Hot Zone by Catherine Mann (Elite Force #2)
Romantic Suspense
December 1, 2011
Sourcebooks
Reviewed by May
Favorite Quote: “It must be the supply tent. What is it about storage facilities that brings out the animal in me lately?” She tore at the buttons on his pants.
“Could be the deprivation of basic life staples in the earthquake has made you crave the surroundings of a well-stocked pantry. It could be a lifelong turn-on.”
An earthquake in the Bahamas has trapped Amelia and her new adopted nephew under a mountain of rubble that once was their hotel. With her foot caught under something too heavy to move she has little hope for survival, and is left with no choice but to wait and hope.
Pararescueman Master Sergeant Hugh Franco lost everything several years ago and since that time takes on the most deadly and dangerous missions. When a search dog barks, he crawls right in a spot nobody else wants to attempt and ends up locating Amelia and the toddler, and stays with them until they can be extracted.
She swallowed hard, scared as hell and unable to stop herself from asking for even more from this seemingly invulnerable man. “Do you think you could hold my hand?”
“Yes ma’am, I sure can.”
Once out of the rubble they discover that the chemistry they both noted in that dark and hopeless place is even stronger, though neither wants a relationship or to recognize the quickly growing feelings each has for the other. Hugh has a very painful past, but I appreciate that the author chose to let us in on the reasons for his and Amelia’s strong emotions rather than keep us overly in suspense or drag out the ‘why we can’t be together’ dramatic revelations.
The first pages of this novel had me totally hooked. Catherine Mann can write in such a way that I was totally captivated, worried, and right there in the rubble with our heroine. Their chemistry and dialogue sparkled, and I really enjoyed reading about the attorney whose greatest weapon is her voice, her cutting and sharp mind and her ability to think fast.
Unfortunately once pulled from the rubble it’s a lot of hanging around, and a halfhearted “villain” plot line that thrusts our characters back together when Amelia had just walked away from her one-time quickie in the supply closet with Hugh. There were a lot of details that pulled me away from the heart of this story, including Hugh’s physical description. He’s able to crawl into the tight space and save Amelia, yet later she says he’s so huge she can’t get her arms all the way around him when hugging. If he was truly that massive I don’t think he could do his job. I also was disturbed that it seemed to be ok with everyone that he had sex with someone he had just rescued the day before. Would this not be a breach of some kind of code? Is that not frowned upon? It bothered me, as did many other small details.
I was also distracted by the secondary romance plot lines. I felt they were filler, and neither was exceptionally interesting nor did they add to the plot line of the story. Which is the main problem I have with this book, I didn’t feel like there was much of a story here.
Despite Mann’s most excellent writing style, and the great dialogue found throughout much of the story, the strongest portion is the first few chapters and it just goes downhill from there. This is definitely the weakest book I’ve read by Mann, I hope to find her next much more riveting.
Grade: C+
Recent Reviews:
Lynette’s Two Cents – C-
Badass Book Reviews – 4/5
Goodreads
Author’s Website l Series Listing
The beginning of this book sounds so good (especially that quote..swoon) Too bad it didn’t last. I haven’t read this author yet.
Too bad the awesomeness didn’t continue through. I think I have one of her books on my nook somewhere, I need to try her out!
I always want to like Catherine Mann’s books more – she’s got everything there that I love best, being a military and suspense freak – but my favourite book by her was a “B” read at best.
So many of her heroines are obsessed with babies, which is something I absolutely hate in my romances! She also uses made-up countries in many of her books – Suzanne Brockmann is the only one who can pull that off!
I completely agree! The first part is so awesomely intense it had me on the edge of my sofa. LOL. I felt that the second part wasn’t necessarily bad as much as over the top and it took away from the emotional intensity of the beginning. I was completely baffled with the ‘villain’. Where they supposed to be bad? Sorta bad? Sometimes, in a blue moon, good intentions pave the road to hell bad? Eh.
Sorry you got disappointed. Never read this author, and I do have enough new suspense for the coming year and more.
@sn – this one is baby obsessed too! And hero keeps thinking of how she would be best as a mother.
@ck – I had a hard time being against this villain, she was kind of doing some good? It didn’t work for me the way it played out.
I haven’t many of this author’s books but I seem to recall liking them OK. She’s not my favorite. Thanks for the review. I might add this one to my Nook.