Last Man Standing by Cindy Gerard (Black Ops #7)
Romantic Suspense
January 31, 2012

Reviewed by May

Dead.

Their brother was dead.

Gabe clenched his jaw and swallowed back the surge of emotion that would do no one any good.

Bryan Tompkins with his baby face, earnest eyes, and God-and-country valor, had been one of the best damn men and stand-up soldiers Gabe had ever served with. And he’d just bled out from a shrapnel wound that had left a hole big enough to shove his fist through.

And for what?

– from prologue of Show No Mercy, book #1 in Black Ops series

The death of Bryan Tompkins affected more than just his parents and sister Stephanie, it was a turning point for the elite special ops team comprised of top men from all branches of the military. The unit disbanded, then reformed privately under the leadership of their commanding officer Nathan Black- the company “Black Ops Inc” and their missions numerous and dangerous.

Now, fifteen years after the death of Bryan one of the men who had been with him on that awful day during that ambush still can’t let his memory go. Because Joe Green knows in his gut that there was more to that day than a random ambush. He knows they had been set up and he’s going to take down the man who caused Bryan’s death if it is the last thing he does.

At long last, it’s Joe Green’s time to meet his match! Can Stephanie Tompkins, little sister of Bryan Tompkins be his match?

Her hand flew to her throat and she leaned in, looked deeper. It was her, alright, but a high-octane version. Her clothes were rumpled and damp. Her hair was a wild tumble of damp waves around her shoulders. And her face… even that seemed to have altered. Her soft, unremarkable features had transformed somehow. She looked… edgy. Decisive. Experienced and lean.

Kick-ass, she thought with a ridiculous little smile, and embraced the idea.

She looked not like a woman who needed a man like Joe Green to complete her life, but like a woman who could damn well complete his.

Stephanie has a desk job analyzing intelligence and data, but one with high enough security clearance that a photo of Joe Green back in Sierra Leone, being hauled off to jail comes across her desk. When it becomes clear that none of his BOI brothers can come to his aid, she packs up and heads out to save the man that she loves.

He looked away, overcome by emotions that ran the gamut from guilt to humility to gratitude to absolute astonishment, before ending with a frustrated sense of failure. He was the protector. He was the caretaker. Right now he couldn’t take care of a paper clip.

“Joe. Look at me.”

The softness in her eyes told him she’d read his mind “You don’t always get to be the hero. Some of us lesser beings need to get a shot at it every now and then, ok?”

No, it was not ok. And there was nothing about her that fell in the lesser category.“

This book melted me in every way, on every level. I really liked that everything didn’t work out the way I expected, that the heroine pulled her weight, and that it was a lot more subtle than usual for a romantic suspense book in general. The couple was involved before this book started, but Joe actually breaks up with her as the book begins…

“Swallowing the rock of guilt lodged in his throat, he stared down at his boots, trying to screw up some courage. The melting snow that clung to his soles had left slushy tracks on the tiled third-floor hallway. Like he was going to leave tracks all over her heart.”

While we do have some of the typical bad guy who wants to take over the world and big bad hero who leaves heroine ‘for her own good’ type clichés, they’re handled well and didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of this story. The history between these two is handled well, and the author gave us enough moments and detail to really have the romance be the star of the book, while giving enough page room for the story to progress.

I believe Gerard has left the door open for her next series nicely, while ending the BOI series on a very high note. This is a softer, less bang-up version of Gerard. A crying, broken, wounded hero and a heroine who is getting stronger by the minute. Big show-downs? Over blown action? None in sight. Yet this is still super intense, awesome Gerard at her finest, and I loved every page.

Grade: A-

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