Review: A SEAL's Desire by Tawny Weber #HelenReviews

A SEAL's Desire by Tawny Weber
Purchase link: Amazon

Helen's rating:   

Heat rating:    

Who's Your Hero? 2016

Time for another blog hop and this time, it's all about heroes. I love heroes. For me when I read a romance, it's the hero I'm drawn to. I've said it a few times in blog posts too. This hop is kindly hosted by Herding Cats & Burning Soup.

This month we're celebrating the men and women (and animals too!) that rock a uniform--whichever uniform that may be. Military, Police, Firefighter and all others who serve and protect. So...Who's Your Hero? Stop by each blog for a giveaway and to find out who OUR favorite fictional and real life heroes are...

New Release: Cuff Me (New York's Finest #3) by Lauren Layne

Cuff Me
New York's Finest #3
By: Lauren Layne
Releasing March 29, 2016
Forever

Buy Links:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo

Synopsis

Vincent knows he's not the most charming of the Moretti brothers. He prefers brooding to flirting, reading to talking, and he sure as hell isn't about to give into his mother's insistence that he 'settle down with a nice girl.' Luckily, Vincent's gig as one of the NYPD's top homicide detectives keeps him busy. As does his long-time partner, Jill Henley–a tough-as-nails cop with the face of an angel and smart mouth that makes Vincent crazy in all the worst ways.

After six years of working the homicide beat with the tight-lipped Vincent Moretti, Jill figure she knows him better than anyone. Which is not at all. But when their most recent case points to a potential serial-killer situation, the higher-ups send them on a rare undercover mission to a place no NYPD officer dares go: the Upper Eastside.

Now the bureau's most antagonistic set of partners is posing as Mr. and Mrs. Brooks of Park Avenue. Spending 24/7 in the suspect's territory brings them closer and closer to their killer . . . and closer to each other. Soon Vincent and Jill are playing good cop/bad cop in and out of bed, and Jill's falling hard. But can she convince Vincent to give her a shot as partner in life, as well as at the bureau?

---

Excerpt

    "There’s something wrong with a man that grins like that at a crime scene.”
    Detective Vincent Moretti glanced up from where he’d been studying the gunshot wound of the vic and glared at the officer who’d been shadowing him for the past three months.
    “I wasn’t grinning.”
    Detective Tyler Dansen never paused in scribbling in the black notebook he carried everywhere. “You were definitely grinning.”
    “Nope.”
    Dansen glanced up. “Fine. Maybe not grinning. But I’m one hundred percent sure I saw you smile.”
    “How about you be one hundred percent sure about who shot this guy instead?” Vincent said irritably.
    Dansen returned his attention to his damn notebook, but he didn’t look particularly chagrined by Vin’s reprimand.
    Oh, what Vin wouldn’t give to go back to those early days when all he’d had to do was look at Dansen, and the kid practically dropped into a deferential bow.
    Three months of spending every workday in each other’s company had the newly minted detective acting nearly as impudent as Vincent’s actual partner.
    Nearly being an important distinction, because Vincent didn’t think they made ’em sassier, more stubborn, or more annoying than Detective Jill Henley.
    And he would know. They’d been partners for six long years, and their pairing up as partners was proof of God’s sense of humor.
    Jill Henley was Vincent’s opposite in every way.
    Jill was chipper, charming, and smiley.
    Vincent was... none of those things.
    Especially not the last one. Although, if he was being really honest with himself, Dansen may have been right about Vincent cracking a smile earlier.
    It’s not that Vin was immune to death. There was absolutely nothing humorous about a man lying cold in his own blood and guts, dead from a gunshot wound to the stomach.
    But after six years as a homicide DT for the NYPD, one learned to compartmentalize. To let the brain occasionally go somewhere else other than death even as you were staring straight at it.
    It was the only way to survive. Otherwise it was nothing but puking and nightmares.
    And speaking of puking...
    Vincent stood and gave Detective Dansen a once-over.
    “If you’re gonna barf, do it outside,” he said, just to needle the younger man.
    Dansen threw his arms up in exasperation. “That was one time. One time! And I hear it happens to everyone on their first day.”
    “Didn’t happen to me.”
    “That’s because you’re a machine,” Dansen muttered under his breath.
    Vincent didn’t respond to this. It was nothing he hadn’t heard before. Robot. Machine. Automaton.
    He just didn’t know what people expected him to do about it.
    In the movies, there was always some reason for the semi-mechanical, unfeeling action hero.
    Either a dead wife, an abusive past, or some other sort of jacked-up emotional history. But Vincent had always sort of figured he’d been born this way.     Quiet. Reserved. Broody.
    It’s not that he didn’t feel. Of course he did. He just didn’t feel out loud.     He wasn’t sure that he really knew how to, and wasn’t sure he wanted to learn.

---

Follow the tour | Goodreads | Goodreads series


Author Info

Lauren Layne is the USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance.

Prior to becoming an author, Lauren worked in e-commerce and web-marketing. In 2011, she and her husband moved from Seattle to New York City, where Lauren decided to pursue a full-time writing career. It took six months to get her first book deal (despite ardent assurances to her husband that it would only take three). Since then, Lauren's gone on to publish ten books, including the bestselling Stiletto series, with several more on the way in 2015.

Lauren currently lives in Chicago with her husband and spoiled Pomeranian. When not writing, you'll find her at happy hour, running at a doggedly slow pace, or trying to straighten her naturally curly hair.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads




Rafflecopter Giveaway
(A Custom Mug, $25.00 Amazon Gift Card and Print Set of FRISK ME/STEAL ME)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Find Deanna around SOCIAL MEDIA:
                  

New Release: Saved by the SEAL (Battle Scars #2) by Diana Gardin

Saved By The SEAL
Battle Scars #2
By: Diana Gardin
Releasing March 8, 2016
Forever Yours

Buy Links:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo

Review: Viral Justice (Biological Response Team #3) by Julie Rowe

Viral Justice (Biological Response Team #3) by Julie Rowe
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 

Heat rating:    

Book three of Biological Response Team

As a general's daughter, Alicia Stone has fought twice as hard for everything she's earned in the military. A Special Forces consultant with black belts in three martial arts, she's as strong as her surname implies. No one dares call her Alicia—no one but Colonel Robert Maxmillian, head of the Biological Response Team.

With Alicia at his side, Max must lead the team into northern Iraq to investigate a virus—or is it a weapon—killing the area's population. Charged with guarding his body, she can't help wanting his hands on her body. Max would be the perfect fling. But he demands more.

The heat builds between them, but danger quickly follows. As the two get closer to the source of the virus, they'll have to risk their future to outsmart a scientist with nothing to lose.

It's always an adrenalin filled, heart thumping ride when reading one of Julie Rowe's Biological Response Team stories. This one is no exception. I adore this world Ms Rowe has created, with great characters, deadly weapons and fanatical enemies.

Max is likely my favorite hero of all three books I've read so far. He is such a great character. I accidentally read a review which criticized Max as being a beta hero with Ali being the alpha of the two. I disagree. Max might not be a pumped up, ass kicking Green Beret Special Forces soldier but he's a force to be reckoned with. His dedication to his job and doing what's right is extremely commendable. He might not know how to shoot straight and kill a man with his bare hands in a dozen different ways, but he's smart, he's sharp, insightful, knowledgeable, and he's decisive. He's the best at what he does. A muscle bound grunt is easily replaceable. He is not. He recognizes the war he is fighting when it comes to biological weapons and he fights it with everything he's got. He's also a leader of a group of very strong, intelligent men and women, and they all respect him. That makes him a hero in my book, not whether he can kill a man at twenty paces. Of course, when push came to shove, he fought his own inner demons and won. He got it done.

Ali is also incredible. She's strong, determined and very, very tough. I was worried when I read the alpha comment about her that she would be one of those ball buster bitches, but she's not. She probably can be, since she is the one who trains the Green Beret Special Forces guys to be the kick ass fighters they are, which makes her better than them and far deadlier, but she doesn't come across that way. She comes across as dedicated, protective, and smart.

Another fantastic installment in the series. I can't wait for more.


View all my reviews

The other books in the series:

Book 1  - Deadly Strain 4 of 5 stars My Review

Book 2  - Lethal Game 4 of 5 stars My Review

Also, find out why Julie Rowe is one of my favorite new authors for 2015 and the Biological Response Team made my favorite new series of 2015.


About the author

Julie Rowe’s first career as a medical lab technologist in Canada took her to the North West Territories and northern Alberta, where she still resides. She loves to include medical details in her romance novels, but admits she’ll never be able to write about all her medical experiences because, “No one would believe them!”.

In addition to writing contemporary and historical medical romance, and fun romantic suspense for Entangled Publishing and Carina Press, Julie has short stories in Fool’s Gold, the Mammoth Book of ER Romance, Timeless Keepsakes and Timeless Escapes anthologies. Her book SAVING THE RIFLEMAN (book #1 WAR GIRLS) won the novella category of the 2013 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. AIDING THE ENEMY (book #3 WAR GIRLS) won the novella category of the 2014 Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence. Her writing has also appeared in several magazines such as Romantic Times Magazine, Today’s Parent, and Canadian Living.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads


Find Deanna around SOCIAL MEDIA: