Colonel Brenden Jasper lives a life of secrets, danger, and clandestine missions, As commander of the most elite Black Ops unit in the world, nothing is more important to him than protecting the country he loves, But theres a reason only the toughest, battletested, alpha men can call themselves members of the Blackbrotherhood, None but those in the highest realms of government even know of its existence, and it's Brenden's job to avoid emotional entanglements so he can keep it that way.
Dr. Paige Nichols has spent her life ruled by logic and reason, teaching and analyzing art history, so nothing could have prepared her for the completely overwhelming attractionatfirstsight when she sets eyes on Brenden.
Their chance encounter at a party opens her up to a tantalizing dark side she never knew she hadand leaves her wanting so much more, But a man with a dark side often comes with way too many secretsones that could put her life in danger,
Though their chemistry burns hotter than ever, when danger comes knocking on Paiges door, Brenden will have to walk a fine line between duty, honor, and love.
First I want to thank the author for the trigger warning to readers and the way she handled the process during the story, It only added to what was an awesome story about the fight for love of each other and country, Brenden was duty bound to serve his country, Love was not something he felt he deserved, Paige wanted to be loved for who she was, but Brenden broke all the rules she had set, The story is dramatic, action packed, and steamy, The characters are wonderfully developed as whole persons as they figure who they are and where they fit into each others lives, I am hoping that the rest of the series will be just as page turning and cant wait to see the results, When The Smoke Clears is a like if military romantic suspense and a telenovela had a baby, There were some things I liked but more that I didnt so it ended up at a solid,for me.
Lieutenant Colonel Brenden Jasper works for a super top secret black ops team, Black, trying to stop arms deals that could kill millions no pressure.
Dr. Paige Nichols is an artist, teacher, therapist who has two romantic rules, dont date a military men or a white man, Unfortunately, Brendan is both. After a super steamy one night stand on New Years Eve they meet again months later when Paige recommends Brendans niece is dismissed from college, As their relationship deepens, Brendan fears for Paiges safety being in his inner circle, Paige wants him to open up and some seriously bad guys try to kill them.
So what I liked,
The love between Brendan and Paige, I really enjoyed how he was smitten with her and how their romance developed in the first part of the book, The chemistry between Brendan and Paige is smoking hot, sexy AF and burned up my kindle for sure!!
What I wasnt into,
There were so many plots going on, The military, the arms deal, the unexpected pregnancy, miscarriage, amnesia, The book is broken into parts and I felt like part three was really just so much, I would have liked to have a few of the plots been edited out, A trope could have been saved for another book, I appreciated the content warning of miscarriage, I didnt enjoy how the miscarriage came about I dont want to put a spoiler,
There was a lot of military jargon whats a QI fell like it was researched but the plot with the arms deal was confusing,
I was given an EARC from Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review, This is the first book I have read by this author, And while it wasn't horrible, there were a lot of things that I just didn't like, I was really hopeful just by reading the blurb, because the blurb made it sound excellent! But it just, . . wasn't. There really wasn't a lot of action, It seemed to skip over what he actually did with his team, and it also didn't really go into a lot of his relationship with his team.
I didn't really get how they could be brothers, when they didn't really act like it, Brenden's relationship with Paige just seemed to be built on sex, Right from the start. And don't get me wrong, I love a great sex scene just like anyone else who loves romance books, however these scenes weren't even that great, There was a lot of "sexy" talk between them that just wasn't that sexy to me, It actually made me want to skip over it, which is strange for me, I didn't really like Paige and just couldn't connect with her, I liked her best friend more than her, This story has a lot of potential, it just didn't get there in my opinion, Honestly, this felt like a run through with a first book that hadn't been edited or had anyone ask for there to be more, I doubt I would read anymore by this author, which is sad because I am always looking for new author's to read, ARC provided to me via netgalley in exchange for an honest review
This book started out with a great bang, but it slowly fizzled out and I found myself falling out of love.
I think I would put that down to the use of trope after trope, which not only put us back at where we started, but also made me begin to dislike their relationship and feel as if nothing really mattered.
I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Paige and Brenden, it was a good mixture of pure chemistry and attraction, as well as the two of them actually having a chance to talk and get to know one another.
Then we got to the lastof the book, and events that happened meant that the first portion of the book were just there to set up the story.
I think that it could have worked if we didn't spend over half the book getting to know the relationship only to have it fail before being quickly fixed in the last, it meant that the first half dragged on and the second half went too quick.
I really liked how good of a man Brenden was, and how much he cared for Paige, I often find in this genre it's not obvious that the man really cares.
That made their relationship feel very realistic and heartwarming,
Overall it was a great story and I enjoyed my time, it's just unfortunate how it went in the end,
Solid/Tough to rate, Some I loved, some annoyances,
I really enjoyed the concept of the story, The author, whom I have not read before, combined romance with military action and suspense, along with a lot of problems the characters went through,
What I loved was the start of the book, It captures your attention and the sparks were just flying off these two characters,
Soon we segued into issues and a lot of very deep, dark, and sometimes disturbing content that focused on military maneuvers, PTSD, murder, race issues, manipulation, miscarriage, and a lot more.
I think the author was trying to include a lot of key features into this one story and it involved a lot of issues for the couple.
The female character whined a lot, even though she knew what she was getting into, which I didnt think was cool, Plus, we know who the culprits are by mid to threequarters through,
Overall, the story is well written and it flows great, I love the connection between the two characters and Chilove hits the steam factor connection just right, I just wish the author hadnt tried to dump so many issues into one story, I wanted to see more of the happy times and not quite so many issues to overcome,
But the great news is we get a happily ever after and that always makes a lot of things right,
copy received for
review consideration
full review sitelink com/whenthesmo : WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARS by C, Chilove sitelink me/pdRZbMw
Publication Date: April,
Genre: Contemporary Military Romance
ed by: Reading in Pajamas/ Donna
Rated:Stars
I enjoyed this romantic suspense and found a new author.
