Linda Howard's thriller The Woman Left Behind (#750) has a great storyline. Jina Modell is happy working at her office-bound job flying drones to support the activities of Go Teams, civilian equivalents of Navy SEALS or Army Rangers. That is until the day that her computer gaming skills promote her right onto the Go Team led by Levi Butcher, code name Ace. She'll be embedded with the team on its future missions, but first that means getting into the physical and mental shape to keep up with the team in the field. What she and the rest of the team don't realize is that they have a deadly enemy in Congress, determined to do anything to destroy the agency.
There's plenty of action and humor here as Jina tries to fit in with the members of her Go Team. She's not a quitter, so despite herself she tries her best at everything Levi throws at her, even tolerating the nickname she's saddled with - Babe. The reader is aware of the traps being laid for the team as Jina and the others deploy to Syria on a dangerous mission, where she becomes The Woman Left Behind.
What I didn't care for in this book were the many explicit sex scenes, real and imagined, between Jina and Levi. Although many readers love steamy romances, I'm not one of them. They really spoiled the book for me. In real life, I would have yanked Jina from that Go Team and reassigned her before anyone could be hurt by the constant sexual tension here. Much as I liked Ms. Howard's basic premise, in future, I'll look elsewhere for political thrillers.
No comments:
Post a Comment