Soldier’s Last Stand by Cindy Dees (H.O.T. Watch #3)
Romantic Suspense
Released: June 21, 2011
Harleqiun
Reviewed by May, who decided to review this because it won the RITA for best contemporary series: suspense.
“Gahh,” he grunted as he shoved away from her. “Using sex won’t work for this mission. Like I said. You’re going to get yourself – and maybe me – killed. I don’t need a sex kitten. I need a real woman.”
Oh Navy Commander Brady Hathaway, if only that was true. A thirty something military man who makes no time for women and is entrusted with a mission to infiltrate a terrorist cell and bring it’s leader to justice, Brady is in for quite the ride when he meets Eve Dupont.
Eve’s brother was a terrorist that was killed, and she has always lived under a cloud of suspicion because of it. His ex-girlfriend Annika Cantori is still alive- and Eve blames him for leading her lovesick brother down the path that ultimately killed him. Annika is still killing people, and the USA wants Eve’s help to infiltrate her cell and help bring her down.
Of course all this is going down in the Caribbean where Eve can prance around in skimpy bikinis, flirt, drink, and see how many men she can bring to their knees with her outrageous good looks.
Alright guys, I’m a Cindy Dees fan. I’ve read and really liked some of her books. This is the first one I’ve read that I absolutely couldn’t stand. Now I’m used to romantic suspense not usually quite standing up to a rigorous testing for plot holes, and for shorter length stories to not feel quite as complete as a longer novel. Those aren’t my complaints with this book actually. My problem is with the characters themselves.
Brady appeals to Eve because he is not hitting on her or trying to have sex with her. She responds by trying as hard as she can to force him into sex – including stripping naked in front of him to go swimming. As he rebuffs her advances, she wonders what is wrong with her, why he won’t have sex with her, and generally makes it all about her.
We learn that Brady grew up with a mom that was constantly in and out of men’s beds, and that the gifts they bought her helped pay the rent and keep him fed. Having casual sex holds no appeal to him for this reason, and he really doesn’t want to get involved with an asset that he is handling on a very important mission either.
At this point I could still see the story working. Perhaps Eve will help Brady learn to love and trust – maybe Brady can do the same for Eve including showing her that sex isn’t always about power or a strategic move to gain upper hand.
Instead, the entire time Eve parades around in sexy outfits, she plays mind games with Brady and every other man, and she shows that she is in fact nothing but a shallow beautiful woman. I found no redeeming qualities about her – because even her very reason for being on the mission is to once and for all clear her name and show that not everyone in her family is a bad person or terrorist. It is notable that she is the only person left in her family who would benefit, so yep. All about her.
Eve is very aware of her good looks and where they can get her. She is so good at flirting and dressing to show off her assets, slips right into the role of call girl, is constantly taking notice of what men are into her, and she even puts on a sexy show on the beach for the benefit of the operatives who are watching her via surveillance to give them something good to see.
Making as lascivious a production as possible out of it, she smoothed the cream over her legs and arms. She moved on to her belly and then the valley between her breasts. She took extra time there, smoothing the cream down into her cleavage and then back up to her neck, across each shoulder blade and then back down into the plunging crease between her breasts. She could just imagine the sensation she was causing among the military technicians at the other end of whatever camera they had trained on her.
Right up until the very end she wields sex and her looks as weapons, and it bothered me. She is clearly insecure, obviously messed up mentally about sex and love, and very much in need of some therapy to say the least. What also bothered me is how Brady falls for this woman who seems to be a lot like his mom in all the worst ways.
Between the tension of the unknown terrorist threat, the pressure to bust the cell leader, the two times Eve is beaten and nearly raped by different men, and the overall mental state of these characters, there was no room for real romance. Eve is the very definition of a hot mess, Brady is liking her despite himself, and I found nothing to grab on to or enjoy reading this book.
I wish that Eve could have been the real woman I believed she would be when the book started, instead of a girl crying for help in the worst ways. One of my deal breakers in romance these days is weak heroines, and Eve struck me as one of the weakest I’ve read in a long time. Perhaps if we met up with her when she was an older and more mature woman it would be different – as it is I couldn’t believe in her happily ever after or that she was ready for a committed adult relationship with Brady.
Grade: C
Recent Reviews:
Smart Bitches – C+
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