Title: Make Mine a Bad Boy
Series: This title is part of the Dream Man AmberPax™ Collection.
Author: Carolina Valdez
Genre: Contemporary Romance / Military
Length: Novella (90 pages)
Publisher: Amber Allure (August 18th, 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: You Were Born To Excel. Permission Granted is the enticing invitation on the Navy SEAL website. Lieutenant Shane Powell took that permission at face value, proving his excellence and earning a place on the foremost of the counter-terrorism special warfare SEAL teams. When traumatic physical injuries sustained in battle robbed him of the hard-earned excellence necessary for his job, however, he left the Navy. He slipped away, cutting ties with everyone he knew there to wrestle alone with his emotional turmoil.
Lieutenant Michael Fremont, Shane’s SEAL teammate and secret lover, is deeply hurt by the sudden silence and unexplained, abrupt end to their personal relationship. His search to locate the man he loves to demand answers turns up nothing, until a chance encounter brings about a reunion Shane resists.
Mike would be satisfied with a simple return to a platonic friendship if Shane isn’t up to anything more. But SEALs never leave a buddy behind, and Mike will not allow his former lover to withdraw from the wider world.
But considering Shane’s resistance to him, Mike’s success is up for grabs…
Product Link: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/MakeMineBadBoy.html
Review: I love myself some military men. Yes indeed, they are born to excel and be strong. They are also human beings with a heart beating under their chest and limits. Perhaps their limits stretch further than those of us mere mortals, but there is a breaking point.
This story is all about that breaking point. It’s about when those limits are pushed beyond comfort, and the demons take your mind over.
Most of this read felt so sad to me. While I loved it and the main characters, that sad feeling never left. Each working with their PTSD after an op gone real bad, Shane and Mike (best friends and lovers) lose contact. Misunderstandings, bad feelings, dark emotions… Everything worked against them and for two years Shane had been trying to simply survive day after day with pain and loss, while Mike kept searching, kept wondering.
Now their paths cross one more time. Now there is a second chance looming in the air. Now things are even harder as time has played its trick on them, and one of them is off service while the other still on.
The prose is full of emotions such as sadness, longing, lust, and love. Most of the read they are felt easily, they grip you and take you under them. But then the narration seems so impersonal, so “telling” and they slip from you like water from your fingers. When the couple finally makes it together and the big confrontation scene occurs, it didn’t reach me and I felt loss at that. What should have been the breaking point for this book, the moment when all emotions went skyrocketing and fire cracking, was a lukewarm narration covered in haste, a rushing scene that frustrated the Hell out of me.
So while I loved two-thirds of this book the end was not so great for me. Still I enjoyed the book enough to rate it as much as I did. If you love yourself some military guys and don’t mind the aftermath of their glory I recommend this book for you.