A good conclusion to the I-team series, greatly enjoyable! I'm not sure how well this book would stand alone vs in the series, as I made sure I'd read all of the other books in the series first. I know it made the book more enjoyable, and it's a good series overall, so I recommend doing the same.

Mia Starr, former US Army Captain, now works as a horticulturalist and enjoys a quiet, lonely life. She meets photojournalist, Joaquin Ramirez, on assignment when she goes to visit one of the men from her company and finds that he is missing and may be dead. Joaquin doesn't believe that Mia is a suspect in his disappearance, but the police aren't so sure. It isn't long before other soldiers in Mia's company start turning up dead, and it becomes clear that Mia is also a target. Joaquin's attraction to Mia leads him to try and protect her from whatever situation she has found herself in, but he doesn't know how long he can keep her safe.

Deadly Intent is the 8th book in the I-Team series. The first half of the book offers romance and suspense, making it an enjoyable story, although there isn't much character development. Once Mia is shot and Joaquin takes her to a local ranch, it almost seems as though the two of them are on a pleasure vacation instead of hiding and healing. Also, after the halfway point in the story, much of the investigation takes place off-page, pulling the reader out of the plot. The solution to the mystery is fairly predictable by the time the story comes to a close. Overall, Deadly Intent is a decent romantic suspense story that doesn't quite live up the promise of the first half of the book. ( )

I received an advanced copy of Deadly Intent from the author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The following review contains my opinions and mine alone.

Joaquín Cristián Delgado Ramírez. If you’re looking for a hot latinx lover who burns up the dance floor, takes prize-winning photos, and is prepared to defend himself and others, look no further. Joaquín meets Mia at a crime scene of a former co-worker and is instantly captivated by her. And despite everybody believing Mia’s a murderer, Joaquín is steadfast in his belief that the former Army Captain is not only innocent but a target of the real killer. Joaquín goes out of his way to help Mia Starr out, to the point where he becomes a secondary target in the killer’s quest for ‘revenge’. What I love most about Joaquín is that he’s loyal, even risking his job and his reputation as a photojournalist to keep his promise to Mia.

Mia is a complex woman when you really look at her. Joaquín must work overtime to make her see herself how he’s seen her from the moment they met, beautiful. It all stems from harassment from her superior officer and the rest of the men in her company after she refused and reported her commanding officer’s advances. At the same time, she’s a strong independent woman who put in the hard work to get her degree and now works at her dream job at the Botanical Gardens. One of my favourite things about Mia is that she sees that Joaquín’s family is bilingual and tends to use Spanish more than English and instead of asking everybody to just speak English, she takes the time to start teaching herself Spanish so that she can communicate with his family who’s basically adopted her after learning she trained Joaquín’s younger cousin in the Army.

I really enjoyed reading Deadly Intent because Ms Clare created characters that felt welcoming from the get-go. I immediately trusted Julian and Marc and now I really want to get my hands on their stories. And let’s not get started on the Wests, I felt like they wouldn’t mind if I came over and hung out for a weekend with my camera. The way the other characters from the previous books just easily popped up in the book made me want to know more about them as well since they were so varied in nature.

I was a teensy bit confused at one period in the beginning – mostly because this was my first book of the series. It was quickly made clear to me that I just wasn’t understanding things. You can read this as a standalone, but I do recommend you check out the earlier books to understand what all is going on and who’s who.

I was glad to see that Ms Clare tackles not only non-combat PTSD but also sexual assault and harassment in the military. She tastefully works Sophie’s problems into the story without making things a spectacle. It’s great that, even in a book centred around a veteran, the author makes a point to say you don’t have to have served to develop PTSD. I’m also glad that Mia’s assault and harassment wasn’t just a storybuilder, it had a story of its own throughout the book – and it gets a satisfactory ending.

To finish things off, I’m going to give Deadly Intent 4 out of 5 stars and 2 spicy flames. It actually takes a while before sexy times begin and even then, they’re not majorly in-depth or story-killing. I’m already planning on going back and reading the rest of the I-Team series and I hope y’all give Deadly Intent (and its seriesmates) a chance. ( )

Rcvd an ARC at no cost to author..(netgalley) I was a little bummed that I did not know that this is the 8th book in the series, where in the heck was I? I like this author, I follow one of her other series, so I can't explain why I didn't know about this one. That being said, I enjoyed the book it had a little bit of everything I tend to enjoy. We have a romance, suspense and a good cast, guess I have to now add the previous ones..Enjoy! ( )