Synopsis:
It was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. But when her wedding erupts in gunfire, Sadie Walker realizes this is not the life she wants – her fiancé’s work with Delta Force will always cast a shadow over their relationship. After leaving the hard-muscled hero at the altar, she thinks she’ll never see him again . . . until a chance encounter reveals that he still has a strong grip on her heart.
On a covert assignment overseas, Simon Tennant is shocked when he spots Sadie with another man. Jealousy flares, as does an irresistible urge to keep her protected. Amid a dangerous game of international espionage, he’ll have to convince Sadie just how perfect they’ve always been together. This time, nothing will take precedence over winning her back, no matter the cost to his cover – or his life . . .
Review:
Normally I love a good second chance romance, but this one just didn’t quite make it for me.
I liked both Simon and Sadie, and there were some genuinely funny and touching parts. Simon’s preoccupation with figuring out what Sadie was doing, for example, and Sadie’s new ability to pull the wool completely over his eyes was amusing. The way that Simon still had feelings for her after their time apart, and Sadie’s eventual realization that she did for him as well was a great moment.
However, there were other parts mixed in there that just didn’t work for me.
Like why Sadie dumped Simon–on their wedding day–because she suddenly realized that what he did was too dangerous for her to deal with…and then she quit her own job and joined the CIA. Because that’s a super-safe profession, you know.
And Sadie’s complete hatred for Simon when she “found out” that he’d used his covert skills to woo her in the first place? Of course he did. Hasn’t the woman ever seen a single James Bond film? Or even a commercial? If a guy’s got mad skills, naturally he’s going to use them to his advantage. Her resentment over that made no sense…and was quickly disposed of in about thirty seconds when her coworker let her in on the “secret”. But in the meantime she spent a year hating the guy for no reasonable reason. After all, she’s the one who’d cried off–where did she get the right to be resentful that he actually went?
Finally–try as I did, I just couldn’t really feel the chemistry between the two of them for much of the book. Especially when Sadie turned their every early encounter once they reconnected into an emotionless example of stress relief…so not sexy.
They did have a better connection by the end, once each knew the truth about the other, and the conclusion gave me hope that the second time might indeed be the charm. The suspense and action bits were pretty good as well, which gives me hope that this one was just a one-off and the other books in the series will be more on par with book 3.
Though it’s fifth in the series and loosely connected to the only other Alpha Ops book I’ve read so far (Pushing the Limit–Harry and Matt’s hookup is the night before the wedding that doesn’t happen for Simon and Sadie), Compromised worked just fine as a standalone. Though I have to admit, what I’ve seen of Malone Garrett here has me chomping at the bit to read his story ASAP…
Rating: 3 1/2 stars / C+
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.