"The Power of A SEAL" was a slow, sweet, gentle love story. Lefton was a SEAL who had been rethinking what he wants to do with his life. For the first time in his life, he's considering leaving the SEALS but he's not sure what he'd do as a civilian. In the midst of his crisis, he meets marine mammal veterinarian, Kerry. Sparks fly and they act on their attraction then have a relationship. Aaaand, that's the bulk of the book. Not a lot happens, until about the last 20% or so, when there's some action and a little mystery.

Lefton, or Leaper as he's often called, was hurt both physically and emotionally on his last field assignment. While he's recovering, he's instructing SEAL trainees. He encourages them, coaches them, and puts his heart and seal into teaching them. Whether or not they complete their training, he's going to make sure they have the cognitive, emotional and physical skills to be the best they can. Elizabeth goes overboard here, trying to show how awesome and wonderful. He was a better teacher, he cared more, he was the most ethical, blah blah bah. He was Mr. Perfect. Even as a boyfriend and love, he was thoughtful, considerate, sweet, kind, patient. At times, his dialogue sounded like a script from a couples counseling session. Do people really talk like that? No one I know does. On the plus side, he's not cold or walled off. He has emotions and mostly does a good job of owning them.

Kerry works at a local marine institute that sometimes works with the military. She's responsible for health and ell-being of the dolphins and sharks. There's a disease that's spreading amongst her dolphins and wild dolphins and she's trying to cure it. She too is almost too good to be real at times. he's supportive, encouraging, sexually adventurous and assertive, excellent at her work, neat, organized, etc.

I loved that Kerry knew what she liked sexually and didn't hesitate to ask for it or take it. She has a past, Lefty has a past, and that's not a problem for either of them. And, they had THE TALK. Yes, they actually talked about STDs, when they were last tested, and birth control. Responsible adults, a rarity in contemporary romance. Also wonderful was that they were slightly older than typical romance couple. Kerry seems to be her in mid-thirties while Leaper is late thirties or early forties. They had life experience and maturity but weren't boring. They were respectful and courteous, passionate and impulsive,

The bulk of the book is Kerry and Leaper getting to know each other and becoming entwined in each other's lives. There's not much tension, they're good together and happy together. While I enjoyed the freedom from angst, there needed to be tension between the, something besides happy times all the time. The story veered between heavy introspection, mostly from Leaper, a little work drama at both their jobs, steamy love scenes, and some action towards the end. I kept waiting for something to happen. They did have a fight near the end which had me rolling my eyes. Kerry squawks about how Leaper had overshared with her when they first met and I'm there, going "No, you don't get to fuss at for him for that when you pushed and prodded and poked him into sharing. You forced him to share when he wasn't ready, and now you're accusing him of oversharing? Oh hell, no."

"The Power of A SEAL' has some exciting moments but at heart, it's a sweet and languorous love story, full of detail about SEAL life and marine animals. Light on posturing and overbearing behavior, it was a slow, steady slide into love. It didn't rock my world, but it did brighten my day.

While Ms. Elizabeth is a new to me author I picked this book to read solely based on the merits of the back cover.  A story featuring gorgeous navy seals on their home base in San Diego, friendly dolphins and other marine sea life in the region and an action adventure is a recipe for a winner.

After a mission gone bad, Leaper Lefton is struggling with his commitment to the navy and the seals.  Stationed at the base as a BUD/s instructor the navy hopes that Leaper will find himself as he works to help trainees get the skills necessary to not only survive BUD/s but also in the field. It's interesting reading how the different instructors bring such a radically different approach in their methodology to strengthen the trainees to survive in the field.  Leaper's trainee team finds one of their training maneuvers getting a real life application when they are called upon to save a swimmer in distress and rescue her dolphin as well.
Kerry Hamilton is a marine veterinarian assigned to the nearby marine unit that rescues and studies marine mammals. Of course the rescue is the start of a relationship between Leaper and Kerry watched over by his trainee pod.  The author packs in a lot of great research data on marine mammals which also makes the story drag a little bit but soon there is excitement as first Kerry discovers a disease in one of favorite mammals and leverages Leaper's help to medicate the free mammals in the vicinity and test a cure that will have long ranging impact.
The author not content with this spot of excitement introduces some marine terrorists who plan to exploit the animals in the marine base.  While there are a host of characters in this books that sound interesting and for all that Leaper and Kerry are very interesting characters this story did not do it for me.

