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For those of you who love military suspense with romance mixed in, as much as I do, this is a must-read. In Call of Duty, Merline Lovelace combines both suspense and passion for a story I didn’t want to put down.
Captain Jennifer Varga counts joining the Air Force as one of the two great mistakes of her life, due mainly to the lingering effects of one too many fuzzy navels. Jennifer is a computer whiz who can’t stand the rules and regs of military life anymore. She continually appeals to her boss, Colonel Mike Page, who has taken Jennifer on as a personal mission. He wants her to live up to her potential and serve out her commitment to the Air Force. Jen refers to Mike as Iron Jaw Page due to their frequent “discussions” in his office.
Jen is working on a task force to upgrade the personnel files and is bored by her job. When her coworker suddenly dies form a heart attack, Jen saves his files with her ID and unknowingly gets herself into a hot situation.
When she goes to work on his files, she notices some discrepancies in some of the entries. Her curiosity piqued, Jen tries to find out more about the strange entries. When Jen, her roommate, and her dog are attacked in two separate incidents, Mike is drawn into the situation, and the simmering chemistry between him and Jen explodes.
I have to say that I liked this book the best of the three, full-length, suspense books Lovelace has written. It was so interesting, compelling, and well-put-together, I could not put it down. The suspense was tight and exciting without being extremely far-fetched, and the characters were both likable. Mike was a hero in the true sense of the word. He was forceful but fair, and when Jen needed him, he ignored their professional differences.
After he and Jen became lovers, Mike immediately took steps to alter their working relationship so there would be no interference from that end (unfortunately, it didn’t work out quite as well as it should have). He didn’t waffle in his commitment to Jen, either. What I mean by this is that he could have had to choose between his career and Jen, but he didn’t. There was never any question once the relationship changed.
And hallelujah for a hero without angst! If you are a tortured hero fan, you’ll be disappointed here.
Jen was a great heroine, too. She was intelligent and inquisitive, but at the same time didn’t take herself too seriously. I felt a kindred spirit in her because of the mess she made wherever she went (my husband tells me the same thing – wherever I go a mess is sure to follow). She never felt the need to go out on her own to prove how feisty she was.
I hope Ms. Lovelace has some more of these full-length military romantic suspense books in the works. This is the best one yet!
Grade: A-
Book Type: Romantic Suspense
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 14/07/98
Publication Date: 1998
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.