Striking Distance by Pamela Clare Series: I-Team #6
Published by berkley, Sensation on November 5, 2013
Genres: Contemp Romance, Rom-Suspense, Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Advance Reader Copy, NetGalley
Goodreads
Her past is a secret—even to her.
Discovering it will be the most dangerous move of her life.TV reporter Laura Nilsson, known as the "Baghdad Babe," spent eighteen months in an Al Qaeda compound after being kidnapped live on the air. Two years later, she's still wondering why.
No rescue mission in Javier Corbray's fourteen years as a Navy SEAL affected him the way Laura's rescue did. No woman has stirred his protective instincts the way she has. And he wants her more than he's ever wanted anyone.
As Laura and Javier's passion ignites, so does Laura's need to discover the mystery of her past. Especially when she learns that her abduction was not random—and that she's still a target for a killer with an impenetrable motive. Now Javier will have to rely on his skills to keep the woman he loves from being struck down before she dares uncover the truth.
4.5
***SPOILER FREE***
This book was so much more than I bargained for! In this 6th installment of the I-Team series, we see Laura and Javier dealing with everything from kidnappings, Black Ops, a hit out for Laura, and throughout it all, they fall for each other.
The beginning is a bit of backstory on both Javier and Laura, and what they are doing about a year and a half before the main action starts. In this bit we find out that Laura is a reporter on a CNN-like station and she’s in Dubai to report from there. She and Javi meet up in a bar one night, and one thing leads to another and they have an amazing weekend. But they both know that’s all it is; it’s one weekend only, then they go back to their lives. But that week, on live TV, Laura is killed and her location bombed.
Javier is still keenly feeling that loss over a year later. When he is sent in on a mission to take out a terrorist, a woman in a burqa comes running out saying that she’s an American and to save her. She never sees her rescuer, but he sees her. And he is stunned.
It’s Laura. Alive.
The danger never leaves, though, and Javier appoints himself Laura’s guard. He and Laura get closer, even though Laura doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to have a normal relationship with any man, let alone Javi, who knew her from before. But they work through it, and they deal with all the threats coming at them, and it’s a wonderful romance.
The plot in this story is so full of twists and intense action that I was glued to my nook reading this as fast as I could. The PTSD Laura suffers is realistic and handled well, her past traumas never being shoved into a box and ignored. I appreciated that. Although I will say that there should be trigger warnings on this book, so anyone sensitive to rape and abuse knows what they are getting into.
Ms. Clare brings realistic actions and steamy love scenes to life in this book and  any fan of the I-Team will have a hard time putting this book down.
Note:
In case you didn’t know, Pamela Clare has given us a prequel novella, First Strike, which is when Javier and Laura first meet in Dubai, and the super sexy weekend they spent together.
***ARC courtesy of Berkley
