Title: Shot in the Dark Series: Men of the Secret Service #2 Author: Tracy Solheim Publisher: Tule Publishing Year of Publication: 2019. Genre/Themes: Romantic Suspense, ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-949707-70-0 Format: E-book - kindle app R E V I E W...4.5 'Tower of Testosterone' and 'She-Devil' stars !! An important reading premise for me? I need to believe in what I'm reading. I don’t need to relate with a leading character but I do have to believe in them and the story they're waiting to tell. Or at the very least, to find something within the pages to keep me seated for the long haul. And I think I might have just found my sweet spot with this Solehim romantic suspense because this author has a great sense for story writing. The second addition in Tracy Solheim’s Men of the Secret Service series just satisfied in ways I needed it to; the mystery intrigued, the intrigue supplied suspense, the themes fascinated, the plot turned pages and the hate-to-love energy between Adam and Josslyn burns up with the same intense spirit in untangling the wires of a criminal operation. I use this space as my proclamatory plinth and confess that Tracy Solheim can write an engaging and escapist romantic suspense. A reading regret is far from the reaches of my mind because this was a wonderful reading pleasure. Shot in the Dark finds passionate zoologist and animal conservationist Dr. Josslyn Benoit on a masked mission in the African wilderness. A run-in with poachers, some felled elephants, a wounded teammate and a few bullet rings later and Josslyn and her band of like-minded contemporaries make like escapees and find themselves outrunning tribal militia. To Josslyn, crossing hairs with dangerous offenders may be high-risk work but it’s meaningful work. She’ll never take a sweeping step back and quell a cause that speaks to her animalkind-supporting soul. To break through an illegal animal trafficking enterprise and expose its bankrolling fiends is the goal. It’s also what Josslyn lives for. Risk comes with the job and menace doesn’t follow far behind. Even if she has to be rescued by the US military. Again. This story might begin within the African Savannah but it swiftly moves into US jurisdiction, specifically a very influential administration housed in a very large white house with a star-studded flag centred and poised right on top. Unlucky for Josslyn, she’s about to walk into a nightmare because this lady rages at being tamed. Now escorted by the Secret Service after her prestigious family demand she have a keeper, they quickly become aware that stealth and activism don’t quite mix but a firebrand and escalating trouble very much do. Another surprise for Josslyn? Her new guard is led by a man she never thought she’s see again. Agent Adam Lockett is the smoothest sharpshooter. Recovering from a grave injury to the head, he’s frustratingly demoted from actionable duty to a less taxing operation; shadow the daredevil zoologist known by the public as the reckless radical relative to a high-powered family. But Adam knows her as the woman he rescued two years prior, spilled a secret to and then kissed as the Pacific Ocean assumed the role of a confessional. But now? He couldn’t trust her as far as he threw her. He’s a jaded, private man who’s been abandoned enough to value the benefits of hiding his heart and she’s a bedeviled menace he has to hide that heart from. A dearth in the presence of an entrancing plot within my romance reads has me thrilled that Tracy Solheim tugs one from fictional ether in Shot in the Dark that absorbs and delights. From the start I had that destined feeling that I’d meet my match in Shot in the Dark and when I reached the end, I memorised the author’s name should my shortsightedness look past her offerings in this bookish orbit perhaps as large as our known galaxy. The atmosphere is exciting, motivating, intense, snappy, suspenseful but also sensitive with softer edges; and heated with a well-placed dynamic that gives way to a keen comedy feature. It cushions the tension and lifts the story in all the right places. I need to feel knitted to every page the spine of a book holds together. Hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder, mind to page, heart to characters and as thick as thieves as a reader can get with a fictional dimension - I would like that sort of inseparable indivisilibity if it’s not too large an ask. Firstly, I have to say thank you to Ms. Solheim for bringing romantic suspense back into my CR life, and secondly I award a voluntary (and enthusiastic) congratulatory cheer with hands clasped firmly on this well originated and lovingly framed piece of romantic fiction. I’m getting woozy with my end-of-book complacency. Tracy Solheim writes up a fierce plot that takes up residence in Washington, DC but one that guarantees the goals, greed and survival of tribal matters, wildlife restoration and an unethical enterprise that stretches far past the US. All while we get an interior window into the White House. There’s fact to be found in this fiction too. This story angles into an existing and important thread by anchoring the theme of animal welfare and abuse as the centre plot. As entertained by this story as I was, it was also educational. By pointing about the unmet needs of tribal life that encourage crimes against animals; poaching, trafficking, contraband and with shortages in resource, poverty itself and surviving with shallow pockets, this becomes a defense for unethical practices and sacrificing wildlife. The central narrative that circles the illegal trade of profiting from poaching was provoking and informative; the author integrates it all smoothly, transparent with her best efforts and In cahoots with a story balanced with intimate character attention, the sizzling romance and the puzzling plot. A winning combination. As much bad