Stevie‘s review of Full Throttle (Black Knights, Inc., Book 7) by Julie Ann Walker
Contemporary Romantic Suspense published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 02 Dec 14
I’ve loved this series since the moment I jumped into it with Book 5, and although I’m still going to go back and read the earlier books, I’m still having no problems keeping all the team members and the overall team dynamic straight in my head. On the other hand, there are a number of continuing themes and overarching plot-threads linking together the different books in the series, so it helps to have some knowledge of previous stories if only to enjoy the various in-jokes that are rolled out again here.
The Black Knights are an ultra-secret organisation reporting directly to the President of the United States – except an increasing number of outsiders have found out about them as the series has progressed – and the men are all super-alpha ex-military types – who don’t seem to take themselves or their organisation at all seriously. After two stories set mainly in the US, this time a number of the group find themselves overseas, guarding the President’s daughter as back-up to the official security detail – and she has a lot of history with one of the men assigned to her.
Abby, Carlos, and Carlos’ twin sister were all studying medicine (or in Abby’s case pre-med) together, until a terrorist bomb killed Carlos’ sister – Abby’s student advisor – a personal tragedy for which Abby feels greatly responsible. Now, eight years later, Abby is an environmental campaigner – having switched her major from pre-med to botany – and Carlos has served as a medic in the Rangers before joining the Black Knights.
I’m a little underwhelmed with Abby, to be honest. She comes across as a little too cute and quirky to be a spokesperson for anything, and her reasons for quitting medicine feel a little weak to me as well, especially given Abby’s privileged position with access to all the help and post-trauma counselling she could ever need. The circumstances surrounding her kidnap, and the subsequent investigation by those members of the Black Knights and the official security team still standing, come across as plausible enough for the genre, and she did try to rescue herself in the time it took for Carlos to track her down. However, I would have liked to see a few more moments in which her local knowledge is a little more to the forefront over and above Carlos’ more general survival skills.
I like, once again, the fact that a lot of those working for or with the bad guys have very human and believable reasons for doing so, and am glad to see the good guys working to rectify some of the situations that had led the main bad guys to be able to recruit their helpers. So, not the best book I’ve read in the series to date, but not enough of a set-back to keep me from awaiting the next one with just as much anticipation as before.
Grade: C
Summary:
Steady Hands, Cool Head…
Carlos “Steady” Soto’s nerves of steel have served him well at the covert government defense firm Black Knights Inc. But nothing has prepared him for the emotional roller coaster of guarding the woman he once loved and lost.
Will All He’s Got Be Enough?
Abby Thomson is content to leave politics and international intrigue to her father-the President of the United States-until she’s taken hostage half a world away, and she fears her father’s policy of not negotiating with terrorists will be her death sentence. There’s one glimmer of hope: the man whose heart she broke, but she can ever tell him why…
As they race through the jungle in a bid for safety, the heat simmering between Steady and Abby could be a second chance for them-if they make it out alive.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
