bkalsi86

Rating: 4.5 / 5 I almost gave up on this series after reading the first book and finding it rather blah. But I decided to try the next book, which was better and had me wanting to keep going with the series. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed this fourth book of the series. It engaged me on all levels. NOTE: the High Risk series is about a group of SpecOps military men who have to move on with their lives after a mission goes bad and they are almost court-martialed. This fourth book could possibly be read on it's own without much confusion, but I'd recommend reading the books in order because the full backstory is pretty glossed over in this one. In Breakpoint Air Force combat controller Dallas O'Halloran is one of the few who stayed in the military after the horrible events of the Afghanistan mission. He suspects his much-valued skill-set kept him from being court-martialed, but not from being interrogated for 3 days by rigid Navy JAG lawyer Julianne Decatur. Dallas made it through and went back to work. Then a freak incident outs his cover and ends his military career. He goes to work for the Phoenix team like his SEAL buddies Zach (Freefall) and Quinn (Crossfire) and former SOAR pilot Shane (Shattered). He's also tagged to be part of THOR, a division of Homeland Security that reports only to the President. Also now working for THOR is Julianne - who ended up leaving the military after being obligated to pursue a court-martial against Dallas's friends. The two have a run in at a party one night and thought both try to deny it, the attraction the felt during that 3-day interrogation is still there. Then they are assigned a THOR mission together. Dallas is intrigued by the notion of working with her; Julianne is horrified. But they will work together to figure out whether a female pilot's death was really suicide...or something more. It's not long before it becomes obvious that there is something between the two of them...or that there is something much more devious going on than a pilot's suicide. The two have to curb their attraction - temporarily - to figure out why bodies are piling up and uncover and unexpected conspiracy. But when that's done, all's fair in love in war. In each of the last books, there was always an area that fell kind of flat: weak romance, weak suspense plot, bad ending. But Breakpoint was solid in all areas for me. I didn't have a single major complaint as I was reading or once I finished. I loved the romance part of the book. The dynamic between Dallas and Julianne was fantastic - the rough, tough military man and the rigid JAG lawyer who almost court-martialed him. There was some serious chemistry there. So much sexual tension. And even though it was a long way through the book before they could finally act on that tension, I didn't mind. It added to the anticipation and let the characters get to know each other and find out each wasn't quite what they other thought they were. They were able to realize they actually liked each other and weren't just sexually attracted. I also enjoyed the characters of the book. I remember in one of the past books that Dallas was mentioned to be a womanizing flirt. And I wondered if I'd like him as a character, but he was actually very likable. I loved that he was more than a little secretly nerdy. So sexy. Julianne was a pretty good character as well...maybe a bit too rigid. I thought she could have relaxed and opened up a little more to Dallas. The suspense part of the story was more on the low-intensity side. The romance is the more dominant part of the story, but I still liked the suspense angle. A simple supposed suicide turns into a complicated conspiracy. There were some nice twists and turns in there. And the climax, though a bit short in length, was nicely done. If I had one little qualm with the plot it would be that throughout the book, Ross gives a certain impression about the conspiracy being revealed. It made me feel like something really big and sinister was doing on. Then the real reason for everything is revealed and I thought it was a little mundane. I had been expecting something more. But that was only a mild annoyance for me. On the whole, this was just a really solid book that was enjoyable cover-to-cover. I couldn't wait to keep reading whenever I had to put it down. So I glad that I stuck with this series and got a chance to read Breakpoint. I'll be looking forward to the next addition to the series.

2022-11-14 16:30