Wild Card

This was the 1st book in the Elite Ops series and I have to say it was pretty good. I'm a huge fan of Leigh's Breed series and was a bit wary to try a series by her that wasn't paranormal.

Nathan Malone was a Navy Seal who goes away on a dangerous mission leaving behind his wife. Then one day his wife, Bella, is told that Nathan is dead. This isn't true. Nathan had been held hostage and tortured by a drug cartel. Once he rescued it takes year of reconstructive surgeries and retrain before he can function again. The only thing he asks is that Bella not be told that he's alive. He leaves the SEALs to join the Elite Ops.

Well 6 years after his death, Nathan, who is now Noah , must return to his home town to help bring down a group that is kidnapping and killing illegal immigrants. Trouble is, the wife he left behind is in the centre of the madness, so it up to Noah to protect her, without ever letting her know his true identity.

The was a touching story that was hot in all the right places. I liked that just because Bella thought she lost her husband that she didn't just fall apart. She stepped up and became the person she needed to be in order to take care of herself instead of waiting for someone else to do it for her.

I fully intend to read the rest of the books in these series.

This one is a keeper. One of those books that you can't stop reading and then find yourself sad as you approach the end because you don't want it to be over. Wild Card is a beautiful romance with scorching hot love scenes, plenty of action and a sexy alpha male hero that literally jumps off the pages at you. Bound in leather chaps and just daring you to get on the back of his Harley. What an escape.

Navy Seal Nathan Malone was happily married to his young wife Sabella. His last mission was supposed to be simple, infiltrate a Columbian drug cartel and rescue three young girls. But things went disastrously wrong and Nathan finds himself at the hands of Diego Fuentes the evil crime lord. He is held captive for 3 years, pumped full of experimental drugs, tortured and beaten beyond recognition. When he's finally rescued there isn't much left of the man he used to be. Scared inside and out, Nathan now feels that he's too damaged and violent to ever return to his wife and joins a team of covert ops. After several reconstructive surgeries Nathan Malone becomes Noah Blake aka Wildcard. The man his wife loved is now gone forever.

Several years later a new mission (ironically enough) takes Noah back to his hometown and puts him undercover as a mechanic in Sabella's garage. He'd assumed that after 6 years his wife would have moved on with her life but she hasn't ever let Nathan go. After learning of Nathan's death Sabella didn't leave the house for 3 years, barely functioning, she dreams of him. There's is a love that will last forever, she tells herself. Only after almost losing their home and business does she manage to pull herself together enough to rejoin the world. Sabella initially has no idea that the sexy new Harley riding mechanic is her dead husband but something draws her to him and awakens feelings she had thought long buried. Nathan is stunned that Sabella isn't the agreeable little wallflower that he remembers as his wife anymore. Where did this tough, no nonsense woman come from?

This establishes the characters into their plotlines and that's when the story really gets going. The sex scenes are amazingly hot but they are also filled with such tenderness and longing that you will simply sigh. Lora Leigh pushes the boundaries further each time Noah and Bella are together and just when you think they couldn't possibly do anything else sexually, that it's just going to be another sex scene, she manages to make it different and even more exciting. The running internal dialogue is also well done here and heartbreaking as Noah struggles with the ghost of the man he used to be and Sabella tries to not let on that she knows who he really is. The endings full of suspense and I wasn't certain until the last few pages if our couple would truly get their HEA or if our testosterone filled hero would leave again.

For an erotic Romance this is a very involved story and surprisingly long at 415 pages. Lora Leigh however had me enamoured from beginning to end and I feel that this is some of her best work. The unconditional love between the main characters was beautifully written, the story interesting and suspenseful. My only complaint would be the few sloppy mistakes overlooked by her editor.

This is a story that I won't soon forget. Highly recommended.

It's now been a few days since I finished reading Wildcard and an interesting thing has happened. I can no longer remember the sex scenes but I still find myself thinking about the love story.
Go Siorai, Forever my soul.

Wild Card is one of those books you just can't put down, just as your nearing the end you feel sadness because you want to keep reading more. It's a beautiful romance with hot love scenes, lots of action and lots of hot male characters. Men dressed in leather, riding in on a Harley just tempting you to jump on, what a wonderful escape. I just can't wait to get my hands on book two in the Elite Ops series, Maverick.

All I can say is WOW!! This was my first Lora Leigh book and I was very impressed. Not only was it a great story, it had it all; true love, grief, new love and great sex. The sex? All i can say is "keep it coming"
-pardon the pun.