Reaching for happiness in a war zone is the last thing Captain Devon Crawford plans, but she can't ignore the feelings she's hidden for so long. Cam's sexy charm and wicked kisses weaken her resistance, but she's too afraid of losing him to give in.
When Dev's helicopter and crew are shot down and set up as bait by a notorious warlord, Cam risks all to save the team. What he doesn't know is that the trap is set for him....
Comment: This is the first book in the Bagram Special Ops series by author Kaylea Cross and also my first attempt to read something by the author. I've had this book in my radar since 2015 and after quite a while in the pile I finally picked it.
This is the story of Devon Crawford, who is mourning the death of a fellow officer and also an ex when the story begins. However, despite her sadness, she is also feeling guilty because one of the reasons she and Ty, the deceased man, have broken up was due to her attraction to Cameron Munro, another fellow officer. All were good friends despite the romantic entanglements but Devon thinks apart from the military non fraternization rules, she fears of losing Cam for the same reasons and this loss wouldn't be something she could endure.
However, a mission gone dangerous might be the final impulse to make both Cam and Devon finally accept the feelings between them...
For a first attempt, I think this story wasn't too bad. This is heavily focused on military ops, there is a lot of talk about technical stuff - good research work I'd assume - and we also get the vibe this is more about the pieces falling together rather than just something surrounding a romance centered plot. On one hand, I liked all these details for they gave some credibility to the action and why certain things happened the way they did.
On the other hand though I must say the scenes from the "villain"'s POV weren't as necessary. It actually seemed to me that we were suppose to have the dichotomy of a modern enemy: the main bad guy had strong, emotional reasons to want to kill others, specifically our main couple but he was also using a way that is destructive and doesn't contemplate mercy or fairness. Therefore, is this just an example of real life or are we supposed to feel righted by the way the villain is defeated? It just seemed something I couldn't ignore thinking about.
The romance was also a less than strong element to me. Devon and Cam have been attracted to one another for a long time, yes there are some rules to respect in their jobs but apart from that, the main reasons for them to be separated don't seem that strong. I liked we got to follow both their thoughts but although they were keeping a distance, I wanted to see how that affected them instead of just knowing so. Besides, this meant that when the relationship changed, the impact wasn't as strong and it was actually a bit lacking in emotions. As if they went from not enough to a lot without any balance in between. I guess I'd say the romance wasn't the focus despite a lot of references to them.
As protagonists, Devon and Cam are what one would expect from them: dedicated people, balanced personalities and with a relationship that feels quickly developed on the page.
I liked how there was some female friendship obvious to the readers an I'd love to have more emphasis on this. Perhaps even a better (and bigger) amount of scenes concerning the dynamics and work of male and female military operatives in a war scenario. Not the fighting, just the rules and details, routines, types of work and so on.
Still, what we were given was good enough to make me read further.
All in all, this was an interesting novel, some things were appealing to read and to make me want to read the next page but most elements to me could have treated with more emotional content and situations; also more showing instead of telling and less focus on unnecessary things.
I'm still debating about reading the next one...
Grade: 6/10
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