Desperate Match (Coded for Love, #5)

by Lynne Silver

[Cocktails and Books]

This had a pretty interesting plot: a woman who if the victim of domestic violence seeks to match herself to a genetically engineered soldier in hopes of escaping her husband. I even like the added twist that the soldier the heroine was matched with had a birth defect. It was a nicely paced read and I didn't need to read the other books in the series to be caught up in what was happening.

Jill had been married to her high school sweetheart, Jack for six years. She had become a shell of the girl she once was when she first started dating Jack. But when she discovered The Program and the hope that she could be genetically matched to an engineered soldier, she began plotting her escape. Despite how beaten down she was, Jill was a stronger woman than she gave herself credit for...especially when she shows up at a military base without knowing whether they'd let her in or not. She started coming out of her shell around the other women on the base and even opened herself up a bit to Rowan.

Rowan was a nice guy and he would do just about anything for Jill, even when he thought she wasn't his match. But he harbored a bit of a chip on his shoulder when it came to his arm and he jumped to a lot of conclusions about other people based on that chip. I felt like he held Jill's initial reaction to his arm against her. Despite her saying she loved him, he still thought she felt he was less than because he wasn't "whole" like his brother. I liked him a little less because of that.

Rowan was very sweet with Jill when it came to intimacy between the two of them. He knew what she had been through and kept to his promise of going at her pace. But I loved how dirty he got with her when he knew she getting more comfortable. I love nothing more than a man who dirty talks and he had a good dose of it for Jill.