CALL TO ENGAGE – Tawny Weber
A Team Poseidon Novel , Book 2
HQN Books
ISBN-13:  978-0-373-80196-1
July 2017
Contemporary Military Romance

Coronado, California – Present Day

Lieutenant Elijah Prescott, Navy SEAL, is still trying to come to terms with the hideous nightmares that occur nearly every night about the explosion, vicious cutting pain, fire deep in his bones, the screams and agony he has relived for the past year.  A fellow member of the Poseidon Team was behind the team's betrayal, and they still haven't found him.  Brandon Ramsey had dirtied their team, betrayed their country, jeopardized an important mission, and stolen classified information during the explosion that injured Elijah.  When the team's Commander, Nic Savino, sends the team on Elijah's first op since being on inactive duty, a hostage extraction in an embassy, Elijah is rarin' to go.  But as they are getting out of the embassy after a successful mission, the nightmares appear to him again, and he almost jeopardizes everything.  Right then Elijah knows he is not fit to have other soldiers' lives depending on him and needs a break to figure out if he can ever be trusted under fire again.  He gets three weeks leave to figure out what he wants and goes north to Napa Valley to stay with his cousin, Mack Prescott.

Ava Monroe works in Mack's gym, and enjoys instructing people in cardio, strength training, yoga, and is a trained massage expert.  She is also Elijah's ex-wife.  Four years ago a rich, pampered girl fell in love with the hot SEAL, and they had a baby boy.  Four months later the baby died of SIDS, and between her heartbreak and not being able to get into contact with Elijah for days, she divorced him.  Her parents obviously knew best, but she moved away from them and started a new life built around getting control of her body and training others.  The arrival of Elijah shatters her inner peace, and she can't deal with seeing him again when the old feelings start coming back.

Tawny Weber has written one of the most exciting and extraordinary military stories with two strong characters.  Elijah and his team  have been through ten years of working together, taking different types of training together, been on multiple missions together, and they are truly closer than brothers.  Add in that Ramsey, his old roommate, betrayed the team, and Elijah is not in a good place.  He didn't know anything about the betrayal, but it makes the rest of the team doubt him.  Along with his flashbacks, Elijah doubts his ability to remain in the SEALs.  Ava had built up her body and inner strengths since she and Elijah divorced, but he still is her true love, no matter how much she tries to talk herself out of it.    When Ava is asked to go on a mission with the team to try and catch Ramsey by babysitting the son Ramsey had ignored until then but is trying to kidnap, it places them all in trouble, and has Elijah and Ava rethinking their place in each other's life.

All of Elijah's SEAL team are secondary characters, including Lansky and Diego and their Commander Nic Savino.  Brandon Ramsey is the member of their team they are trying to capture, but could his actions involve someone higher up?

CALL TO ENGAGE is heart-pounding, breathtaking and more exciting that most of the military romances I have read.  Elijah and Ava are very tentative about getting back together, but that doesn't mean their feelings don't go deep despite the trauma of the death of their son.  CALL TO REDEMPTION (November 2017) will feature Nic Savino's story.  Grab up CALL TO ENGAGE this month for an awesome read!

Carolyn Crisher