Covert Ops

by Alla Kar

[Cocktails and Books]

"Alla Kar spins a tale of how a one night stand between an FBI panther-shifter, Lilly and a Marine, Bo turns into a passionate love affair. Lilly is a member of the SSB (shape shifter bureau) which is one of the least known departments of the FBI. She has been paired with several different partners and each partner has been unable to deal with her panther-shifting ability. Lilly has been shot, harassed, and even raped. As a result she is physically tired and emotionally empty.

Her best friend Kole suggests that Lily is in need of a good lay to help her overcome her less than desirable circumstances. Lilly agrees to go to the club and meets Bo while standing in line. She is rude, but Bo is not put off and while dancing Lilly decides to take Kole's advice. Since this is a novella not a full length book I think the author had to dive right into the characters without much character development, but I would have loved to see more depth to both Lilly and Bo's characters. The reader is barely introduced to them before they go off to have a night of steamy sex.

After their night of steamy sex an unexpected complication occurs when they find out they are partners on an assignment the next day. From this point on the storyline continues to be very predictable with Lilly and Bo trying to stay away from each other. They give in and have sex and a real bond forms. There were a couple of twists such as Jarred a wolf-shifter that likes Lilly and whether he would be a problem for Lilly and Bo or help them. Bo's character was really sweet when he found out that Lilly could shift into a panther, and he showed her how accepting he was by taking her straight to bed.

Lilly and Bo arrive at the site of their assignment, Lilly is kidnapped the next day, and rescued the day after. All of the small amount of action and suspense happen in a 24 hour period. It was a little bit of a let down because the author didn't really delve into the storyline concerning her abduction enough. The girl attending to Lilly was nice, smiled, and had no clue that Lilly could be harmed, and then the madman responsible for her being their walks in and it appears he is in a relationship with this girl. That was the perfect point to have Lilly begin to work on the girl to turn her against the madman and add some drama to the storyline. It never happened. Even during the fight the author writes that Lilly realizes the only way to defeat one of the men is by tearing them limb from limb. Lilly breaks the man's leg and the fight is over. What???

This book wasn't great, but it did make for a fast paced very steamy read. Keeping in mind that it was a novella I did find the characters to be likable, but the plot missed several opportunities to make it a good book. Even though it was short I think the author hurt the storyline by having too few details and a lack of character development. It was just okay for me.

Reviewed by Michelle for Cocktails and Books