UNDER FIRE by Scarlett Cole
Published by St.
Martin’s Paperbacks
Publication Date: August
1, 2017
ISBNs: Print – 9781250128447;
EBook – 9781250128454
Price: $7.99
Book Description
“Fantastic characters,
scorching sexual tension, and non-stop action make this one of my favorite
reads this year!”—New York Times bestselling
author Laura Kaye
RITA nominee Scarlett Cole’s Under
Fire pairs a hot
Navy SEAL with a medical researcher who finds herself in too deep.
Hot, hard-bodied Sixton Rapp is a former SEAL
who’s raring to begin his brand-new civilian life. He and his Navy “brothers”
start a security firm that offers the kind of services only a team of
military-trained professionals can provide. But nothing prepared Six for his
new client: an innocent woman on a mission to improve thousands of lives. . .
unless someone takes hers first.
Dr. Louisa North knows time is against her as
she tries to create a “miracle” medical treatment for a disease with no known
cure, until she creates a sample so powerful that the wrong people want to use
it as a chemical weapon. At first, Six is unwilling to accept Louisa as his
client. But soon he realizes that the danger is real and that there’s much more
to this plain-Jane scientist…including a burning passion between them that
neither of them can resist. And now that an enemy is on Louisa’s trail, Six
will do whatever it takes to protect her—or die trying.
Author Bio
Born in
England, Scarlett Cole traveled the
world, living in Japan and the United States before settling in Canada where
she met her own personal hero – all six and a half feet of him. She now lives
with her husband and children in Manchester, England where she's at work on her
next book. She is the author of The
Strongest Steel.
Author Links
Buy Links
Nikki’s Review:
Opening up my email and seeing this beauty in there reduced me
to a squealing child. I was over the moon. I may have contemplated feeding my
children cereal for dinner. But I was a responsible parent...I ordered pizza
:)
Sixton Rapp (Six) is a former SEAL who started a private
security business with two of his fellow SEALs, who happen to be his best
friends. Six is carrying around some lingering baggage from war, and he's
trying to get his company off of the ground. He doesn't have time for more than
the occasional hook up. You can imagine his surprise when he falls for the
delightfully quirky, Louisa North.
Dr. Louisa North spends her days in a research laboratory trying
to develop a treatment for a disease that will ultimately take the victims
life. Her lab is her safe place. People leave her alone in there...just the way
she likes it. "Peopling" is extremely difficult for her. But for some
reason being around Six puts her at ease. Her anxiety doesn't get the best of
her.
One of my favourite things about this couple is how different
they are. He's all rough and tough, a little bit growly, and sex on legs. She's
quiet, and prefers lab samples to people. I adore how Six isn't put off by
Louisa's idiosyncrasies. He finds them endearing, and allows her the space she
needs to work through it. He doesn't call her out on organizing his bookshelf,
or untangling the cords on his blinds. He stands back and smiles to himself.
Gah! I love that marshmallow centre that he has. Six may be all SEAL, but he's
a kind-hearted person, too.
I enjoyed the slow burn of this book. While I was starving for
them to get to the hot monkey sex stuff, I also enjoyed watching Louisa open up
to Six and trust him. I appreciated the build up to the intimate relationship.
But don't worry, you don't have to wait too long before these two are tangling
up the bedsheets. And sweet baby Jesus, when they do get to the good stuff, it
was decadent!
I love a good romantic suspense. But I don't like it when the
suspense takes over the romance. I like a balance of both, with the love story
as the focal point. Scarlett nailed that balance perfectly. I was on the edge
of my seat trying to solve the mystery of who was after the lab samples and
Louisa. I enjoyed getting a glimpse into a SEALs training. If you like some
fast paced action with your romance, then Under Fire hits the mark!
This book has a much different feel than Scarlett Cole's other
books. While the hero is damaged, he isn't broken. Under Fire had a lighter
tone to it. It was still full of emotion, but the characters weren't quite as
tortured. Everything Scarlett writes is brilliant. I'm not just making a
generalization here. She truly writes a story that draws you in and holds you
tight until the last page...Every. Damn. Time! I don't think I've ever had such
a strong reaction to an authors writing. Each book stays with me long after
I've finished reading it. Under Fire is no different from anything else she's
put out in regards to a solid plot, likeable characters, emotional twists, and
a heart fluttering love story.
You get a little glimpse into future stories that will feature
Cabe and Mac. I'm already intrigued! Also, I wouldn't mind being the bologna of
a Cabe and Mac sammich! Did I say that out loud?
If you're looking for a romantic suspense novel that'll leave
you feeling like you've run a marathon, and fallen in love...give Under Fire a
read!
