with no remorse.

His quiet vacation in the Peruvian Andes turns deadly when a Black Ops, Inc. operative rescues a stunning stranger from a mysterious train robbery and discovers she’s the target of a vengeful manhunt.

A DANGEROUS MAN
For Luke Colter, down time is an illusion. He should know better than to ever leave his gun behind. Especially since he risks his life to save world-famous supermodel Valentina.

A REBELLIOUS WOMAN
Val thought traveling incognito through the mountains would be the perfect cure for her bruised heart . . . until someone tries to kill her. Without knowing who is after her—and why—does she dare trust her irresistible protector?

A PERILOUS MISSION THAT COULD SEAL THEIR FATE
Luke’s elite military training offers little defense against his feelings for Val. When his BOI team links her ruthless enemy to the cutthroat global weapons trade—and to a man from her troubled past—he’ll do anything to save her. So when Val offers herself as bait, will he make the right call . . . or surrender to the hold she has on his heart?

I love Luke. And part of me wants to leave the review at that one sentence. I'm not quite sure what it was, but I definitely developed some for real feelings for Luke while reading this book. Doc is pretty fantastic and that's it.

If you read the series, you'll remember what happened to Luke in the last book. He's still dealing with his feelings and such from that experience in this one. He's just about to start working for Black Ops, Inc. (BOI) again when he ends up helping Valentina escape and evade mercenaries. Most of the story is their escape and Luke trying to get her to BOI HQ, with a few glimpses of the bad guy who's in charge of the people after her. The problem is that her predicament didn't really seem like it fit into a bigger picture. Maybe it wasn't supposed to? Aside from that, I liked it. Cindy Gerard did a good job of focusing on the couple while they were on a run in a way that didn't make you think "Uh, shouldn't they be focusing on staying alive?!" That's a hard balance and often takes a vet, such as Gerard, to accomplish it.

As an aside, I thought it was adorable that Luke had a crush on Valentina that dated back to his teen years.

hush.

A reckless adventure in a deadly paradise.

Thrill seekers Zakary and Gideon Stark travel the globe in search of extreme adventure, but a trip to Venezuela to jump off the world’s highest falls catapults them into a perilous game of life or death—where they don’t know the rules.

A one-night stand that will change his life forever.

Kidnapped with a woman Zak knows nothing about, the brothers are held prisoner deep in the jungle. A risky, deathdefying escape separates them and nearly claims Zak’s life . . . until his recovery reveals a baffling new sixth sense.

An unexpected diversion with lethal consequences.

Now, to find his missing brother, Zak and the mysterious Acadia Gray will have to out-smart, out-gun, and out-maneuver not just the brutal kidnappers but also a new player who joins the adrenaline game: a ruthless opponent who wants the Stark brothers dead—at any cost.

Like a said, good book luck! I've actually had this one sitting in my TBR for a couple months. In my mind, I didn't want to read it. Now having done so, I see that I was thinking crazy thoughts and wasted time!

Cherry Adair did quite a good job with this one, even with Zak's weird sixth sense. Which, since I'm starting with that, was totally and completely unnecessary. I was left wondering if she added it just so that the book could be considered paranormal in some way? I have no idea, and honestly, that special ability of his was take it or leave it for me. Otherwise, fine holiday fun.

As is the case with so many of our favorite heroes, Zak is wounded with a hard heart due to a previous woman. Now, he lives his life footloose, fancy free, and with a possible death wish. That is, until he finds himself in a position where he has to play hero to save his life, his brother's life, and new lover Acadia's as well. Instead of giving Zak a woman who was born with steel in her spine, Adair gives him Acadia - a woman who had never had any adventure up to this point. She's recently won the lottery, wants to do something different, and coerced by her friends, ends up in Venezuela. Despite her lack of experience, she becomes an asset invaluable to their efforts to get out of the country alive. What happens at the end was a surprise to me and I cherish those moments since so much seems predictable these days.

Apparently, this is a trilogy. I have no idea who the next two books will be about and I'm going to exercise serious restraint and not look it up.

the help.

Guess who's on a string of good books? ME! Though they are super late, much like the July entries, the August reviews were good books!! YAAAY! First up, The Help, a book everyone and their mama has probably read by now. I purchased it as a gift for a friend for her birthday in January. When I started seeing previews for the movie, I asked if I could borrow it and made quick work of it, despite the fact that the hardcover version looks like it's 2930 pages.

The Help isn't my normal fare, as you can tell by the reviews here, but I do so enjoy reading books that are made into movies. I really liked this book, down to the author's acknowledgement at the end about her feelings writing in the voice of black women. I thought it was a strong debut novel from Kathryn Stockett.

The story is told from three POVs (two black maids and one white young lady), but is mostly based around Aibileen. It covers how black Americans were treated in the 1960s while we went through the Civil Rights Movement, how the maids in particular were treated, what they did... It touches on a lot of subjects in it's 2930 pages. The book made me angry at several parts, but with a topic like that, it's going to evoke that response if it's done anywhere close to right. I liked it, at least in part because you don't always get a book like that, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I don't often read books like that.

night after night.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS . . .

The son of a con-artist, Sean O'Brien learned the hard way that living by your own rules comes with a price. After a brief time behind bars, Sean is now ready to live an honest life, and pay for his past mistakes. But even his gorgeous face and seductive charms can't make up for his prison record . . .until a member of The Reliance Group sees Sean's potential for good and gives him a job at the Onyx Casino.

WILL KEEP THEM COMING BACK FOR MORE . . .

Zoe Russo has met all types of men on the Vegas strip. But when Sean pays a visit to her casino boutique, she knows she's in luck. They share an immediate, irresistible attraction, and for the first time in her life she's found a man she thinks she can trust. But when Zoe stumbles onto the truth about Sean and his reasons for persuing her, she can't help but question his feelings for her. Is he for real, or has she been a fool for love? Until now, nothing has prepared her for the thrill, and risk, of gambling on love.

Yet another standard romantic suspense. From Into the Night, I was expecting a bit of improvement and, unfortunately, that wasn't what I got. It makes me a little sad, since I really liked the glimpse of Sean's character in the series debut. Denison doesn't do anything new here. I found that I was reading it to be reading it and didn't really care about the characters. Then, there's the addition of Zoe's best friend, a superstar pop singer named Jessica, and her high school sweetheart. I have no idea how they warranted a plot of their own. It came out of nowhere with no connection at all to the storyline. On the positive end, I liked Zoe’s character and the fact that this book essentially stands on its own, so there’s no rehashing of Into the Night. Another thing I liked was the difference in the love scenes. For ITN, I noted that they were frequent and detailed. Here, not so frequent and it's absolutely believable that it plays out this way. As a whole, I thought Night After Night lacked feeling, which is my favorite element, and I found that I didn't care about the story.