I read my first JoAnn Ross novel, Crossfire, yesterday and enjoyed it. I read Shattered today – and enjoyed it even more!
There are similarities between these two books in the High Risk series.
In both books, hero and heroine have previously had a relationship - a one-night stand in Crossfire, and a relationship of a few months in Shattered. Time
passes, and then the protagonists are thrown together.
The similarities continue in that the author writes similar characters: strong, manly heroes; feisty, independent women. Nothing wrong with that, but I wonder, as I read the third book this evening, whether it might get repetitive. Watch this space!
In Shattered, we focus on Army Night Stalker pilot Shane Garrett, an interesting character from the previous book
whose leg had to be amputated after a military battle. We don’t actually hear too much about how he
has learned to cope with this disability; we are just told that his various prostheses are excellent. An opportunity missed for some interesting insights into life for retired military people?
Still, the rest of the story contains plenty of information about life in the special forces and more. Heroine Kirby Campbell is a doctor working in Central America, but when she is briefly back in the U.S., her fellow doctor is kidnapped. Kirby and Shane are
thus thrown back together as they work, along with others we’ve met in the previous book, to rescue Dr Rachel.
The romantic aspect of Shattered is less important than the overall plot, which
is well-written if a little hard to believe at times. I would have liked to read more about the secondary romance between Michael Gannon, the former priest, and Dr. Rachel, but perhaps we will learn more in a subsequent book.
This series seems to be shaping up as one with lots of interesting military information, uniformly attractive heroes and heroines, apparently unlimited funding for covert operations and lots of military buddy heroics. It makes for a good read, and I look forward to the next story.