cover model has an outie bellybutton which I have never seen on any book cover ever and none of you notice?
LOL
I’m about half-way through this book, and I really like it. It’s refreshing to read a romantic suspense without a power imbalance, where both characters are equals and don’t fall into protector/potectee roles.
@ReneeG Ooohhh, do you remeber the title of that memoir? Because I’d love to read it.
@Kera, @ReneeG: I have the feeling the Russians had a squad of women snipers during WWII. Is that just my fantasy, or have I read it somewhere? I have the feeling they were pretty good, too. But that’s just what my fantasy would say. 🙂
@ Hazel
Yep. They did, and they were pretty damn impressive.
Business Insider article on Lyudmila Pavlichenko
The Daily Mail isn’t the most reputable source, so take with a grain of salt, but in this case it’s a good starting point if you’re interested.
And my favorite: the Rejected Princess version.
@Hazel, no fantasy
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko
@Gloriamarie: Wow! Lady Death!!! Thanks for that link.
I’m going to look for the film, Battle for Sevastopol.