FALLING HARD – HelenKay Dimon
Bad Boys Undercover , Book 2
Avon Books
ISBN-13:  978-0-06-233007-9
June 2015
Romantic Suspense

Skardu, Pakistan – Present Day

Weston Brown is back in Pakistan on another black-ops operation for the Alliance, a force from the United States CIA and M16, the British Intelligence service.  A year ago West almost lost his life in Pakistan when an avalanche killed all the other members of his group, and he doesn't know why he didn't sit this operation out.  Someone has notified the Alliance of possible intelligence about hidden guns from a doctor in a clinic, and West and Josiah King are there to retrieve the doctor and then get the intel.  But as they enter the ransacked clinic there's only a woman tied to a chair and a man with a gun on her and another man dead on the ground.  After taking care of the situation, West and the woman run from the gunfire that suddenly occurs.  Unfortunately, Lexi Turner is the daughter of the doctor, and the person who turned in the information.  Now it seems the whole Pakistani army is after West and Lexi, and they must keep one step ahead of them to avoid capture and certain death.

Lexi Turner is helping her father run a clinic in Pakistan close to K2, the second highest mountain in the world, and there are always climbers in need of medical treatment.  When she sees some strange vehicles, she uses a secret code her father gave her to report anything odd, and the next thing she knows there are two men breaking into the clinic.  She is swept away by West and they go into hiding while she complains all the time and wants to know what is going on.  But this strange man who considers himself a killing machine is strangely attractive to her, and he seems to feel the same way.  Between guns and kisses, Lexi knows she's in a load of trouble, all because of what she saw.

As West and Lexi try to find the place where the weapons are being kept, West is shot at, beaten, and shocked, yet does his best to protect Lexi.  Despite what Lexi says, West knows he is no man for a woman like her with his dangerous job.  Is he keeping himself separate from Lexi because of fear of love?

With her trade-mark black ops soldiers, HelenKay Dimon has created a story with a kidnapping and the resulting battle to stay alive.  Told from Lexi's and West's points of view, West is the ultimate soldier.  In fact, he considers himself a killing machine, the first one in every situation to kill first and talk later.  Lexi helps her father at the clinic and is still recovering from a nervous breakdown in medical school after the death of her mother.  Lexi's main attribute seems to be doing the opposite of what West wants her to do to stay safe, and fighting him every step of the way.  But that's not to say the attraction between them doesn't catch them up in its power and has West doing his best not to compromise the mission by having sex with his assignment.

The Alliance has many characters, including Josiah, Ford Decker, and Tasha, their leader from M16.  There are other members who come to Josiah and West's aid, and each one is more trouble and stronger than the other.  Pearson is a former American operative who was being held in jail for interacting with the enemy, and Benton is leader of the group with the secret poison weapons who escapes.

FALLING HARD will bring to reality whatever you thought black ops members did, and the dangerous situations they are involved with, where to hesitate to kill someone can mean your own death or the death of a team member.  You'll almost feel as if you're in the midst of the action, with dangerous people behind every corner.  The second book in the Bad Boys Under Cover series after PLAYING DIRTY, (January 2015), FALLING HARD ratchets up the excitement and will lead you on an insanely fast-paced drama.  Enjoy FALLING HARD this month for feats of heroism.

Carolyn Crisher