Catalyst is the story of Brie Stewart, famine aid worker in Sudan and Green Beret Sebastian Ford. Women are little more than commodities to all of the warring factions in South Sudan, so Brie flees for her life when, as the rainy season approaches, the storage facility holding the important food sources for the area is burned to the ground by unknown individuals with questionable goals. Bastian's team is ordered to assist the aid workers in their escape, and he quickly recognizes Brie as Gabriella Prime, whose family company, Prime Energy, tried to place an oil pipeline on land owned by his tribe in Washington State. But Brie has become estranged from her family, and Bastian sees that there may be more to her than the pretty face he both lusted after and hated ten years before.
Where the first book in the Flashpoint series, Tinderbox, included many realistic details that added depth to the story, Catalyst tries too hard by including so many action sequences and subplots that none of them have enough time to develop emotional content. Overall, this is still a good story, well worth the read, but it could have been so much better. ( )

REVIEW: “If she could win the respect of this one man, she would prove to herself she’d changed. That she didn’t have a black soul.” Years ago, Brie walked away from her oil dynasty family. At first, she coped by using drugs and then she found a way to make a difference with relief work. Concealing her identity, she didn’t realize that she was the catalyst for an upcoming genocide in South Sudan. Bastian was loyal to both his tribal nation and his Special Forces team. Ten years ago, Brie and her father’s company, Prime Energy, threatened Bastian’s legacy. Now he is charged with rescuing the Princess Prime. Or is he rescuing the strong aid worker known as Brie? And who will rescue him when his heart wants to keep her? The book races to an exciting finish amidst obsessed Russian billionaires, crazed family members and an assortment of other powerful enemies. Lost a lot of sleep because I couldn’t put the book down! I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

DESCRIPTION, NOT REVIEW: When a food storage depot in famine-struck South Sudan is torched, American aid worker Brie Stewart flees, only to land in a market where she’s the next item up for auction. Is the attack on the aid facility another assault upon the war-torn fledgling democracy, or has her family set her up as a pawn in their quest for oil rights?

Chief Warrant Officer Sebastian Ford crossed paths with Brie years ago when she was a shill for her family’s company, pushing a pipeline that threatened his tribe’s land. Determined to lead the rescue operation to save her, he won’t let her abduction—or the attraction that flares between them—get in the way of settling their unfinished business.

The Green Beret’s skills are put to the test in the flooded grasslands of South Sudan, where they must battle nature and dangerous factions who are after more than oil. Bastian and Brie put their hearts on the line as they find themselves embroiled in a conflict that extends beyond country and continent. Together they must douse the spark before it reaches the flashpoint and engulfs everything they hold dear. ( )

Catalyst by Rachel Grant is the second book in her Flashpoint Series, and just like the first book, it grabs you in the first few pages and you won’t want to put the book down until you have finished it. There are characters from the first book in the series, Tinderbox, but if you haven’t read that one, you will not be lost by reading this book first.

The book starts out in a club in Camp Citron, Djibouti with Chief Warrant Officer Sebastian “Bastian” Ford, looking for, and finding, a woman he never expected to see in that part of the world. The day before he thought he had spotted her in an office on base. He was looking for Gabriella Stewart Prime, or Princess Prime, as the media had called her 10 years ago. She was the daughter of a Billionaire who was the CEO of one of the worlds largest oil companies, and last time he saw her, she and her families company, was trying to take over tribal lands in Washington State, where Bastian was from. He finds her but she has changed and it really throws him. She now goes by Brie Stewart and every word out of her mouth confuses him and makes him rethink what he thought.

Brie, now a USAID worker, helping the South Sudanese people return to their villages after civil war displaced them, doesn’t remember Chief Ford but then again, there is much from her past she can’t remember. Back then she worked 16 hour days for Prime Energy, drinking, drugging and having sex indiscriminately, so much so, that she asked Bastian if they had sex 10 years ago. It is with questions like that, that Bastian can’t reconcile the spoiled rich girl from the aid worker woman now in front of him. They part but that will not be the last time they see each other.

Move forward a month and an attack on the village that Brie is working in brings Bastian and Brie back together in an unexpected way and the sparks start flying, literally, and all hell breaks loose.

I don’t want to give the story away but if you like suspense, military and romance then you will LOVE this book. If you even like this book (again, I think you will love it) then please try others of Rachel Grant’s books. No matter which one you pick up, you will not be disappointed. I can’t wait for the next book in the series and I think you will feel the same way. ( )