Monday, September 17, 2018

ARC Review: HOT Secrets (Hostile Operations Team #13)


HOT Secrets (Hostile Operations Team #13)

by  Lynn Raye Harris 

Blurb:
She nearly ruined his life. Now she needs him to save hers.
It was supposed to be a simple job for hacker Bliss Bennett: access confidential files and turn them over to the CIA. But something went wrong—and now Bliss has a target on her back. With no idea who to trust, she heads straight toward the one man she hopes won’t turn her away.
Sky “Hacker” Kelley is a badass Special Operator with lethal moves and mad computer skills. He hasn’t seen his former lover—former wife—in four years, not since she nearly cost him his military career. Her arrival on his doorstep in the middle of the night reveals a gut-deep truth—he might want nothing to do with her, but he still wants her. And as much as he’d love to slam the door in her face, Sky isn’t wired to turn away anyone in distress.
Protecting Bliss won’t be easy. The files she stole are at the heart of a dangerous conspiracy, and someone is willing to do whatever it takes—including kill—to get them back. It’ll take all Sky’s considerable black-ops skills to keep Bliss safe—and all his willpower to resist falling into her bed, and her life, ever again…
Themes: Contemporary
Rating: 4.5 stars
Heat Rating: 
Review:
 HOT returns with a glimpse into one man’s past and a return of the woman he thought he never wanted to see again, but obviously never actually never stopped wanting.  This series has been running a long time, but continues to be interesting and keeps me coming back for more no matter which of the men plays the leading role.  I always find that the men and women of these books are both sensual and sometimes clueless until it hits them right between the eyes at the most inopportune of moments.  I love watching these men fall in love, or in Hacker’s case rediscovering a lost one, but even more I love watching them scramble to prove that they are man enough for the woman that has stolen their heart.  Harris has a unique ability to bring the most amazing of plotlines, filled with spies, blacktops, and flying bullets, down to a level that even the most mundane of people can find a basic connection with.  Love conquers all is something that everyone believes in and hopes remains true, and Lynn’s stories remind us that there are some men out there in the world that live that way too.  I am dying to see what comes next, but in the meantime there might a binge read in my future sometime soon during a long-awaited and much-needed vacation.
Sky Kelley has been working for HOT for the past four years and trying to forget the woman who shattered his heart and belief in love with her betrayal, though he’ll deny that. When she explodes back into his life, begging for his assistance, he tried to push her away, but the obviously real fear for her life causes him to relent and some he is swept up in a deadly mission to keep her safe.  Bliss has been trying to distance herself from her childhood since she escaped it, but when she met Hacker she allowed her immediate and intense attraction to him to cloud her judgment to her job, until there was no avoiding the fallout.  When she lost of man she loved, she threw herself into her work, but her latest job has her running for her life and she has no one to trust or to turn but Sky, even though she knows he wants nothing to do with her.  Soon they are both pulled into the danger surrounding her and the world around them is becoming too dangerous to fight against one another, or against the pull they feel to one another.  But only by admitting to the true depth of their feelings and trusting fully in one another can they overcome the dangerous game they are fighting, something neither one of them ever thought they would be able or willing to do again.
I was very surprised with Sky’s behavior at the beginning of this story, despite the pain I knew he was in, but thankfully he managed to pull his head out of his ass and show us the truly honorable man he is.  Sky has been around the block with several levels of betrayal and the one thing he cannot stand is lies, but once he decides to accept his own part in their past, his forgiveness makes him an even better man.  I loved every minute of getting to know Sky and seeing him working through his issues and finding his way back to the love of his life.  While he is definitely just as alpha and badass as all the other men of the HOT squads, his is a quieter and subtler kind of badass—at least until someone threatens the life of his woman. Bliss was a woman on a mission all her life, one to shake off the dirt of her past and find a way to make herself into a better person, though I think she might not have gone about it in the best of ways, I cannot judge another person’s path too harshly.  She has obviously never stopped loving Sky and knows that when she is in danger her only hope for staying alive is to get to him, even though she knows she will be meeting with a serious level of resistance. She is badass in her own way, evidenced by the turn her life takes near the end of this story, and she is the perfect match for Sky once they stop fighting that perfection.  Seeing the goodness in Bliss, sometimes buried under what looks to be a shallow superficiality, reminds us that sometimes what a person seeks in life might be as important as why they seek it.
The HOT Secrets in this story unfold in a story of love and redemption, fear and faith, and finally the understanding that the only way two people can build a life together is with full and complete trust. I enjoyed every second of reading this story and getting to see both old and new characters in actions, but my favorite moments were the quiet times between Hacker and Bliss as they finally took the time to talk and get to know the deeper thoughts of one another.   Maybe had they taken that step in the past their relationship would have survived the problems they encountered without crumbling, but we’ll never know now.  Sky more than earned his name in this novel, hacking his way into my heart, as well as finding a way to show Bliss that she could take a chance on them a second time.  Sky proved to be a sexy and dangerous man, even if he was an asshole for the first part of the book, but once he comes to terms with the mistakes they both made in the past he becomes the man –and the mate to Bliss—he was always meant to be. Bliss on the other hand was a woman that I could see others disregarding as a superficial and money-hungry type that care little about the feelings of others as she steps on them to get what she wants.  Once we get to know her, we can see that she is cut from the same cloth as all of the HOT operators, maybe without some of the more deadly skills, and one who is always willing to do what needs to be done.  When she started working with Sky and his team to figure out who is after her, Bliss becomes my favorite lady in recent novels, and I was thrilled to get to see them in action together.  Even when they were sniping at once another we could see that the passion remained between them, but once they joined forces and stopped fighting their feelings, the heat about blew me away.  I loved watching them find their way back together, just in time to keep them both alive and bring the bad guys to justice.  Whatever comes next will be amazing I know, but I am hoping it is just as fast paced and sexy as Sky and Bliss’s journey back to love and happily-ever-after.
*ebook provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.

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