Review – Heart of Danger by Lisa Marie Rice

Back cover copy

They are Ghosts. They do not exist. Their birth certificates have been destroyed, all traces of their civilian and military pasts wiped out. They have no official military rank and wear no uniforms or insignia, save a tiny steel pin of a striking hawk forged from the rifle that killed Osama Bin Laden. Once again Lisa Marie Rice delivers a sizzling, heart-stopping new series as only she can tell it

Ghost Ops. A small team of super elite soldiers so secret only two men know of their existence-General Clancy Flynn and their commanding officer, Colonel Lucius Ward. On a mission to destroy a US-based lab working on weaponized bubonic plague, the team is betrayed by their commanding officer. The Team is massacred and only three men survive to be court martialed: the Team Leader, Tom ‘Mac’ McEnroe, tech genius John Ryan, and lethal Nick Ross. They disappear en route to prison and are never heard of again.
Mac and his men hole up in a high tech lair, completely off the grid. But when a beautiful woman somehow finds him, he doesn’t know whether to kiss her, or kill her.
Dr. Catherine Young is on a mission, propelled by forces beyond her control to find a man who has disappeared off the face of the earth. She is bearing a deadly message from a dying man. Catherine has a gift that allows her to see into the heart of others. But looking into Mac McEnroe’s heart is like looking into the heart of danger itself.

Catherine has spent her life avoiding most personal contact because her gift forces her to sense other people’s emotions and thoughts. She has devoted herself to science, studying the human mind in hopes of finding the cure for dementia. When she accidentally connects to the thoughts of one of her patients, she has no choice but to hunt down Mac, a man that doesn’t want to be found.

When Mac finds Catherine on his mountain, he is understandably suspicious. He is totally off the grid and no one should be able to find him. He takes her back to Mount Blue to interrogate her. He doesn’t understand why Catherine isn’t terrified of him like most people. He is big, ugly, and scarred. The fact that beautiful, delicate Catherine is attracted to him only makes him more suspicious but against his will, he starts to believe her. And begins fall in love.

Heart of Danger was everything I expect from a Lisa Marie Rice book. There is insta-lust turning very quickly into insta-love. The hero is big, growly and ultra alpha. The heroine is close to perfect, very beautiful and kind, and sexually inexperienced. Normally, all of that would have me rolling my eyes and complaining but Rice just makes it work. In fact, that is what I’m looking for when I pick up one of her books and what has her on my auto-buy list.

I did struggle a lot with many of the scenes from the villain’s POV. It is heavy with medical terminology. I work in medical and was able to follow most of it but after a while, it became blah blah blah.

Example:

the hypothalamus was sending massive amounts of CRH to the pituitary gland and the cortisol level rose to 1000 nmol/L

Those scenes are all that is keeping me from giving it 5 stars. I adored the romance itself. I want a Mac of my own! And when the climax of the story came, it was amazing. Rice’s most emotional and angst-filled yet, I read it with a lump in my throat. I can’t wait to see where she goes with this series. The set-up for John and Nick’s stories has me very eager to get my hands on the next book. If you’ve enjoyed past Rice books, you’ll love this one!

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: November 6, 2012
Format: Print and Digital

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