No Turning Back by Kaylea Cross
Romantic Suspense
May 26, 2010
E-Book/Paperback
The Wild Rose Press
Reviewed by Mandi
Favorite Quote: “I’m going to love unraveling you, sweetheart.”
CIA communications expert Samarra Wallace is on the run from a faceless enemy when she learns terrorists have kidnapped and threatened to execute her cousin. She will do whatever it takes to free her, including breaking cover to contact the former teammate she is dangerously attracted to. Now all she has to do is convince him she’s not working for the bad guys.
Ex-Army Ranger Ben Sinclair isn’t sure he can trust Sam, but he can’t turn her away. Lives are at stake and she may be the only way to capture the terrorist mastermind his team is hunting. Despite his reservations, he finds himself falling for her. But when Sam’s innocence is questioned again during a botched operation in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, the team pays a terrible price for trusting her. In the wake of that staggering betrayal Ben must decide if she’s the innocent woman he fell in love with, or if she’s a traitor who’d set them up to die.
I think the blurb does a nice job setting up this story. No Turning Back is a very intense, action-packed military romantic suspense that is really well done. Heavy on the suspense, Kaylea Cross doesn’t hold back on the violence and gives us a really gritty book. Sam is only a communication technician, not any kind of Special Op soldier. So at the beginning when she is running for her life, having no idea who to trust, it comes across as very real. Due to some coincidences, her team doesn’t know if she has started playing for the other side, and it takes a good while to build up that trust. Actually, it is an issue through the entire book. There is always that underlying suspicion, no matter what Sam does to prove she is innocent. There is not only the external conflict of a terrorist kidnapping, but internally, this team is rife with stress and suspicion. How far would she really go to save her cousin? Ben must comes to terms with that answer.
Sam is mentally strong, holding up to rescue her cousin, but she also comes across very believable. Physically she has issues keeping up. She is insecure, and just downright scared. It is such a huge relief when Ben gives in a little to that trust and he just holds her for a few minutes. Of course, that first hug eventually leads to a romantic relationship. I really like how the relationship progresses throughout the book. The adrenaline of being hunted and being the hunter play into some of their romance. But it never seemed forced or out of character for this love to bloom. And while the love scenes are not plentiful, they are very impactful. They match the pace of the story.
Ben is intense. He is a soldier all the way and while Sam has fierce loyalty to her cousin, Ben and his twin brother Rhys couldn’t live without the other. I love how he protects Sam as much as he can, but there are times where she has to go into situations alone so they can eventually catch the terrorist, and he doesn’t let his alpha status interfere. He may not like it, but he is a professional. There is a nice balance between his mission oriented focus, and keeping Sam safe and out of harm’s way. With that being said, there are a few times where Sam in thrust into very dangerous situations, and with no firearms training and I can only assume, lack of other combat training, I questions why she had to be the one to go. But it did make for some very tense, memorable moments in the book.
As I said earlier, this book isn’t a light read. There is violence, one scene in particular absolutely brutal. But I think it is necessary to show who they are really up against. Besides Sam and Ben, we meet Rhys, Ben’s twin brother, Luke, the leader, and Neveah the cousin everyone is so desperately trying to save.
This book caught me by surprise. I was sucked in from the very beginning and held my breath on more than one occasion. I will definitely be checking out more from Kaylea Cross.
Rating: B
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Oh I love military rom suspense! This one sounds awesome!!
Ooooh, this sounds soooo good!
Hi, Mandi, and thanks for the review! I’m glad you liked the story.
I’m about to start on Maya Banks’s KGI series, as I’ve heard really good things about it. Anyone here read it?
Kaylea Cross
This sounds great! I’ll have to go see if I can find it!
@kaylea – I’ve read (and LOVED LOVED LOVED) the KGI books by Maya Banks. They are some of my favorite Rom. Suspense books. If you love the genre, you will love those books!
Thanks, MinnChica. I keep seeing awesome reviews for the series, and the only reason I kept holding off is because I read one of Banks’s erotic romances that really made me cringe. I’m told the KGI series is nothing like the book I disliked so much (it was just waaaaay too harsh for my taste), so I’m really looking forward to it!
I..hm something is not pulling me in, it could but nope nothing.
Still it does sound good
This one sounds like my kind of thing, I am reading some more romantic suspense lately. I’ll have to give this series a try. It is a series, right?
Yes – here is a list of the series http://www.goodreads.com/series/54468-suspense-series
Although this read fine as a stand alone. I did buy the next book though – which is Rhys! Yay!
Hubs makes me watch the military channel constantly so this one is ‘speaking’ to me.
This sounds great Mandi! I’ve hear about this book before and it caught my eye but I passed it by. Well thanks to your wonderful review I added it to my Goodreads already. I think a little fighting action that isn’t light is a nice change from the other books that I normally read. I enjoy some variety and this book just sounds fantastic!