5 out of 5 stars
US Secret Service Agent Tessa Reed has the assignment of her life – spearheading and leading the team assigned to keep the president safe. She is able and competent, but Tessa also has a secret in her past that seems to be creeping to the forefront. Not wanting to blur her focus or divulge her indiscretion to her team, she tries to figure out the connection with the help of USSS Special Agent Zane Thacker – the only person who knows what she went through.
Agent Thacker will do whatever her can to help Tessa and protect her secret, while juggling his main job – being a part of the president’s protective detail. Being the only person Tessa trusted with her secret, Zane values their friendship, a friendship he wishes could be more. Even so, Zane has demons in his own past that prevent he and Tessa from taking the next step. He has accepted his place in the friend zone, but when it’s clear someone is after Tessa, he has a hard time disguising his true feelings.
Working against the clock to find out who is threatening both Tessa and the president-and trying to piece together how the two could possibly be the same person-Tess, Zane, and their extended team hunt down obscure clues to head off a critical threat.
Strong characters, intriguing suspense, and romantic tension kept me turning page after page of UNDER FIRE. It was nice to know up front the indiscretion that had the potential to derail Tessa’s career and how Zane helped her through it. I think it helped the reader better understand the bond they shared and why Zane and Tessa struggled to jump the hurdle from friends and teammates to something more. I loved the comradery between all the fellow teammates and how everyone’s lives and friendships overlapped. At times, it was hard to keep the ensemble cast straight because it had been a while since I read the previous installments, but that did not impact my enjoyment of the story or detract from the plot.
UNDER FIRE is everything you could want in a romance/suspense novel, and Lynn H. Blackburn is an author to put on your “must read” list.
Though I was provided an advance copy from the Baker Publishing Group, all comments and opinions are my own.
