The Mammoth Book Of Special Ops Romance [Paperback]

If you like your romance hard and fast and your heroes tall, dark and deadly this collection of dangerous quickies may be just what you've been looking for.

Even though I don't read a great deal of special ops romances, I do love to read them when I am looking for an alpha male who is deadly but still human as a change of pace from my normal shapeshifters, vamps, and other worldly paranormals. And even not having actually read stories by most of the authors featured here before, I have to say that I recognized all of their names - so fans will likely find quite a few of their favorite special ops authors here.

I love short stories so I've read five or so of these BIG short story collections and though this actually wasn't my favorite of the Mammoth Books, there is a good variety of stories. Cheyenne McCray's story was one of my favorites in this bunch - it starts out rough and gets the sex out of the way first thing but what I loved was the way the heroine responded to the hero's reason behind the encounter - violent but good.

Most of the rest of the stories didn't leave me with a strong impression but here's the blurbs to give you an idea of what's inside.

1. Once Burned (Penny McCall)- The last time they worked together was on the mission that went oh so wrong, but now she must work with the man who cost her her career to save a family held hostage by terrorists

2. Caine River (Rinda Elliot) - When a brainy but beautiful woman's hacking puts her in danger, the Marshall who was former object of her teenage lust will be the one to save her from criminals bent on silencing her forever.

3. Surrender at Dawn (Laura Griffin) - A woman seeks out a former Navy SEAL to help her rescue her missing journalist brother from terrorists.

4. Into the Night Sky (Charlotte Mede) - A woman is prepared to risk everything to destroy the man who killed her sister

5. A Kept Man (Shannon K. Butcher) - He quit his job as bodyguard to avoid succumbing to his attraction to the boss' niece but when she turns up looking for a gun to save her now kidnapped uncle, he doesn't know how he will be able walk away again.

6. Russian Roulette (Rachel Caine) - Her cover blown, she is captured by an enemy determined to torture her for her knowledge, pain she expects but falling for the enemy? Now that's a big surprise - this one was interresting and I think I read somewhere that this short is a prequel to a new series which continues the story of the leads, I will certainly be keeping an eye out for that.

7. VeriSEAL (Marliss Melton) - Something about her "SEAL" boyfriend seems just a little off, but will the background check reveal the truth before it's too late - I didn't much care for this one, because the true hero of the piece doesn't get enough time with the heroine to make this a romance.

8. Shoot To Thrill (Charlene Teglia) - When an operative's mission to blow up a virus lab runs into a hitch in the form of a lovely scientist preparing to sacrifice herself with the same result in mind, he will discover that Plan B has so much more potential - a life affirming connection leads to more.

9. Angels of Punishment (Michele Albert )- The child of fallen angels must join up with a justice angel to foil a plot which could tip the balance between good and evil - This is a little prequel to an urban fantasy series the author is planning and both the leads are promising.

10. Dark Force (Cheyenne McCray) - A special ops team leader plans on leaving a distactingly sexy team member behind on rescue mission that's personal - this is the one that I thought had such a great punch at the beginning

11. Lipstick Spy School (Gina Robinson) - An gorgeous assassin intends to take out the hunky instructor of a fantasy spy school for women.

12. Don't Walk Away (Shiloh Walker) - He ruined her cushy life by exposing her father as a deadly criminal, but he's never been able to forget the woman he lost who he now watches from a distance.

13. Heat of the Night (Jordan Summers) - Posing as a priest to get near his target, a sniper goes under cover with a medical team and inspires a 'forbidden' attraction in the lovely doctor in charge.

14. Overkill(E C Sheedy) - A truly strange mission brings an assassin back to where it all began and the woman he's always wanted - I liked this one a lot even though the setup is too hard to explain here.

15. Grey Man (Caitlyn Nichols)- While doped out on pain meds, a soldier has a very strange 'dream' one which changes his future - this is one of the the least special force-y ones of the bunch.

16. Good Guys (Liz Muir)- A thief with awesome fighting skills gets a chance to go undercover and do some good for her country - I love the thief, she's truly great and smart, and I loved how she gets the best of her British spy 'husband'.

17. Code Word Storm (Sydney Croft) - Annike reluctantly teams up with the fellow ARCO agent Creed who drives her to distraction in order to accomplish a mission in which her special powers are liable to get her possessed - a nice little fill-in to Croft's series (Sydney Croft is aka Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler) I think this story falls in the middle of the two Storm books.

18. TAG Team (Nicola Marsh) - Forced to work together again, a Special Ops team leader and an operative who specializes in the War on Terror find the attraction between is still electic.

19. The Game(Gennita Low) - I'm not sure what the heck was going on here. A woman is playing the long game and maneuvers the lover who refused her ultimatium into marriage as part of a mission and then leaves him behind.

20. The Traitor (Debra Webb)- 'Betrayed' by the only man she's ever let close, a scientist destroys her work to keep it out of enemy hands knowing that the life she's worked so hard at it is over.

Somehow I missed adding the author names above before I passed the book on to a new home - So I tried to connect the author's and stories together after the fact by scouring the web and had to guess on a couple, so hopefully I got them right.

Downloaded to my kindle app on the iphone. Great for reading while waiting in line for various things.... Introductions to some writers I had not yet discovered. Recommended.

I haven't finished this, the short stories are shorter than I expected. But its an okay book.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars