Veena’s review of Heart of Danger (Ghost Ops Book 1) by Lisa Marie Rice
Paranormal Erotic Romance published by Avon Red 06 Nov 12
I really enjoy the stoic alpha heroes who face danger without batting an eyelash and yet melt into marshmallow for the woman of their dreams who feature in Lisa Marie Rice stories. The deeply emotional love scenes with kick-ass military style action is an irresistible combination that I anticipate way in advance of a new release, but this one just snuck up and surprised me without any fanfare. This wasn’t the only surprise.
Catherine Young is a highly gifted scientist. By its very nature, science believes in logic and proof to support that logic and yet Catherine is gifted in ways that defy logic, and try as she does to suppress that part of her, it breaks through during her research in her current facility where she is working on what she believes is a cure for Alzheimer’s. In reality it’s a top notch military research facility and the patients that she is working with are the equivalent of lab rats who are being experimented on.
She sets out to look for Tom McEnroe, aka MAC, with a vague set of pointers. Against all logic, she locates him – or more accurately when all else fails and she prepares to die, he locates her and takes her to his secret refuge called Haven, where he is the leader for other misfits and rejects from society. Mac and his two teammates are part of a very secret black operations weapon called Ghost Operations. The team was betrayed on their last mission by their commanding officer and all but the three of them were killed. Barely escaping with their lives, they have now established Haven, a secret bunker buried way below a mountain with the most cutting edge technology funded through funds skimmed secretly from drug lords and other blights on society.
It’s almost as though Haven projects a psychic signal to people in need as they find their way to the mountaintop and then below the mountain to become contributing members fo this Utopian like society. There’s a lot of innocent lives at stake and so Mac needs to be sure that Catherine is not a spy who has managed to infiltrate their secret hideout. Against all logic, could her unbelievable story be true? Is it remotely possible that they were horribly misled and that Lucius Ward, their commanding officer, is actually a prisoner and not enjoying the fruits of his betrayal in luxury, as they’ve believed for the past year? Could he really be patient #9, who’s been subjected to the most brutal and horrific torture and experimentation? They’re almost convinced, except for one thing: Catherine is definitely hiding something.
Fearful that Catherine’s arrival threatens all they’ve built, Mac resists his almost immediate attraction to her. Aided and abated by the members of the community, the two are thrown together and therein begins a wonderful adventure in sensuality. When Catherine finally trusts them enough to offer the proof that defies science and logic, they know they need to rescue their commanding officer. I love the operation search and rescue in the facility and the antz, their interesting eyes in the building. Imagine their dismay and excitement when they find that there are three other prisoners in the facility.
Against all odds, they effect a heroic rescue, but they pay a heavy price. I really enjoyed the plot and the various twists and turns in the story as it moves forward. I didn’t know this one was coming, but I am already anticipating the next release because I truly want to know what happens next. It is clear that the paths of the people at Haven, most particularly Catherine, will cross with her old boss again and I can’t wait to see how it all comes together and what happens next.
Summary:
Ghost Ops. A small unit of super-elite soldiers so secret only two men know of their existence. Betrayed by their commanding officer while on an antiterrorist mission, the team is massacred. Only three survive—and find themselves framed and disgraced. But en route to the court martial, they escape . . . and disappear.
Beautiful, brilliant, and determined, Dr. Catherine Young is on a mission to find a man who has vanished into thin air. Walking into a high-tech hideaway bearing an essential message to Tom “Mac” McEnroe, Team Leader of the betrayed Ghost Ops force, is the most dangerous thing she has ever done. The soldier she encounters is frightening and suspicious, but her senses reveal the man underneath: tough, honorable, and so breathtakingly masculine Catherine feels weak in his presence . . . But to surrender to Mac’s passionate desires would put her life in dire jeopardy. Catherine has a gift that enables her to see into the heart of others—and looking into Mac’s is like staring into the very heart of danger itself.
Read an excerpt.
