Code Name: Ghost by Natasza Waters Series: A Warrior's Challenge, #1
Published by Secret Cravings Publishing Publication Date: October 17th 2013
Pages: 356
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Kayla is intent on leaving her past north of the border. Hired as a Canadian liaison by the US Navy, she finds the Coronado SEALs tough but amiable. Their Commander is another matter. With eyes like blue steel and a body carved from it, Kayla resists the hungry attraction between them for good reason.
Navy SEAL Commander Thane Austen (Ghost) treats his women like his missions: in, out and gone. Returning from deployment to find Kayla is his new tactical specialist poses a challenge, one he’s never faced. When the defiant beauty with haunted eyes becomes a serial killer’s target, the Commander has the excuse he needs to close ranks around her. Fear is a word unknown to the legendary SEAL until he realizes love can be as dangerous to a warrior as combat. Convincing Kayla to surrender to him and catching a killer is a mission he won’t fail.
Cocktails and Books received this book for free from Manic Readers in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect our opinion of the book or the content of our review.
Looking for a great SEAL book that has action, adventure, a sexy Alpha male and strong women who can hold her own with a team of Alpha Navy SEALs then this is the perfect book for you!
Thane “Ghost” Austen a Commander of a group of SEALs is definitely in charge. He goes out on every mission and when he comes home he isn’t looking for love – just someone that will help him get by until the next mission. He also believes a woman has no place in a Command Center especially running Ops; that is until he meets Kayla.
Kayla Banks originally from Canada was hired by the US Navy to ask as a civilian liaison who is running from her own ghosts. She is looking to make a clean start and is hoping the sunny California will help her do that. She isn’t looking for any romance she just wants to do her job and go home. That all changes when she meets Thane and the rest of his unit, they all find she can hold her own and becomes one of them very quickly – but her stand off demeanor makes it difficult for the team to really get to know her, until a threat comes that targets her and Thane has to step in and protector her.
What I enjoyed about this story is the complex characters that Natasza weaves together – they all are not exactly what they seem, which considering their line of work makes sense. The author does a great job dealing with difficult subject matter such as stalking, victimization, and more importantly PTSD which I appreciate. She doesn’t shrug behind these very serious topics and they don’t become just plot points they are part of the story and who the characters are. You learn if you are going to love someone you have to take the good with the bad.
My concern with the story is that it takes a very long time for Thane and Kayla to really come together. The both dance around so much as to why they cant be together (Thane especially) that it becomes very repetitive. You sense the frustration his team feels with him since everyone knows that he has very strong feelings for Kayla and you like the secondary characters start to become frustrated with both Thane and Kayla. There is a cliffhanger that may turn some people off; I don’t have a problem with that at all – it just means I get to come back and read more about this group and I love that.
All in all I really enjoyed this book and it does a great job setting up the next book in the series. There are actually 2 other books that follow other members of the team after this next one that I am also excited about reading!
