Good Book Alert

I was finally able to wrap up Naked Truth by Amy J. Fetzer over the weekend - and you know what? It's really good. This coming from someone who normally doesn't go for military themed romances.

Why?

Because the heroines tend to drive me nuts.

Romance Novel Pet Peeve #27:
The author tells me over and over again that the heroine is "tough" and 'kick-ass" but she keeps doing stupid shit that the hero has to rescue her from.

Blessedly, while the hero does do a little rescuing in Naked Truth - the heroine really is kick-ass. She shoots at people - and isn't afraid to do so. She survives torture for cripes sake. Nasty torture that involves her head getting dunked under water repeatedly. Trust me, Fetzer did not make this sound like a barrel of laughs. I'm glad I didn't go into the military or CIA because I'm just way too wussy.

So anywho, our heroine, Alexa Gavlin, is a CIA undercover operative who wakes up naked (and tied down) in a Columbian sugar cane field. Not cool. What's also really not cool is that her informant is lying dead next to her with her knife sticking out of his chest.

Oopsie.

But it's not until Alexa visits another informant that she learns what deep shit she's in. The last 4 weeks of her memory has been chemically wiped away. And when she tries to return to CIA HQ in Columbia? Oh, her own people start shooting at her!

The hero, Killian Moore (only in a romance novel would this name exist), is a former Marine who now works in the private sector as a retrieval expert. The CIA deputy director shows up and essentially blackmails him into bringing in Alexa, dead or alive. See, Killian's reputation was toast after a DEA bust went bad. Now the DD is saying that Alexa is the reason why.

So Killian goes to Columbia, finds Alexa, loses Alexa, realizes the DD fed him bullshit, finds Alexa, loses her, rescues her and they fall in love. Ahhhhh.

I liked that Alexa was really tough. I really liked that Killian was a yummy Alpha hero but not a domineering asshole jerk. I really liked the action-packed storyline. This book just zips right along.

What's not so good? Well the romance doesn't hold up quite so well. Alexa and Killian spend a lot of time apart. Oh sure, there are a couple of really hot sex scenes here, but that doesn't make a romance. But given that they're trying to stop terrorists, find Alexa's memory and clear their names - well there's not exactly time for heart-to-heart soul searching.

But dang, this is such an exciting story that it's hard to quibble. If you go for military romances look no further. This one is great.