Scorched by Laura Griffin (Tracers #6)
Romantic Suspense
Released: October 30, 2012
Pocket

Reviewd by Mandi

I really love this romantic suspense series by Laura Griffin. I think she does such a great job with not only the suspense part of the story (which usually has me holding my breath) but really well done character development as well. In her latest, she not only gives us a solid suspense story but the hero is a Navy SEAL.

Gage Brewer is a SEAL all the way down to his core. He loves it and lives for it. So when his girlfriend Kelsey gave him the ultimatum, leave the SEALs or leave me, he chose his brothers in the SEALs. Now Kelsey wasn’t necessarily being unreasonable. She was deeply in love with Gage. But he was stationed in California, traveling all over the world on super dangerous missions, and she works in a crime lab in Texas. Every day she would worry he wouldn’t make it back from his missions safely. It wore on her. She is also ready to settle and start a family, something she can’t picture doing with a SEAL.

When this book starts, they have been broken up for some time. Kelsey has moved on and was engaged to Blake, a FBI agent, but has broken it off since. (but she still keeps in contact with him). Kelsey is a forensic anthropologist, specializing in bone recovery. While on a dig in the Philippines, she discovers a skeleton and the DNA traces back to that of someone on the terrorist watch list. She meets with Blake, who works for the counterterrorist part of the FBI to see if she can assist. While at his apartment, someone comes in and murders him. Kelsey narrowly escapes out a bathroom window and goes on the run. When Gage hears she is missing, and her ex-fiancé is dead, he makes it his mission to find her and keep her safe. They go on the run together, trying to piece together the investigation as the bad guys continue to set them up.

Laura Griffin writes such engaging stories. I like this one a lot because Gage still loves Kelsey, he is just in a tough position with his career. He is such an alpha SEAL, that he can’t imagine a life not involved with them, but he can’t imagine a life without Kelsey too. He pushes her, and protects her and goes all SEAL-y on her. Yes, I’m pretty sure that is a word. His SEAL buddy Derek has a fun role in this book too which I really enjoyed.

Kelsey is a fun heroine who has a pretty awesome job – identifying anonymous bones. She of course still loves Gage, but can’t wait around for him anymore. But when they are forced together on the run, she can’t help but want him

“Why would I want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?”

Gage turned into the parking lot of a cheap-looking motel and whipped into a space. “Because it’s like sex, only better.”

Kelsey bit her tongue. He was getting to her, and he knew it. It was the way he looked at her with those warm blue eyes. It was his low voice, his two-day beard. Just the sight of his muscled forearm propped on the steering wheel right now was giving her a bone-deep craving for something she knew she shouldn’t have.

Their romance develops at a nice pace and I like that the author doesn’t throw in sex scenes at random when these two are in great danger. She waits for them to only be in slight danger when they get it on. *wink*

I think Laura Griffin needs to write more SEAL hero books!  But even if she doesn’t,  I highly recommend this author and series. This one and the previous book, Twisted are my favorites, but each one is good and can be read as a stand alone.

Rating: B

Recent Reviews:
The Bookpushers – B
Happily Ever After – Reads – 4.5/5
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