A marine mammal veterinarian, Kerry, and her dolphin are rescued by a Navy SEAL, Leaper, during a training exercise for the SEAL BUD/s under his command, off the Pacific coast of San Diego.

Both Lefton and Kerry are devoted to their careers, but one chance meeting and they find themselves embroiled in an attraction that sizzles. Now they need to find a way to balance the careers that have filled their lives and relationship that could make it so much more.

The Power of a SEAL was just one of those feel good, happily ever after, sweet and true romances that we all love.

I received this ARC copy of The Power of a Seal from SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca. This is my honest and voluntary review. The Power of a Seal is set for publication December 05, 2017.

My Rating: 4 stars
Written by: Anne Elizabeth
Series: West Coast Navy SEALs (Book 5)
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: December 5, 2017
ISBN-10: 1492650927
ISBN-13: 978-1492650928
Genre: Military Romance

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Reviewed for: http://tometender.blogspot.com

9 likes

The fifth book in the West Coast Navy Seal series is about Navy Seal Leaper Lefton as a BUD/s instructor out on one of his training sessions when he rescues mammal veterinarian Kerry Hamilton and her dolphin. There is an instant attraction between these two that quickly heats up.

As in all of Anne Elizabeth's Seals stories she shows just how much stamina and skills that a Seal has.

Are there any more single SEALS. Lord sign me up! What a fun, thrilling yet sweetly romantic story!

This was a good love story between a SEAL (Leaper) and a Vet (Kerry). It was a slow read, but a good book. A very detailed book.

Who doesn’t love a seal book and this is one hell of a seal book. Anne Elizabeth has outdone herself with this book and should be proud of such a fantastic story her readers are going to love. I did and I can’t wait for more from her especially in this series. Would recommend

I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review. I have read other books by this author and have enjoyed them. I did like this book but it took me awhile to get into it. I started reading then stopped for awhile before I was in the mood to pick it up again. This is the story of Seal Leaper Lefton and Kerry Hamilton a marine animal veterinarian. Leaper is an instructor and it is his job to prepare the seals he is teaching for any situation. Kerry needs to be saved from the rough seas Leaper saves her. They are instantly attracted to each other. Leaper has been through a lot and is unsure if he can find true love again. Its a slow moving book but its a cute story. I would say to give the book a chance I liked it more as I continued reading. It was a good book, while it's not my favorite of her books I am glad I read it and saw Leapers story.

I've fallen in love with Anne Elizabeth's books. She writes such wonderful characters. I love how mature and self aware both Leaper and Kerry are.

DNF: 52% completed

This book was just....boring. The only plot that I found was bringing these two together, which happens in the first chapter. The rest is just them getting to know each other.

Love how they met...but then things get weird. So Leaper (odd name by the way) is training SEALs when he sees a woman struggling in the water. He rescues her and her dolphin (the dolphins goes on a boat?) and brings them to shore. She hugs him to thank you but then...he kisses her. Um...they've barely said more than 2 words to each other and he kisses her on the dock full of people? I felt like he took advantage of her because she was obviously still surprised over what happened.

Still I gave the story a chance but halfway through I was too bored to stay invested.

I enjoyed this book. The characters sh0wed a large amount of emotion, and it was a good romance story.

A great romance novel that involves a sexy SEAL with a sweet love story. This book is full of love, hope, heartache, and family. Overall a great read

This was a good book with two very likable main characters. There was a bit too much detail in regards to both their jobs for me, but overall I enjoyed the love story and the way it unfolded.