Under Fire Catherine Mann (Elite Force #3)
Romantic Suspense
May 1, 2012

Reviewed by May

Favorite Quote:

“I’ve never heard a man admit to being afraid.”

Liam pressed a lingering kiss onto her shoulder. “Then you’ve never heard a man be honest.”

Liam McCabe met Rachel Flores in the Bahamas, as both worked tirelessly to rescue survivors in the aftermath of a major earthquake.  He is a three-time divorced pararescueman (and the commander of his unit). She trains dogs for rescue; as well as to become therapy and service animals. Over in the Bahamas they had lust at first sight, and while they didn’t act on it the pair grew to respect and like each other.

He was a romantic sap who fell in love too easily. He kept looking for that classic silver-screen ending. Guy gets girl. Roll credits.
If only he could have persuaded Rachel Flores to go out with him once they’d returned to the States. They’d worked together rescuing earthquake victims in the Bahamas six months ago. Had become good friends, or so he’d thought. After they got back, she never returned his calls.

Rachel has avoided Liam (whom she has major love feelings for) because of his multiple marriages and her general fear of having a relationship with him. Now Rachel shows up in the back of Liam’s car talking about traitors, being followed, and someone being after her because she took a soldier with PTSD seriously and was working to help his claims be heard. Was she gullible for believing the soldier with mental health issues? Or is he right? As Liam considers this Rachel’s house explodes and someone tries to run them off the road – using her car.

Not looking so paranoid now! Together they must help Brandon (the soldier), figure out what’s going on, and keep national secrets safe as well as their own lives.

I read (and reviewed) the previous book in this series but this book works as a stand-alone – reading the series is not needed to enjoy it. I did enjoy this one a lot, though again I found myself both frustrated and disappointed in another Mann book.

I love that Mann gives you interesting characters. Imperfect ones too, and it used to be that she would leave her endings a bit more open – not wrap it all up with a tidy bow but rather leave you knowing that the couple walked off holding hands and kicking ass. Working on their HEA and meant for each other. In recent books I’ve felt like not just the endings, but much of the stories themselves just aren’t as strong. Still – she delivers a good read and it was refreshing to read about a 38 year old man who would prefer to be with the right woman vs a new lady every night.

With the marriage obsessed Liam (he loves monogamy, wants a family) and the once burned dog handler Rachel, we got the best of them back in her last book. The tension, the interest, the budding romance – the only part of that we get here is in a few (unnecessary) flashbacks. Instead we start the book with her trusting Liam with her life, and them both halfway in love with one another.

I really enjoyed seeing Rachel work with her dogs, the secondary romance between Brandon and his lady love, and the overall story arc of this book as well. I just had to suspend belief regarding not one but two life threatening events involving Liam as well as a TSTL move made by the entire team in the last quarter of this book.

The intrigue in this book, unfortunately, was again minimal. While the pace was great and things moved right along, staying interesting and momentum never being lost, at the root it was pretty simple. We know who the bad guy is and why, but we don’t ever get any real deep anything to grab onto and that became frustrating. Right down to the ending – we had a book full of potential drama and difficult topics that felt too light, too glossed over instead of a more gripping and emotional read.

Instead of developing deeper plots, instead of showing us why Liam and Rachel are so perfect together, things are quickly touched upon and we keep moving forward. The upside to this is that we get a secondary romance that is far better than the main one.

Oh yes, our PTSD soldier and a very sweet lady find a love connection – and their sex scene is far more touching, emotional, interesting, and straight up better than the dirty hotel room shower sex scene our main couple got. Brandon finding himself more ‘normal’ than he ever has been, really seeing the woman beside him clearly – it was romance at its finest.

And right there, he saw it. What he’d been misunderstanding about her all along. She seemed so at peace and confident in her world…

… While she had accepted him, flaws and all, he hadn’t looked clear through to her, to see her insecurity – over what, he didn’t know.

In fact, the scenes between those two are the best in the whole book. They improved this book by a full grade for me.

It makes me wonder why Mann is doing her books in this style, so unlike earlier books of hers that I read and loved. It is almost like the story style here is very backed away from the main characters, like you’re flying above watching all the people in the room instead of down in the heads of the lead characters really getting to understand them and root for them.

While I felt that it could have been done a lot better, Mann continues to be one of the strongest romantic suspense writers I read and enjoy.

Grade: B-

Recent Review:
Happily Ever After – 3.5/5
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