Under Fire is part ex-military action, part cutting edge medical research combined in a fast paced romance between 2 total opposites. Louisa is the type of heroine I enjoy in a story. She is brilliant, driven, goal oriented, caring, and shy. For some reason, I adore shy characters. Maybe because I can empathize so much? Who knows. I also was drawn to her area of study: Huntington's disease. I have a friend with the disease and, like Louisa, I know there is not enough research on the disease and it is so difficult to watch someone you love suffer.

Six has just left the Navy and with a couple of his SEAL buddies started a security firm. They are trying to get it off the ground and Six is assigned a security job at a benefit gala. The meet-cute between Six and Louisa was adorable. She is having a bit of a panic about having to give a speech in front of everyone and he manages to talk her down a bit. Their second meeting included Louisa seeing Six at his moment of weakness. I loved that the author included a meeting where both the hero and the heroine were showing a weakness. It helped show them both as realistic characters.

Louisa begins to notice that things in her lab are off. Its nothing obvious, but she knows that her notes have been touched and a petri dish goes missing. Determined to get to the bottom of this, Louisa doesn't realize what she is getting into. Cole did a great job with the medical information in the story. As a science nerd (former Science teacher!), I enjoyed reading about Louisa's work; however, it was written in a way that wouldn't scare away non-science loving people.

Six was hot and cold for me. There were times I loved him; he didn't push too much with Lou and was accepting of her struggles and treated her with kindness. Then, he would get closed off and push her away. I hate when heroes (or heroines) are wishy washy! Its such an unappealing characteristic.

What I appreciated most in Under Fire though was that Cole didn't 'dumb it down' to make the science more accessible. I hate with authors 'man-splaine' things because it not only offends those who understand a given concept, but it offends those who don't by coming off as condescending. So, kudos to Cole for not going that route. I love that I had to look up a few things as I was reading. I loved the casual references to scientific things that Lou would throw out when she was nervous (Linnaeus for example!). To me, THAT is great writing.

 

• POV: 3rd


• Tears:


• Trope: ex-military, mortal peril, bodyguard


• Triggers: spoiler


• Series/Standalone: stand alone


• Cliffhanger: no


• HEA: yes

Books by Piper J Drake, Susan Stoker, ...then you will probably like Under Fire!

 


Under Fire


 

See full review on The Book Disciple ( )

The characters are interesting. The two main characters are an ex-Seal who now owns a security firm and a pharmaceutical researcher.

The plot is compelling--medications that walk the fine line between therapeutic and poison--and someone wants to make a poison out of one, possibly to use it for bioterrorism. There's a lot of action. And you might have to suspend disbelief that anyone is that good that they could survive all the action that comes their way and come out relatively unscathed.

Somehow along the way, the researcher goes from someone who hates interacting with and being around other people to being comfortable in the business's "family". I did wonder if she had OCD, but apparently it is just a nervous habit of hers to organize things.

The ex-Seal appears to have PTSD but that isn't dealt with in this book--perhaps we will see how he deals with it in future books of the series.

The downsides for me are that the main characters give in to their lust for each other before marriage--and even before defining their relationship. In fact, you, as the reader, know the "she's a client so you can't be involved with her" is doomed to fail even while the main character is agreeing to it. ( )

Under Fire by Scarlett Cole
Book #1: Love Over Duty Series
Source: Netgalley and Purchase
My Rating: 5/5 stars
My Review:

Louisa North, thanks to a life-long struggle with pathological shyness, craves the order and solitude of her perfectly controlled world. Her lab has only one other employee and is organized to the point of perfection and her home is her solace. She has dedicated her life to her research, been reasonably successful in her efforts, and has had few regrets. It isn’t until her peaceful and ordered world is disturbed that Louisa begins to think there may be more to life than just work.

Louisa’s last round of experiments and samples were proving to be quite promising right up until the treacherous side effects cropped up. With nothing left to do but start again, Louisa stores the samples and prepares to move forward with the next round of testing. In a secure facility with strict rules and regulations, Louisa expects her work to be safe. That expectation is shattered the morning Louisa notices one of her stored samples has been tampered with and another is missing. Though she goes through the proper in-house channels to report the disturbance, Louisa quickly discovers it isn’t enough, she’s being lied to, and her life is in danger.

Helping individuals like Louisa North isn’t at all what Six’s new security firm is meant to do. Staffed with highly skilled, well-trained ex-military, Six’s firm is meant to work on overseas ops and protection details; things the regular military isn’t always able to do and less skilled firms can’t handle. From the moment he meets her, Six knows Louisa is different and he can feel her fear, anger, and discomfort over her missing sample. Bound and determined to help her, Six calls in his crew and though they don’t initially think her case is one they should take on, they become convinced when she begins using phrases and words like “biological weapon” and “weaponized.” As the situation continues to escalate, Six and Louisa are drawn closer together until each realizes their respective worlds just weren’t complete without the other. If they survive the awful, there may just be a future for the two of them.

The Bottom Line: Well, this is one of those reads that makes me angry about having to have a real job and responsibilities. You know, things that take me away from reading a damn good book 😊 I got sucked into this on page one and the book didn’t let me go until the very end. There’s something for everyone here including a team of hard-bodied, highly-trained, dangerous men led by Six and his best-friend, a scary let’s kill a lot of people with a biological weapon plot, just enough action to warrant some seriously intense naughty bits, and a slightly damaged woman whose life is turned upside down. With all that being said, my favorite part of this entire read is Cole’s treatment of Louisa. Louisa has a legitimate issue which has kept her from living a totally full and rewarding life. I LOVE that those issues don’t miraculously disappear when Louisa starts getting some! Six doesn’t cure Louisa, he loves her, supports her, and gives her more tools to work with her issues rather than hide from them. Louisa grows as a character yet still must deal with the hand life has dealt her; it’s just a bit easier now that Six is in her life. In all, Under Fire is an excellent start to an exciting new action-packed contemporary romance series by one of my favorite authors. If you aren’t reading Scarlett Cole, you need to be and Under Fire would be an excellent place to start! ( )

Under Fire by Scarlett Cole
Love Over Duty #1

Scarlett Cole can write! She took my breath away with her Second Circle Tattoos series then with Preload, a spin-off series from Second Circle Tattoos, I became even more committed to her writing SO when I saw a retired group of men to star in her third series I wondered if she could pull it off. She definitely did!

As an introduction to the Love Over Duty series we meet Mac, Cabe and Sixton – the founders of Eagle Securities. They have saved money while in the military with the idea of opening a business when they retired from the Navy. And, with all three finally on the ground in San Diego and ready to work together they are hiring men to be on the team, spending time together and busy, busy, busy. One night Sixton “Six” Rapp is working a fundraiser as security where he meets brilliant nerdy Louisa “Lou” North. He supports her as she faces speaking to the group willing to donate money toward her research (and other projects) and then they meet again when out on a trail and she helps him with a bit of PTSD. So, both have some issues with hers being anthropophobia and his PTSD. I always enjoy learning something new and this term was new to me (severe timidity and trouble dealing with people). I also learned about “box breathing” and though I have done breathing exercises THIS was new to me.

Anyway, the two hit it off but really get together when Louisa approaches Six with her fears that the lab she is doing experiments has been compromised. The stakes are increased when papers and more go missing from the lab and then Louisa is targeted for kidnap. With Six and his team paid to keep Lou safe and on the job to find out what is going on the case is solved and resolved (mostly) by the end of the book AND there is a HEA for Six and Lou to look forward to as well as the reader getting to contemplate what will happen next in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4 Stars ( )