Saturday, June 29, 2013

[Kame's Review]: "Secret Maneuvers"

Secret Maneuvers by Jessie Lane
Publisher: Jessie Lane (June 13, 2013)
Series: Ex Ops, 1
Genre: Contemporary Romance (Romantic Suspense)
 
Some mistakes from the past haunt us forever... unless fate steps in with a second chance.

One 'dear John' letter haunts Bobby Baker's every living moment. It’s the letter he stupidly wrote to his high school sweetheart, Belle, right after he left to join the Army. The letter that he told her that he wasn't so sure if they were ready for forever yet. But before he can let her know that the letter, and his second thoughts, are nothing but a mistake, she up and disappears from the small Georgia town they were both raised in.

Fifteen years later, Belle unknowingly walks back into Bobby's life when her job as an ATF Agent forces her to work with a group of men secretly headed by the CIA to help her track down whoever is involved in funneling black market weapons to a drug cartel in Mexico.

Bobby will use this mission to try and soothe Belle's hurt feelings while proving to her that their love is still meant for forever. He'll use every dirty trick he's learned since he joined the Army to maneuver her back into his life for the long haul. But Belle's not making it easy as she keeps him at arm's length in the hopes that mistakes of her own never come to light.
 
 
 
 
 




 
 

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Kame's Review:











 
The story of Bobby and Belle is a familiar one. Star scholar athlete Bobby sees something in from the wrong side of town Belle and falls in love. Bobby and Belle have one more night together and then Bobby ships out to basic training. Belle’s life is a challenge; living with a father who is more dedicated to his bottle of booze than his daughter. Bobby has promised to come back in a few months after Belle turns 18 and marry her and take her away from all the pain. Unfortunately he increases that pain when instead he writes a “Dear Belle” letter; something he has regretted for fifteen years. From almost the moment he mailed that letter he regretted letting army buddies influence his promise.  He immediately tried to apologize, sending his parents off to look for Belle, writing letters, and later in life hiring private investigators; but no one could find Belle. It was as if she vanished.  Then fifteen years later while sitting at a briefing table waiting to hear about his new mission Bobby looks up at the ATF agent who walked into the room and sees Belle.


“I had no intentions of giving up this time. Belle was my woman. The other half of my soul. An intricate part of me that had felt lost for far too long.”



This book had a fantastic prologue that tempted me.  I looked forward to Bobby’s POV. I liked his dialog, his convictions, his inner torture and even his flaws. I also enjoyed the characters he surrounded himself with (the Sullivan’s especially), his family and friends. Belle was a hard character for me to become emotionally invested with; I pushed myself to do it because Bobby loved her. Sometimes her personality seemed to be at odds with her career as an ATF agent. Maybe this was because her character developed slowly and you were introduced to few character traits at a time; there were times I didn’t know why Bobby tried so hard. I saw a great partnership between Belle and Boyd, but I did not like any of the other characters that were her friends. While I had problems becoming attached to Belle, I can see some readers falling in love with her character, and it is for this reason that I rated the book as I did. This book does have some suspense and some military/law enforcement maneuvers and scenes but they do not dominate the book.


 3 1/2 STARS!





 
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Kame received a copy of this book from the author, in exchange for her honest opinion.
 
*Note: The quote used above belongs to Jessie Lane; Kame and TBQ's Book Palace do not claim it.
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Meet Kame:

Kame is part of a family of readers; one day she picked up the Nook she purchased for her husband and discovered her love of e-books. A few months later he purchased one for her so he could have his back! Kame’s Nook is never far, and she is hard pressed to pick a favorite book, genre or author. As long as there are characters that make her want to sit down and have a chat and a plot keeps the pages turning, she’ll read it.

Kame's GoodReads 
 



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Thanks for the honest review, Kame! What works for one person may not work for another, and vise versa, but I'm still adding this one to my list as a possible future read.







 


Enjoy!



Until Next Time,
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*TBQ's Book Palace is a member of both the Amazon and Barnes and Nobles affiliates program. By using the links provided to buy products from either website, I receive a very small percentage of the order. To read my full disclosure on the matter, please see this post!

7 comments :

Pat Egan Fordyce said...

Loved the review! Thanks Kame. Never even heard of this one T&L today!!

Wickedly Delicious said...

Great review Kame. I have this to review but am behind at the moment.

KAMEBookReview said...

OOoo Wicked let me know when you read it - would love to talk about it with you - thanks for stopping by!

KAMEBookReview said...

Thanks Pat - That is what I love about this - I find out about books I never would have without this blog!

Red Iza said...

Hulk !!!! Sorry, I know it's not a useful comment at all, but when I saw the cover, that's what jumped to my mind ! Have a nice sunday :)

Lover Of Romance said...

Awesome review! I really enjoyed the quote too! :) I should read this soon I am thinking.

Shelly Browne said...

Great review. I had some trouble with Belle too. But the overall story brought it around for me