Hmm. This had enough problems for me that it wasn't really all that enjoyable to read. The writing was a little awkward around the edges for example the author going for the obvious word choice everytime so much so that it was noticable. That sort of thing will work out as the author becomes more experienced. There was more telling than showing. The characters motivations were sort of all over the place.

Lots of things happened but not everything was important to the story. I know that real life is like that but in fiction every scene should count. For example there was a scene where the hero, Tate, was off doing "man stuff" and she was sitting with the other guys got drunk and woke up with a tattoo. Really? On an island in the Philippines where a bunch of mercenaries are the only inhabitants? Sure she explained that one of the mercs was a tattooist but that's just implausible enough to make me snort. Then the hero was pissed at her and the tattoo was never mentioned again. No point in that scene.


I didn't really like the heroine. She talked back a lot to the special forces men she hired to find her sister. She insisted that she go along on the mission because she was a trauma nurse and would be needed. Even after it was explained that one of the guys was a trained field medic she still insisted. Then she never really jumped in to help and show us how competent and highly trained she was when someone would get hurt. She virged on TSTL throughout the whole thing. At the end she leaped to the conclusion that the hero didn't want her on flimsy evidence and then when he came to her wouldn't forgive him. She dithered around at the end saying things like.: "You never would have left me if you'd loved me." Let's ignore the fact that he'd just turned himself into the authorities and obviously was not able to come and go as he pleased.

The plot wasn't real tight or real intense. I was happy to put it down in the middle and read four or five other books. What you thought was the major dilemma of the book, the search for and rescue of the heroine's sister, was over just a bit more than halfway through. Then there was more book. And the heroine, Summer, spent thousands of dollars on the rescue. She paid the 4 main guys then had a random $20,000 to hand over to a miscellaneous merc later in the book in payment for a night on the island. Then to top it off, the sisters aren't real close and the rescued sister was a snot and said I didn't ask you to rescue me. Two things, would you really spend that much on a sister you weren't close to? Maybe but show me some motivation for it. Second I love my sisters and I would certainly want to rescue them but I would be hard pressed to come up with twenty or thirty thousand dollars for the rescue. Where did she get that money? Sell a house? Inherit it? Use her life savings?

The villian never seemed really villianous. The author told us he was a bad guy but every time he was onstage, his actions did not illustrate that.

The biggest thing I found odd or unexplainable was the fact that these four men, US force recon marines had, prior to the start of the book, been set up to take the fall for the deaths of some other marines and the theft of military hardware. They somehow realized they had been set up while things were blowing up and ran and hid for 18 months. The heroine has files that will prove they didn't do it. She's going to give them the files as part of the payment for helping her. Do they really think that that's all it will take? "Hey, here's proof we're innocent. Everything's hunky dory now." yeah except for the fact that all four of you are DESERTERS! I believe that the kind of men who make it through spec ops training are not going to be deserting even if they somehow know they've been set up. They go back to their bases and go through the process, whatever trial or court martial they've got waiting for them. When you buy that far into the system you buy in the whole way and don't make spur of the moment decisions to run out on your honor. Okay so no mention was made of that at all. No repercussions.

The men give themselves up to the military once they know the file was in the hands of a competent attorney. As they board the boats to take them to the Navy ship, Summer's plane explodes on the island they are leaving. I thought great! Now we'll see some angst from the hero's POV. But no. The author totally wastes that opportunity. She is now in the hands of the bad guy who, true to his aforesaid villianous nature, does nothing bad to her. Somehow Tate is allowed to go out on a further mission to rescue her from the bad guy. He saves her just as a minion is going to kill her. But he is not allowed to speak to her for the 30 or so minutes she is being taken in an inflatable boat to the big ship which will take her home. Not realistic. She is pissed which leads to the scene only 2 months later of her denying him instead of running into his arms when he comes to see her. Two months is a very short time so obviously no trial for desertion either. And she's pissed he didn't come earlier. Has she no sense of what he's been doing in the mean time? But wait they got off scot free. So where had he been? Straight back to work for the marines. Right.

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review to come. Loved this first installment in the Operation series ( )

There’s not a whole lot of romantic suspense coming out of Australia, but what I’ve read I’ve loved. This wonderful, action-packed story takes us on an adventure through South East Asia, with an Australian trauma nurse heroine and a US Marine hero.

Summer’s sister has gone missing, and Summer needs the help of Tate and his team to save her. The men are on the run after being framed for a horrible crime, and Summer and her family have found themselves in possession of the evidence they need to clear their names.

There is a lot of action in this book, and I mean a huge amount. As a shorter story it works extremely well - it picks you up and takes you on this crazy ride right through to the end. In amongst it are just the right amount of romance, and a few shots of humour. The consequences of Summer’s night of drinking made me laugh out loud, and I’m sure plenty of readers will be able to identify with her at least to some extent.

Summer seems real because she doesn’t automatically turn into a superhero. She is a sheltered, fairly naive woman when the story begins and it takes a lot of courage to take off and do what she does. She makes plenty of mistakes along the way, but also gets herself through the ordeal, even making her own contributions to saving the day a couple of times. I loved that she didn’t always do everything right and I liked that she learnt as she went.
Tate is a great hero. He struggles with the extra burden of having Summer on the job, and with the need to watch out for her. What I liked about him was that he’d react to situations in ways Summer misunderstood and it wasn’t until we saw things from his point of view that we learnt he was screwing up out of desperation to keep her safe.

This book is very different to the enjoyable ‘Fallout’, the author’s other romantic suspense, and it takes some real talent to be able to alter your style so much to fit your story.

I read this in one sitting - the best way to read it! It really was a great adventure that I couldn't stop reading. Karlene Blakemore-Mowle is an up and coming writer worth your time. Incorporating a bit of Australia, a bit of South East Asia, and a gang of appealing US military men, there’s something for everybody to enjoy here. ( )