Paige was an intelligent and accomplished woman with painshadows from her past, That pain rounded out her character nicely and explained her love of art therapy, I liked learning more about that and how the author didnt inundate us with too much information, My two complaints about Paige are:, With her intelligence and detailoriented background, how could she have forgotten something so important, I wont explain as I dont post spoilers,. With her familys military background, her anger with his inability to give her work details frustrated me,
Brenden was a smoking hot BlackOps member, Tough as nails and hard yet showing a tenderness that was appealing, His combat history has left him with PTSD issues in need of resolving, They made a good couple despite the chaos surrounding them, I enjoyed watching their relationship build, and the spicy hot romance, The storyline seemed unnecessarily chaotic at times, too many tropes thrown in that werent needed, However, I did like the tension from issues at her job and of course the dangers from his BlackOps work, I cant wait to see what comes next from Chilove,
copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review,
Kindle,sitelink to/egfyvO This had the premise to be good but unfortunately fell flat for me, Brendan is a super secret army guy and we follow him and Paiges story, This book is quite frankly a lot and half of it you cant even follow, It almost ended up being a DNF for me but I trudged through, This clearly needs a good editing because its kind of all over the place, All opinions are my own, thank you to Nergalley for the ARC, “Ill be there when the smoke clears”
This story is full of roller coaster moments, especially the relationship between Paige and Brenden, It starts steamy and just like a one night stand with a little regret from both sides when the night passes, But nothing stays put, as life has its ways of reuniting them and guiding them through the ups and downs that every relationship withstands, moreover, if you are dating someone who has to keep secrets as a way of living.
For me, it was a great story, although it has its moments where it felt like the story was going nowhere and suddenly, you find yourself trying not to cry or to roll your eyes this last, everytime Paige demands to Brenden that he share at least a bit of himself and his line of work, but all in all, it was a very entertain reading.
I fully enjoy the last chapters of the book, where action gets its peak and you are at the edge of your seat waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Disclaimer: Ive applied and received this book as an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Content warnings:
While I dont usually read military romantic suspense, I was intrigued enough by the blurb to pick this up.
And while this didnt work out well for me, it may read better for some more frequent readers of that genre,
Brendens special ops team is reaching the culmination of their mission to identify the source of weapons shipments to terrorists in the Middle East, and he doesnt have time for any distractions.
Hes well aware exactly how deadly they can be, So no matter how scorching his night with the beautiful woman in the green dress is, its for the best that he doesnt know anything about her that is, until he walks into a meeting with his nieces college and sees her again.
But can any relationship survive him being unwilling to give her the bare details about his work
“Nichols, when the bombs drop Ill still be here, baby.
The smoke will clear and youll be in my arms because we stand on the front lines together, ”
I liked Paige a lot, and I especially liked all the bits about art therapy, I sympathized a lot with her frustrations with Brendens obsession with secrecy, but I liked how the relationship built up, I certainly didnt doubt that they had a lot of chemistry! I had a lot harder time with Brenden, The nature of his job means he could be called away at any moment, and he feels like he cant tell Paige anything about what he does, not how long he expects hell be gone or how he got the various scars all over his body.
While Paige is familiar with the military need for secrecy much of her family is also military she feels like hes keeping this huge part of himself walled off from her to protect her from his darkness.
Hes afraid that shell walk away if she finds out exactly what he does for a living, He tries to make it up with presents he comes from money of course, but even those struck me as annoying, He buys her a puppy without even asking, for goodness sake,
“She wasnt asking for mission details, Hell, she knew there were things he couldnt tell her, but he had somehow lumped everything relating to his duty into a pile that was offlimits, So why was she so willing to bare her soul to a man who had all these damn secrets featuring the alternate life he lived”
Id hesitate to call this romantic suspense.
While there are some military elements to it, besides a few key scenes, most of the military portions happen either in conference rooms before the missions or on transportation back from them.
Most of it revolves around Brendens PTSD and how his secrecy affects his relationship with Paige, Thats not to say that its all on Brenden, Paige is Black, and her family that is to say, her father and brothers gave her two rules: dont date anyone in the military, and date within her own race.
Theres reasons for both of them, Her father and brothers are all in the military and have seen how it can wreck relationships, and theyre trying to keep her from making the same mistakes.
In terms of race, they know the cultural differences can be too much, While the first worry is certainly true even if still ridiculously patronizing, the second felt a bit like it was handwaved, Theres some bits about Brenden being a clueless white guy not understanding why she gets mad when he gets her hair wet but thats about it, Please note that I am coming at this from the perspective of a white woman, so take it all with a grain of salt,
My main problem with the book is that there is just too much going on, Almost the whole first half of the book feels like a setup for the latter half, when the pacing picks up and things start happening quickly, At points it felt like the characters were too busy reacting to everything around them to actually concentrate on their relationship and thats not even counting the curve ball thrown at them in the latter half of the book.
I felt like I had whiplash from all the drama the characters had to go through, I also found the “super special black ops!!” team thing a bit overdone, but military romances are not usually my thing, I mean, I suppose I did find it pretty funny that at least one member of a supposedly highly classified super soldier team has a large recognizable tattoo.
Overall, while this book didnt quite work for me, I liked the authors writing and will probably check out her next book,
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley, This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review, .