Good start to this new romantic suspense series. The story was engaging and kept me interested in finding out what was going on. Travis and Lila were both a bit quirky yet likable and had some serious chemistry although quite often I felt it was mostly physical. I still enjoyed it very much! And look forward to the next book.

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A book about SEAL's? Um...Hell Yeah! Don't mind if I do. But.....I feel like there was something missing.

Lila is a woman on a mission. I'd actually say that she's on a few missions. After years of being controlled by her Navy SEAL father, her first mission is to prove him wrong by making a life for herself outside of the "family name". The fact that he doesn't approve of her new career is just icing on the cake. But in order to fulfill the first mission, she has to succeed in the second one, making sure she gets the chef her client wants to sign on the dotted line. But that's a little hard to do when there's no chef...

Travis is a SEAL. Well, technically not anymore since he's been discharged due to an injury. So he's taking some time to figure out what he wants to "do with his life" now that being a SEAL is no longer an option. That is until a beautiful blonde tackles him on the beach and he finds himself rescuing her. After all, he's still trained to help others, right? But while helping her, can he help himself as well?

Although I felt that the story line was good, I found myself bored and skimming through it sometimes. The more I think about it, the more I think it's because I didn't like Lila's character. She spends most of the time being upset that she's been controlled all her life, but gets upset with Travis for taking over in order to keep her safe when she's the one who puts herself in harms way. Then you have the fact that although there is mutual physical chemistry, I just didn't "feel" it.

That all being said, I really enjoyed the "drama" and trying to figure out "who did it". Each character had their own issues to work out, but were able to lean on each other. Overall this was a good read that was entertaining. I can't figure out if this will end up being a series, but if it is, I'd most likely pick it up since I'm a SEAL-lover.

2.5 Stars bumped up to 3 stars for having a better ending than beginning.

Thoughts and Plot

This book is a classic example of Harlequin Romantic Suspense. And I do mean classic.
Beautiful, curvy but petite, long blonde haired Lila is the daughter of a arrogant, somewhat controlling rich man. She snubs her glamourous rich life under his rule in favour of running her own business, helping rich people get the servants they want to work for them. In this case, a particular chef.
Travis is your classic injured Navy Seal, tall, handsome and muscular. Also a bit of a a-hole because he’s angry at his career ending due to knee injury. I forget his hair and eye colour…because these guys tend to blend together in my head. 😊
Of course, they immediately decide upon first sight that they find each other super hot and there is a quite a bit of internal dialogue supplied to support that, which is fine despite the fact Travis is a bit of a dick upon their first actual meeting. I will be mentioning the hotness part a lot, cause it features a lot. To the point I honestly started skipping over the ‘hotness’ internal dialogue bits because they are so frequent.
Anyhow, when things go wrong and Lila witnesses a murder, she runs straight into Travis, quite literally. To the point it’s described that she is trying to get into his skin…eeeww? Onwards! In 30 minutes all traces of the crime is erased and neither the cops or Travis believe Lila. The book totally could have been a short story that ended there, but, of course it didn’t because cops I suspected to be crooked cannot keep from making from stupid mistakes, like trying to convince Travis that Lila is loco, which he already thought. So Travis mulls that over a little and Lila gets herself kidnapped and Travis somehow ‘knows’ it’s her screaming and rescues the damsel. Of course, while rescuing her he has time to reflect on how hot she is, cause that’s a priority warranting standing in the doorway on a ship she’s been stored on, you know, tied up and all. But she’s hot!
Then, during the escape, before they are even back to shore they are both back to thinking how hot the other is…
Things start picking up just shy of the 100 page mark, which is my usual place from drawing the line, so that was good because I obviously was interested enough to keep going. Then it almost immediately settled back into lusting. So much “lust.” Then we get to see hotel incompetence and more crooked police interference, more ‘who did it’ nonsense that is meant to build the suspense. I didn’t feel the suspense till the last…50 or so pages, but we will get to that.
The whole time this is happening we are back in classic romance land and the two of them are taking turns describing what is so hot about each other and telling themselves not to go there. Repeatedly. I’m suspecting about 1/5 of this book is taken up by descriptions of each other’s hotness. If not 1/4. Hot shoulders, hot butt, hot boobs, LOTS of hot long blonde hair, hot hands…etc. You get it, they are very into each other bodies.
Now, the part you ALL want to know about does not take place till page 189 and actually happens page 192-193. That’s 4+ pages shy of 2/3s of the way through the book. Lots of peaks and boobs and nipples and mewling etc. etc. It was okay. I’d actually say the whole thing is about a page long, but where it starts makes it two pages. It was okay, all in all. It is pretty short, word wise, and a bit glossed over. But, of course, it was the best ever for them, so…yeah.
As I said at the beginning. I liked the ending a lot more than I liked the beginning. Things actually start to happen and you finally discover who the bad guy is. Maybe it’s because it was an advance copy, BUT there is a huge plot gap on page 263. Please tell me that part was just accidentally edited out cause otherwise that it the most annoying place to jump forward in time EVER!!! So due to frustration, the book lost points there, like a whole star cause I have no idea what happened to get from point A to point B. I actually flipped the pages back and forth on my phone cause I thought I must have double tapped. Nope. Not there. Trusting that’s an ARC problem.
I also wasn’t feeling the ‘happily ever after’ family thing. It was out of nowhere and a bit rushed seeing how her father was overriding her life when she already told him “no” at the beginning of the book and they obviously did not have a good relationship due to his controlling ways. Came from way out if left field and felt like it was dropped in a Deus ex Machina type way to help wrap the book up with a neat pink bow.

Things I didn’t understand:

“The move got him a face full of her hair and a lung full of what seemed like the smoky scent of flowers at midnight .”- I honestly don’t understand how flower are smoky at midnight…

Why, after witnessing a potential murder then being kidnapped, she didn’t get the hell out of dodge? She’s got a rich daddy.

“the nipples stabbing his palms.” - Is that a real thing I’m not aware of?

In Conclusion

This book was a textbook example of a classic Harlequin Romance, with a tiny bit of suspense thrown in to back up all the lusting. It’s a good start for Tawny Weber and I think with a few more books under her belt, she could become a pretty good romance writer, however there was just too much formula (textbook) writing and repetitive salivating over each other. That paired with the standard gooey cheesy fairytale ending (I don’t mean that in a terribly negative way, honest) and slow start I can’t give this book a full 3 stars, so 2.5 with a bump up it is.

Awesome suspense romance book, characters were likeable and story was well wriiten.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance read

ARC received for review

Good start to a new series by a wonderful author.

Lots of chemistry between Travis and Lila and crazy bad guys to catch. The ending was disappointing. Yes, they got a HEA, but then done, nothing extra. I need an epilogue...every time...even if it's only a couple days later instead of years later.