What a heaping pile of steaming dog poo. What is wrong with people that this book has a 4.2 rating? Jeez. It only gets 2 stars because I managed to finish it without drop kicking it into a river. That was more to save my kindle than the book though.

I'm so emotionally spent that I can't even put to words how this book made me feel. from the beginning Ghost and Kayla we're intense. their resistance to love one another was exhausting. I was curious what was keeping her from letting him in and when I found out I was heartbroken. what ghost did to bring her back from all that pain and sorrow is true love at its finest. he never quit even when she pushed him away. the only thing I didn't like was that cliffhanger at the end. especially the way it ended but love conquers the darkness. I don't need to read the next book to know that....

This book is amazing.
The sexual tension was unbelievable.
The male characters in this story were fantastic. Hot alpha males.
I will definitely be reading more from Ms. Waters and really look forward to the continuation of this series.

I'm in two minds about this book – in fact I'm writing the review trying to decide on the rating.

Kayla is a woman with a secret. The prologue shows her being beaten almost to the point of death some years ago by person or persons unknown. Now she has joined the Coronado SEALs as an intelligence officer (or something).

Ghost is the Commander of SEAL team one, he is actually too senior to go into the field but refuses to quit. He also appears to be god's gift to women who throw themselves at him on a regular basis. But, because it's that kind of book, he is dead inside. At first he has every intention of driving Kayla out of the SEALs – in his opinion no woman is good enough to work there (misogynist alert anyone?). And yet when he sees her it's insta-lurv. Yep, I too am a bit tired of insta-lurv and its close relation insta-lust but it does seem to be a requirement of these kinds of books, so go with it.

The naval base is being terrorised by a serial killer nicknamed The Shark. Apparently he targets 39-40 year old stunningly beautiful brunettes – hark, is that a description of Kayla? Why yes, I do believe it is!

The usual happens. They fall in lurve with each other. He denies it because his life is the navy, he has no room for a wife or family and the terrible things he has done, the people he has killed, blah, blah, blah will never let him be a real man. She denies it because after her attack she is suffering PTSD, night terrors, depression etc. Basically, she wants the Shark to kill her.

I enjoyed the suspense plot

Spoiler

, although I believe I have a good idea who the killer is I will have to read the next book to confirm my suspicions because the book ends on a cliff-hangar

. However, I have a number of issues with the "romance".

1 Ghost as with most of these 'heroes' was a bit "mine, mine, mine" and his behaviour at times was unacceptable. Going into a bar and dragging someone off the stage and out of the bar, especially someone who works on base with you is not OK. It completely undermined any respect the men might have for Kayla. Also, he consistently broke into her home and/or locked her in his/her home. I would have called the Police and reported him as refusing to leave my home.
2 Taken in conjunction with (1) above, he is having the SEAL team shadow Kayla to try to catch the Shark. He is in contact with them through his earpiece but he and Kayla have sex on a sunbed by his pool – in full view of his men! She does not know they are watching. Given that he won't let his team even touch her I find it odd (and just plain nasty) that he didn't have an issue with her getting down and dirty in front of them.
3 He blew hot and cold. First he loved her, then he didn't. Then he did but it didn't change anything. Then he did but he couldn't tell her. Honestly, all Al-Quaeda ever needs to do is ask the armed services to talk about their feelings and Western civilisation as we know it would crumble!

I find it hard to believe that a serial killer is running loose on a naval base, killing, torturing and mutilating women who fit a specific description and NCIS appears totally clueless – where's Jethro Gibbs when you need him? I also doubt the "profile" given of the serial killer, but that may be because it doesn't fit my suspect. It certainly doesn't fit the later suspicions.

Also the author's writing style was a bit florid. There were a lot of metaphors and flowery writing which jarred slightly with the subject matter. I may be stereotyping SEALs but I don't feel that they normally express their feelings so eloquently. At times I wondered whether English wasn't the author's first language because the writing felt "different", like when you read the English translation of a Russian novel – not bad, just different.

OK, I'm leaning towards a 3.5 star rating and I'll round it up to four.