Pushing the Limits by Emmy Curtis

Title: Pushing the Limits (Alpha Ops)
Author: Emmy Curtis
Publisher: November 4, 2014 by Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 9781455530953
Pages: 272pages 
How I Read It: ARC ebook
Genre: military, romance, contemporary
My Rating: 4 crowns

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

After their one-night fling at a wedding, archaeologist Henrietta “Harry” Markowitz thought she’d never see war hero Matt Stanning again. So when they’re paired up to investigate a military plane crash in Iraq, she’s not sure if the three-month reunion is serendipitous or cursed. What she does know is this gorgeous man lights her body on fire—and incredible sex is always a welcome distraction.

Air Force Sergeant Matt Stanning has been called a hero, but he feels nothing like one when he realizes the sexy blonde in his bed is the widow of his fallen brother-in-arms. Even worse, he actually has to work with her, and she’s unearthed evidence that points to a military conspiracy. If they dig deeper, they’ll put their lives in danger. If they don’t, they’ll never know the truth—not only about the mysterious plane crash, but about each other.

My Review:

This is the second book in the series. We first met both Matt and Harry in the first book of the series, where they're making serious lust-eyes at each other at a rehearsal dinner the prior couple were attending. She's an archaeologist haunted by the loss of her military husband about ten years ago and he, unknowingly, was the commander of the fateful mission that killed her husband and in fact is also still haunted by it. This is not revealed until AFTER their initial googly-eye moments and then - yeah. There ends up being a lot of "Oh, I can't go near her because she's his wife..." angst.

On the whole, I liked this book a lot. There's continuing intrigue in the Middle East as Harry meets up with the military specialist (Matt) about a metal fragment she found while on a dig. Together they find themselves drawn further in as a fellow archaeologist dies suddenly and the donors behind Harry's (and others') digs presses harder and harder to know what she might have found.

I laughed and cried at times in this book. Harry really needed to finish healing from losing her husband and I think Matt was good for her. Matt ... yeah, he's a typical military guy, focused on completing his mission and as Harry becomes PART of that mission, his attempts to avoid getting close to her fail miserably. She's pretty good for him and I loved the two falling in love.

There were some nice secondary characters who provided a healthy bit of suspicion as to their real motivations for being on (or near) Harry's dig. I didn't see some of the twists and turns this book and I really like that fact.

So, over all, this is a great book and I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a good military romance set in the Middle East (between two Westerners).

Book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review also posted at Tory Michaels' Time Out.