as there is being done, there are people like Josslyn with a heart big enough to embrace voiceless, endangered creatures. The real world issues pertaining to animal rights and money-making trades infuses this story with a lot of authenticity. I was enlightened to receive little facts, tidbits and features about elephants, ivory and every other little nugget of well-researched information that fed my brain. JOSSLYN. I can understand how readers might silently seethe at her impulsive nature, her indifference to the rules and snagging people into the line of fire. Granted, she can and will irk, but for me? I loved her passion and pain, her compulsion and commitment to a real-world, animal-positive cause so I was there to defend. She garnered this external rep as a ‘wild child’ but I digress I was surprised that she was even seen as a pointless mischief-maker by her inner circle of friends/family, not for the progressive, accomplished scientist she is. I’m glad Adam at least finally started to see it, even though it took him some time to get there but it felt as if this proponent for alternative lifeforms had to constantly defend her position. She was cavalier and offhand and cocksure but she’s also independent, intelligent and assertive. You can’t harbour an olive-sized heart for the valuable work someone like her practices for endangered fauna. Romance can promote silent, scared women who accommodate and stay within every line, especially for a man. Because Josslyn was the opposite of that, I took her as she came; headstrong, decided and a bit of a law-breaker. I do like a radical for an altruistic cause. If I was bothered by anything, it was Josslyn's chief pursuit of a certain Secret Service agent whose response caters to susceptible rebuffs. I did huff and sigh a few times with the ‘I can’t have her’ dynamic. Let’s move on to Adam. If I’ve never declared such a thing, I must let the world know that I love a controlled, protector alpha who loses his cool collect in a challenging heroine. Adam’s life is about guarding and protecting, most especially himself and his sensitive, private past keeps him detached, even from his closest friends. He’s got his demons and his emotions tame them. He wears the abandonment complex like a snug coat, and I have to admit with that dynamic can arrive a fair amount of romantic rebuttal which can progress too far into the story (that can be frustrating). On the flipside, despite the two leads having history and a strong chemistry, the love isn't instant. Adam believes he doesn’t have what it takes to give a woman everything. While I swooned with Josslyn, I also wanted to wipe the distance from Adam's character and have him give more of himself, open more of himself up, but he had a lot to put up with in Josslyn so I give the man due respect in safeguarding a woman ‘destined to walk into a dangerous situation.’ I enjoyed seeing his mask slowly lose traction and letting the love and recognition sputter to life. I laughed with triumph when he started piping up about using her formal title - when a hero defends the heroine, we know he’s caught by the feels. Both being willful, strong-minded and unwilling to back down made for some great back and forth angst and I was happy to be there for the fiery, mild hate-to-love romance. But there’s a fragile depth to their relationship in spite of their alternative beliefs and because they start to see each other in ways others don't. What do you get with two steely-willed, inflexible, tenacious protagonists? A will battle, want-bait and a heat complex. Keeping his desire in the dark is like asking Josslyn to lower her baton for animal rights. He wants to overthrow their chemistry while she overthrows obedience but a mile-a-minute-woman requires a mile-a-minute, albeit injured, man to keep up. In the middle of a tribal conflict with shootouts, crossfire, car chases, threats, bartering and investigative sleuthing are stolen kisses and disappearing acts that heat up with the hunt. A lone wolf bossman bodyguard meets an adventurous activist who’ll endanger herself for an endangered species in Tracy Solheim’s Shot in the Dark. Runaway passion meets a runaway chase in this spunky adventure. Though I admittedly haven’t sampled the others, this book is an impressive part of the Men in Secret service series but also a fantastic title in the genre of romance suspense itself. Fresh, entertaining and wildlife-positive with sensitive subjects that look into losing a family member to Alzheimers and crimes against wildlife with political shades that veer into the behind-the-scenes underbelly of ring poachers and organised crime conspiracy. Really well done, Ms. Solheim. Really well done for a voice that sears and spotlights. I gave this book 4.5 stars - C O N T E N T W A R N I N G: General warning for violence. Mentions drug possession, alcohol consumption and child abuse/assault. Also briefly mentions drug and gun trades. Animal trafficking. Mentions animal deaths and details about trading for animal parts. The female lead’s dad has Alzheimer’s and there are sensitive scenes for readers who know, care for or have family members with dementia. Also Mentions pancreatic cancer. Swearing and a few steamy sex scenes. --------------------------------------- M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read --------------------------------------- E X T R A T H O U G H T S: 1) I did sometimes feel that the danger elements were played a bit safe, where a rescue is always in safe, reachable distance. 