Beyond The Limit by Lindsay McKenna

Major Pete Trayhern’s newest assignment is to build a power plant near the Afghanistan mountains. While the Marines have prepared him to overcome challenges such as the desert climate and problems with the Taliban, nothing has prepared him for his site project engineer, Calandra Roland. Cali has proven herself in several major construction projects in the Middle East and is ready for her next challenge, but the electricity between Pete and herself may prove to be their undoing. The only option open to Pete and Cali is to be strictly professional. But when the danger surrounding them escalates, can Pete and Cali stay professional or will their feelings for each other betray them?

The slow pace to this book leaves Lindsay to fully develop the characters and their feelings for each other. I spent half of the book screaming at the characters to speak what’s on mind so they could get together. But without the simmer of the first half, you wouldn’t have had the emotionally charged second half. Not every book affects me the way this one did. I hope it does the same for you too.

Score: Great

Details: HQN, December 2006

Unforgiven by Lindsay McKenna

The government locked former Marine sniper Reno Manchahi away for a crime he didn’t commit. Meanwhile, his superior officer. who raped Reno’s wife before killing his entire family was on the outside knowing that he had gotten away with his crime and there wasn't a thing Reno could do about it. Filled with rage, Reno vowed revenge and when offered a way out, he accepted without hesitation since he knew that getting out was the first step to avenging his family. His assignment was to find and eliminate a ghost who was killing security guards at an Ecuadorian mine, an easy task for Reno considering his shape shifting ability. Little did Reno know that the ghost was also a shape shifter as well as a beautiful woman. Magdalena Calen Hernandez always fought for the underdog, so when the emerald cartel started killing innocents, she used her skills to scare the guards away from the mine. But little did Reno and Calen know that an ancient prophesy foretold of their role in a battle between good and evil that determines who will prevail over the next 1,000 years. Can Calen and Reno find a common ground as shape shifters and resolve their differences, or is the world doomed for the next 1,000 years?

This is the first story in the Warriors for the Light series and I’m looking forward to reading the rest. The characters are interesting, and I especially liked the dual identity of the characters. I also enjoyed the conflict between them in the beginning and how they worked together later in the book. I’m glad we’ll be seeing more of these characters as I’m curious to see how Lindsay handles the unresolved conflict within Reno about the murder of his family. For a line that I expected to start out with a pair of vampire stories, I’m glad the editors decided to go a different direction. So if you’re a Lindsay McKenna fan or like stories based in the supernatural, you’ll definitely want to read this one.

Details: Nocturne #1

Bottom line: A great book

Silent Witness by Lindsay McKenna

After her husband’s death, Ellen Tanner escaped Washington D.C. and accepted a job in San Diego working for the Department of Defense. Her first assignment was working with Navy JAG Lieutenant Jim Cochran. Jim wanted neither a partner – especially a great looker – nor his latest assignment, a dead Top Gun instructor. To make it worse, the instructor was perhaps the most promising female officer in the Navy. As Jim and Ellen investigated her death, the had to determine if the death was suicide or if someone murdered her and made it look like suicide. But as they soon found out, the death was part of a larger conspiracy, which could shake the Navy to its very core.

This isn’t your traditional romance novel. The death of the Top Gun instructor affected both Ellen and Jim, who were driven to unravel the mystery behind her death. The investigation eventually allowed them to acknowledge their feelings for each other, but only near the end of the book. However as a reader, it really didn’t matter. Lindsay dragged you into the mystery – so much so that you didn’t care about the couple – you merely wanted to know what happened to the instructor and why. Once I started reading it, this book was very hard to put down. I was sorry it sat in my to-be-read pile for so long.

Details: HQN, November 2005

Bottom line: A great book