Rating: 3🌈

If you’re reading these books, it’s not only because you’re a fan of Reese Knightley but because you’re also a fan of this series as well as the other overlapping series that connect characters and even plot lines.

A reader can’t just narratively waltz into a book and expect to understand the characters, their dynamics, even the organizational structure that’s inherent to the series and the team’s success. You need the whole whopping amount of knowledge about the leadership, the multiple agencies, and the various aspects of each along with its agents to get a grasp on the individual storyline presented by each book as it’s released.

That’s a ton of stuff, I know.

I’m a fan of this series, love the action sequences and the quirky characters but this has several elements that just worked against it for me.

The main characters , Eagle and Link, have a shared history based on chemistry and no communication. It’s even stated in the book, they agreed to not talk about their pasts and their relationship with their fathers/families . That’s fine if you are colleagues, superficial friends, and, or able to successfully emotionally segregate your life.

Knightley’s characters can’t and that inability to communicate detonates their relationship . That the stage the reader is dropped off at when the book starts.

I’m not a fan of characters that don’t communicate.

Here that lack of communication is elevated to the height it has either man going off , doing his own thing during a mission with a criminals murdering people, bombing establishments, with a highly visible threat to two states. Why? Because one has an anger management issue, they won’t talk to each other, and unbelievably, their supervisor still sent them out together without explanation when it had been requested, reasonably , not to.

I get this isn’t an alphabet agency or military organization, but the way both Eagle and Link acted outside of their respective team’s communication channels continually here frustrated me as a reader. Where’s all this so called professionalism? Where’s the major skill sets that got them onto this agency to begin with? Missing.

Lastly, there is the use of a young man as a victim of sexual assault, continued sexual trafficking by a family member. Instead of it being an integral component of the story the entire time, it becomes a last minute element. Why? This character, Tyler, who could be part of the series now, could have been a victim of domestic violence, parental abandonment, any sort of other types of violence. But instead we get the absolute worst. Adolescent rape as that feels less like a necessary thread and more like an add on for dramatic effects.

Taken together with the fact of two characters who don’t communicate with each other or their team, and I found a story that lost much of the charm this series has held for me in the previous books.

Read it for the series and author. Or because those types of main characters don’t bother you.

It does me, unfortunately. Not a recommendation.

Buy Link:

Haven (Operation Justice Force Book 6)

Description:

For years Link and Eagle have danced around their attraction for each other, and neither one is willing to cross the line from friendship to lovers.

Link doesn’t want to lose what they have.

Eagle lets things go, following Link’s lead.

But ignoring their attraction isn’t working anymore, and one more spark ignites their mounting passion. Can they truly make the leap from best friends to lovers? They were brothers-in-arms through the military and are now co-workers—can becoming involved beyond that even work? Not to mention they are complete opposites… One man is laid back and easygoing and the other—not so much.

When one explosive encounter leaves Link pissed off and Eagle contrite, they’ll have to do some hard work to repair their rocky bond.

Mix in a bomb, drug dealers, gangs, and illegal drugs with kids involved and Link and Eagle will have a lot to focus on as they try to fix things between them and tackle their building desire.

Come along for the action-packed ride in typical Reese Knightley style as Link and Eagle kick ass on bad guys, save the day, and attempt to navigate love.