2) I know I touched on it a bit in this review but I do have an issue when a heroine is always chasing the hero when he’s clearly keeping a distance for distance’s sake. So her always being ready to win him over was frustrating to me. She is independent and doesn’t like to be attached so her outrage with Adam does come off as unnecessarily outrageous when she can clearly not play into the attraction, especially if Adam is doing the same? 3) As for the ending, I think an epilogue really was needed here. Adam, pre-injury, commanded the president’s elite protective team. Now that he and Josslyn are in a relationship, does he go back to his previous duties? Will he be placed indefinitely as Josslyn’s protection? How do they maintain a relationship when they have heavy-duty, active professions? A dive into the future would have been really beneficial and helpful to piece together a picture while tying bits and pieces up with further explanation. F A V O U R I T E Q U O T E S: Adam had seriously lost his ever-loving mind. And it hadn’t taken a lead pipe to the head to accomplish it—just a whirling dervish of a woman with no sense of self-preservation. Now it seemed that instead of reining the She-Devil in, he was encouraging her in her shenanigans. I have a feeling the best is yet to come. Her hair was fanned out on the pillows like a halo. He nearly laughed, because this woman was no angel. She had a heart of gold, though. And a fierce will that he had no intention of subduing. Her sister leaned in to hug her. “You can’t have passion without a little bit of fire.” The one time in her twenty-eight years Josslyn was actually doing something worthwhile with her career, yet she still managed to potentially touch off an international incident. Growing up, her father frequently warned her about keeping her emotions in check. Easy for him to say. He’d been a stoic surgeon. She, on the other hand, had a natural talent of not thinking before speaking. Making matters worse, lately there always seemed to be a hot microphone nearby when her tongue went rogue. Still, she never let her emotions get in the way of her staunch defense of the little guy. Even if in this case the little guy was a three-thousand-pound wild animal. With one conk to the head he’d gone from commanding the elite Hawkeye counter-assault team to inhaling elephant shit for days on end . “I use my skills for many things. Every single time I do it’s in an effort to save someone else’s life.” “And every time I protest I do so in an effort to save some animal’s life,” she countered. The headlights from a passing car illuminated her face. She looked fierce yet vulnerable at the same time. Saving animals was her passion, sure, but there was something else driving her. Something Adam recognized instantly. Her need to justify her survival, her very existence, struck a familiar chord within him. That need was something Adam saw when he looked in the mirror every day. She leaned into him, holding on as though they were still treading water in the dark ocean. Adam brushed his lips over her silky hair. Why was it that he only had two settings with this woman—throttle her or kiss her? “Not suspect!” She jumped to her feet. “We have evidence. And this animal trafficking ring is one of, if not, the largest poaching organizations in the world. For your information, animal trafficking is nearly a twenty-billion-dollar-a-year business. Ivory brings in more money than gold, oil, or cocaine. These syndicates are very sophisticated. Many of them are the same gangs who deal in guns and narcotics. They have to be stopped.” If the previous two days were any indication, the connection they’d forged that night on the sea hadn’t faded despite his abrupt disappearance and nearly two years of no contact. The knowledge was both arousing and disarming to Josslyn. While the Secret Service agent made her feel safe and protected with just his presence, she feared parts of her were definitely not safe from Adam Lockett the man. Agent Shaw extended his hand. “You don’t look too battle weary,” he joked. “But give her time. I’ve been tracking Miss Benoit’s activities for the past couple of years. That girl is like Joan of Arc, singularly focused on saving animals from extinction no matter what the consequences.” Two days ago—hell, two years ago—Adam might have described Josslyn the same way. But watching her interact with the school children, the elephants, and the staff at the zoo, he was beginning to develop a new-found respect for her as a scientist whose extreme activism was rooted in something more than just a bleeding heart. “Until we can confirm otherwise, that’s the scenario we are going with.” Adam took a step closer. “I need you to promise me that you’ll behave.” Josslyn bristled beneath his arrogant stare. “Behave?” Trevor laughed behind her. “That’s like asking the sun to stop shining.” He needed to tell her to stop. That he wasn’t worth anyone’s worship, much less hers. He needed to tell her to go. That he wasn’t one of her precious wild animals to be saved. He needed to tell her what scared him the most. That she of all people had the power to destroy him. While you are working to protect the elephants, many of these tribes are fighting among themselves to protect their livelihood. I love interacting with fellow readers, reviewers, bloggers and writers. Hearing about reader opinion is the fuel to my reader appetite, so get in touch and comment below! SHARE ON FACEBOOK L E A V E A C O M M E N T A N D L E T' S T A L K A B O U T |
VaishaliBorn in the UK Archives
February 2024
Categories
All
2019 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [Vicarious Living] has
read 15 books toward
her goal of
30 books.
hide
2020 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [Vicarious Living] has
read 1 book toward
her goal of
20 books.
hide
2021 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 1 book toward
her goal of
10 books.
hide
2022 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 0 books toward
her goal of
5 books.
hide
2023 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 0 books toward
her goal of
5 books.
hide
DisclaimerAll images of book covers on this site belong to the authors and publishers of the books.
|