Rating: 4.5 Stars (A)
Review copy provided by the publisher
Excerpt from Under Fire by Scarlett Cole
“Now
that you’ve got a little more color in your face, and you’ve stopped shaking,
you want to tell me who those men were, or what they wanted?”
Louisa
smoothed her hands down the front of his chest to fix his rumpled hoodie and
then straightened the hem. Six grabbed her hands in his and stilled them. His
hands were the size of baseball mitts compared to hers.
“I
don’t know for sure. They beat you in here by a minute or two at most. They
told me that they wanted me to go with them, and that was about it. I don’t
want to think this has something to do with the missing sample.”
Thoughts
crowded in almost too quickly to process them all. Things like this didn’t
happen to her. It went against the rules. Her
rules that said she would spend her life doing research away from all the
horrid stuff that went on in the world. And shit like this certainly didn’t
happen in Mission Hills. She wondered if it was smart to keep the fact that
she’d swapped the two samples and disposed of the one they seemed to be after
five days earlier from the police when they finally arrived. But this was a
golden opportunity to find out where the police were with the theft in the lab.
Obviously Six had saved her life, but she didn’t want him to get into trouble
for shooting one of the men. She wasn’t even sure how that would work. It
wasn’t like he was defending his home. He was defending hers with a gun he’d
brought with him which she wasn’t sure was even legal. Crap.
“It’s
all such a mess,” she whispered against Six’s shoulder.
“I
know. But I’m right here with you,” he said softly.
Her
heart pounded again and her head felt groggy, like mud, as though she was
hungover. What she really needed was some silence. She tried to pull away from
Six, but he wouldn’t let her move. “Let me go,” she said, blowing her bangs out
of her face.
Six
shook his head slowly. “I don’t know what’s going on, but you’ll walk the
police through it step by step, and I’ll tell them what I know. Then we’ll
figure out how to make you safe tonight. Then in the morning, I’ll help you
figure out what you can do to remain safe while this gets sorted out.”
What if they came back? Oh, God. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She could go to
her mother’s home, but that might lead the people that were after her to her
family. Damn. Why had she already
decided it was about the sample when it could have been an abduction attempt or
an armed robbery, which didn’t make her feel less vulnerable but did quash all
the conspiracy theories in her head? What if she was excluding options that
were important? She was the daughter of a very wealthy widow. Ransom could be a
possibility.
Six
squeezed her shaking hands, bringing her back to the present. “And just so you
know, staying safe means learning to protect yourself, sweetheart.”
“I
did just fine,” Louisa huffed, unwilling to take on the mantle of victim she
was constructing in her head.
“You
held a rolling pin,” Six said, shaking his head at her. “What were you going to
do, Betty Crocker them to death?”
She
pushed her hands against his chest, and this time he let her go. It had never
occurred to her that someone would violate her home, but Six was right. If she
looked at it logically, she obviously needed to upgrade every element of her
home security. She couldn’t even remember when she’d last opened the window in
the dining room, but she’d obviously become lax in locking it afterward. And
none of her external security lights had come on, which meant they either
weren’t effective or the sensors were pointing at the wrong places. And her
alarm had the ability to be on for just the doors and windows when she was home
but awake, yet she never—
“What’s
going on inside that head of yours?” Six asked. “Because you disappear inside
it sometimes and I worry when I see you start messing with things.”
Louisa
looked down at her hands and realized she was restacking the coasters she had
placed on the marble. “I was just thinking through what you said. I guess I’ve
become a little lazy … I’ve stopped worrying about home security because
nothing ever really happens here.”
“Okay,
we’ll look at two things. One, how you protect your home, and two, how you
protect yourself in the event that
someone makes it past all of your other defenses.” He parted her bangs with his
finger, and it made her shiver.
Since
her father’s death, she hadn’t had anyone to count on. Not like this. “Why are
you really here, Six? It’s not about my uneven shelves, is it?” she asked
quietly.
Six
studied her face, taking in her forehead, her cheeks, and even her neck before
meeting her eyes. It was a moment that felt much longer, filled with …
something. Potential, maybe. “Because you asked me to help, and—”
He
stopped talking at the sound of wheels pulling onto the gravel. Quickly, he
shut off the kitchen light, and it became apparent that the exterior lights
were on. With a swift jog, gun drawn, he hurried to take a look out the window.
Blue and red beams of light flashed onto her kitchen wall. They were the best
thing she’d seen all day, well, other than seeing the door to the kitchen burst
open and Six rolling in, looking as deadly as any soldier she’d ever seen. In
hindsight, now that the danger had passed, she realized he’d looked hotter than
any Hollywood action star in a big blockbuster movie.
Even
as she wondered what other reason he’d been about to give her for being there,
she realized that none of his words, or the arrival of the police, meant she
was safe
