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(Take It Off, #4)
By: Cambria Hebert
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: Nov. 14, 2013
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Rating:
One text can change everything.
Honor Calhoun never thought her life would ever be like the books she writes for a living. One morning while out for a run, she learns not all bad things are plots in novels. Some horrors can actually come true. She faces off with a persistent attacker, holds her own, but in the end is taken hostage and thrown into a hole. In the middle of the woods.
But Honor didn’t go down there alone. She took her kidnapper’s phone with her. With a spotty signal and a dying battery, her hope is slim.
Nathan Reed is an active duty Marine stationed at a small reserve base in Pennsylvania. All he wants is a calm and uneventful duty station where he can forget the memories of his time in a war-torn country. But a single text changes everything. Nathan becomes Honor’s only hope for survival, and he has to go against the clock, push aside his past, and take on a mission for a girl he’s never met.
Both of them want freedom… but they have to survive long enough to obtain it.
This was just not for me. There was too much military jargon and I felt like I was reading a “How to speak Marine 101” book. I will admit that some of it was necessary but I have yet to meet someone in the military who didn’t know how to turn off their work persona when not at work. So that did kind of bug me. However, kudos to the author for getting it right. I suppose my biggest pet peeve about military romance novels would be authors who write about military men/women and have no idea what they are talking about. Cambria knows what she’s talking about.
Given the synopsis, I wish that the book contained more of Honor’s kidnapped experience. I was really hoping for the majority of the story to be Honor in the hole talking to Nathan via text and holding out hope that she will make it out alive. Instead, once she sends the text to the random number on the abductor’s cellphone, her rescuer shows up and saves the day. I just felt like that was over way too fast and the story moved on to the romance too quickly. For someone who’d been kidnapped and almost raped, I would not be having sexual thoughts about some strange guy who saved me. I would not be okay if right after rescuing me, he lifted up my shirt and started kissing my bruised and broken rib cage. I just felt like some things moved too fast.
This story could have been so amazing for me. I was looking foraย good suspense but I just didn’t get it with this one. It was more a tease than anything. I mean, you have Nathan who when he gets the text for help, he’s sitting across from the guy playing poker with him during one of their poker nights. Granted, he doesn’t know the guy well, it doesn’t take away from the fact that he knows the guy. I mean, that could have been drawn out longer and played up to the point where the reader is on the edge of their seat. I really was disappointed with this one. I was expecting something completely different given the synopsis.
“And also, I found it quite amusing that on the cusp of death, my one regret seemed to be that I didn’t have a dog.”
I can’t do too much jargons too. It’s cool if you’re familiar with it, adds an authentic feel to the story, but if you’re an idiot, or in this case a civilian, then it flies over our heads. That said, it’s too bad the rest of the story didn’t hold well either. Hopefully your next read is way better.
I understand the jargon, I just felt like it was overdone. Oh well.
Huh, I’ve never read a book with a military main character/love interest just yet. Never noticed that before lol. The How to speak Marine 101 type feel would get on my nerves too. Hope your next read is more to your liking!
Thanks. They tend to be hit or miss for me given that I actually know some things about military life. So, if the author has no idea what they are talking about it really bothers me.
Oh man! What a let down. That synopsis sounds full of potential. I can’t believe it turned out so bad.
Yeah. I was hoping for more suspense. ๐
That stinks. It can be such a hard line between getting it right, overdoing it or not researching enough. I just read a BDSM one along those lines where it was just a little too heavy handed in the wordage used like that.
๐ That sucks. Military romances are tricky. You need to actually know what you’re talking about and you need to get it right. I think one of my hugest pet-peeves with covers is when they put the wrong military uniform on the cover. I saw one this past year that had soldier on the title and on the cover was clearly and USMC uniform. Those things really bother me >.<
Hmmmm. Sounds like this probably isn’t for me. But I’ve read good things about other books by this author so maybe will give another one a try!
Jen @ YA Romantics
Sounds like a plan. I should probably do the same. The writing was good, I just had some issues with the story is all.
Aw sorry to hear that the jargon was so distracting. It does sound like it has premise but just didn’t quite get there
Bummer the verbiage was a little too much, love the cover though.
Sucks it wasn’t good but at least the author knew what she was talking about.