Title: Hard to Come By
Series: Hard Ink bk 3
Author: Laura Kaye
Genre: Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Caught between desire and loyalty…
Derek DiMarzio would do anything for the members of his disgraced Special Forces team—sacrifice his body, help a former teammate with a covert operation to restore their honor, and even go behind enemy lines. He just never expected to want the beautiful woman he found there.
When a sexy stranger asks questions about her brother, Emilie Garza is torn between loyalty to the brother she once idolized and fear of the war-changed man he’s become. Derek’s easy smile and quiet strength tempt Emilie to open up, igniting the desire between them and leading Derek to crave a woman he shouldn’t trust.
As the team’s investigation reveals how powerful their enemies are, Derek and Emilie must prove where their loyalties lie before hearts are broken and lives are lost. Because love is too hard to come by to let slip away.
Thoughts: With each book in this series I fall more in love with these guys than I was in the last book. Honestly after reading Hard to Hold On To I wasn’t sure how Kaye could top what she did there, but she managed to.
I’m always really critical of books where the hero or heroine losses a limb and how they move on with their lives because I live with someone who is missing a limb and he has never once let anything stop him from doing anything. I get that for someone who has had all their limbs their whole life and to suddenly not have one it is a HUGE thing, and takes a lot will power and mental strength to adjust to a new way of life.
Derek is one of those characters who accepts his new way of life much easier than those around him, especially his best friend on the team Beckett, but he’s determined to show not only Beckett but the rest of the team that even though he’s missing a part of his leg, he didn’t lose his ability to use his brain and is still their tech guru.
When he has the opportunity to step out from the computers and help determine if Emilie is a threat to them he does so willingly. Then he meets her and everything changes. She’s no longer just a mission. She’s someone he genuinely likes. When the threat to him and his friends lands on her doorstep he does everything he can to help her.
Emilie was a character I wasn’t sure about in the beginning and then she began to grow on me. Her brother has put her in a bad spot and she does the only thing she can, not just for her, but for him and their mom. When her actions bring the dangerous men her brother has gotten involved with to her, she has to rely on the the new man in her life to save her.
There is a lot happening in this book, Marz and the other members of his former Special Op’s team are getting closer to discovering what really happened that night in the desert that changed all of their lives, and the things they discover change everything for everyone involved. The action and emotions are intense and page turning. The Hard Ink series is fast becoming on of my favorite Romantic Suspense series, I can’t wait to see what happens next in this series.
Grade B+
