Reviewed by EBookObsessed on
I requested a copy of Going Dark to use for our Friday Giveaways but once I received it, it caught my attention and I decided I needed to hoard this one for myself, and I was really glad that I did. Monica McCarty has written several historial and highlander romances. This is McCarty's first contemporary novel and it was brilliant. The action was well-blended with the romance. There was insta-attraction and the high tension of the situation lead to insta-love but made it believable. While the short term situation gets dealt with before the end of the book, there is an overall story arc involving the covert op in Russia that went bad and the surviving members of the platoon who are hiding and trying to figure out who screwed them over so you will probably be in this for the long haul and I don't know how many books we will need to tell it all.
Here, Annie Henderson, Marine Ecologist, has come to Scotland to protest the proposed off-shore oil drilling which will be much too close to the shoreline and will ruin the marine and wildlife in the area, as well as the lovely coastline, especially if there is another major oil spill. She arrives with her French boyfriend, who she met at another rally after the Gulf Spill. He tells her that he and his friends will be swimming over to the drilling platform and having a sit-in to bring attention to the situation, but their plans are more nefarious than that.
Julian seems to be acting odd and Annie realizes that she hasn't really known him that long and maybe this whole trip is a mistake. Annie gets a bit concerned that Julian and his friends are keeping something from her. She searches their supplies and finds cases of explosives. Annie then goes to Capt. Dan to get his help. Dan manages to capture the thugs and was planning to take off before the Coast Guard arrives but after Annie gives him a pleading look and he gives in and takes her with him. A good thing too since the thugs managed to get loose and have now convinced the authorities that it is Annie and Dan who are the international terrorists.
Dan Warren (formerly Senior Chief Dean Baylor) has to keep them alive and out of the hands of the authorties. He is supposed to have gone dark until he heard from his Lieutenant. Someone set up his Platoon to die in Russia and no one can know that there were survivors. Rescusing a clueless protestor isn't staying under the radar, but he doesn't want to think what might have happened if he had left Annie behind. He needs to get Annie safe and get back to his mission to help uncover what happened to his platoon.
There was one matter at the end of the story where Annie does something completely stupid, where I am actually saying out loud "are you kidding me?" But I won't allow it to detract from the overall story or Annie's character. While she did get herself into quite the predicament, it wasn't unbelievable and while Dean calls her naive you can understand where unless you believed at the beginning of your relationship that your boyfriend was an international terrorist, that you wouldn't have cleared your computer passwords to keep him from buying bomb materials with your credit card, or you wouldn't think much of him having the boat chartered in your name since you are the dive expert. Once Annie realizes she was the patsy, she understands just had badly she allowed herself to be embroiled in their plans, and how guilty she looks. Annie works to raise herself in Dan's estimation and proves that she is an intelligent woman. So the stupid move at the end stood out even more as completely stupid and once again, naive.
McCarty blends the Russia-arc smoothly into the overall story. The action keeps steady with breaks for the romance growing between Annie and Dean. Annie and Dean have great chemistry both in and out of the bedroom.
If you like an action-packed military story, this is definitely worth the read.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 3 September, 2017: Finished reading
- 3 September, 2017: Reviewed