Great read. A bit of a slow start. ( )

Tina Beckett writes a fast-paced thriller with her first romantic suspense novel. The hero and heroine are on the run for their lives, dodging a depraved rebel leader, bullets, landmines, wildlife and their own personal demons.

Cole Scalini, a Special Forces Sniper, is in Angola under orders to take out a suicide bomber holding a pregnant woman hostage on the roof of the American embassy. When it becomes apparent that the hostage is meant to die, Cole takes his shot.

Callie Nascimento is a surrogate for her sister and her brother-in-law's child. When Callie learns of her sister's sudden death in a plane crash while on a mission with Doctors Without Borders, she becomes suspicious and travels to Angola to get answers and closure. In a sudden and violent uprising, Callie finds herself as a hostage of a suicide bomber. Relying on her skills as a psychiatrist, she tries to talk her captor out of his plans. Her plans for a non-violent solution are thwarted when she's rescued by Cole. All escape routes are cut off, and Callie soon finds herself as an intentional target of the rebel leader. Cole is her only hope of making it out of the country and back to the US alive.

As they try to stay ahead of the enemy, it becomes clear that perhaps the rebels aren't their only enemies. She's just a psychiatrist, and her sister was the only link to Angola. Meanwhile on the home front, her brother-in-law, a US Senator and Presidential hopeful, is working tirelessly to bring Callie and his unborn son back home. But with the enemy closing in and circumstances working against them, who can Cole and Callie really trust?

The story got off to a great start. The tension was high and kept ratcheting up a notch from there. The action portions sounded believable, and I got sucked into the story as if I were watching a movie. The identity of the “traitor” was a well kept secret until the plot called for the big reveal. I liked that I was kept guessing; going back and forth over motives and suspects. Ms Beckett created a loathsome villain in Jose. Reading his point of view gave me chills.

I really tried, but I just couldn't connect with the hero nor the heroine. It's not that they weren't likeable, but I didn't believe the chemistry. Why? Callie vowed never to get involved with a career military man. Even after she warms up to Cole, she goes back and forth on her feelings pretty much from the beginning until the end of the book. Cole, who has an aversion to shrinks and can't see himself giving up his career even for her, seems to have the odds stacked against him. Not that it stops him from giving in. Since this story takes place over the course of one week, they get close pretty quickly, but not without lobbing verbal barbs at each other over their professions, usually after they have sex. Despite Cole pulling away, Callie is the one to initiate intimacy (all four or five times). I don't mind that the author chose not to write the sex scenes and gave us a fade to black. The problem I had with what would come afterwards – Cole would act a little cold and Callie would fall into her pit of insecurity. The repetitiveness of that throughout the book confused and confounded me. If the author decides to pen Moss' story, I would pick it up.

Thank you to Carina Press for the ARC

Disclaimer: A review in exchange for the ARC was not promised. The views and opinions expressed in this review are my own, and in no way represent the views or opinions of the publisher/distributor. ( )