Veena’s review of Her Fierce Warrior (X-Ops, Book 4) by Paige Tyler
Paranormal Romance published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 01 Mar 16
This series is a great blend of action adventure with the paranormal. A top-secret black operation teams up a shape shifter with a special operations agent to execute missions around the world. For some time we have known that there are other groups that are trying to create shape shifters, but the scientists seem to be able to stay one step ahead of the teams dispatched to locate and neutralize them. When Minka escapes from the research facility where she was created, will she be able to lead teams back to it and change the outcome?
Minka is kidnapped from home and held in a top-secret research facility where her DNA is altered and she’s experimented on. In a lucky stroke she manages to escape and make her way toward her home. On her way she’s surrounded by some locals with ill intent, only to be saved by a SEAL team in the vicinity – or more specifically Angelo Rios, who’s able to get through to her and make a connection. It is so cute to see how Minka bonds with Angelo, trusting him enough to sleep snuggled in his lap all the way from Afghanistan to Washington.
Before the two can say Jack Robinson, they are being shipped back stateside straight to the DCO. There are more surprises in store as Minka accepts what’s been done to her and finds her special DNA donor. As those of you who have been reading the series know, there are a lot plots and subplots with the DCO and some of the characters that people trust and distrust. It’s really funny how that becomes obvious very quickly in this book. Minka’s instincts are spot on. I enjoyed getting to learn more about some of the characters we’ve met before and seeing them become more three dimensional.
Angelo and Minka, contrary to regulations, become more than friends and make friends with the rest of the DCO team. Since that seems to be an under-the-radar standard, I guess they fit right in with the rest of the couples. Ms.Tyler does a great job with helping Minka assimilate her new shifter DNA into her everyday life and learn to control it. I really like the contrast between the wanton shifter who has no qualms about going after her soul mate with the wide-eyed innocent who can’t believe her eyes at the contrasts between the nation’s capital and her small village.
The DCO still wants to find the scientists who are continuing the research and shut it down, so before long Minka and Angelo are a part of a top-secret mission to locate the facility where Minka was imprisoned and shut it down. While there are hints of torture and experimentation in earlier books, for the first time I really saw a parallel between this series and the famous Breeds series by another author.
Each book in the series stands on its own and delivers a great story, but the series is just gathering steam if the last chapter in this story is to be believed. I can’t wait to read the back story into these characters.
Grade: A
Summary:
The woman tensed. As anger and fear ricocheted across her face, her eyes changed from red to green to brown in a dizzying display like nothing he’d ever seen.
Every instinct in Angelo’s body screamed at him to lunge for his weapon. Instead he set his feet for impact, blocking her slashing claws. Unbelievably, after a few moments of struggling, she went still, all the fight gone…
Minka isn’t sure she should trust the sexy Special Forces soldier who found her. Subjected to horrors, on the run from scientists set on locking her in a cage, Minka is terrified of the monster she’s becoming…and somehow, Angelo is the only one who can calm the beast inside her and make her feel safe.
But can she trust the way he makes her feel when she’s not even sure she can trust herself?
Other books in this series:
