review || LIGHT UP THE NIGHT

Sometimes, when I'm relentlessly scouring NetGalley for new ARCs that I'm just dying to read, I stumble across posts that I never... ever... finished.

 

Such as this one.

 

You see, the next book in the NIGHT STALKERS series is ready to be reviewed, so I moseyed on over here to be sure that this review was up and finished and it. was. NOT.

 

It said coming soon. ...on 8/14/14.

 

Oy, vey, Mignon... You realize it has been three months?!

 

This was obviously put up during my not-so-organized months. Not that's I'm 100% great at the organization aspect, but I have gotten 100x better.

 

But anywho.

 

Better late than never, yes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Light Up the Night by M.L. Buchman

Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca (9/2/2014)

Series: Night Stalkers

Genre: Military Romance

Source: NetGalley

Buy It From Amazon (Kindle) | BN/Nook || Goodreads

My Rating: ★★★★★

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Trisha O'Malley
Rank: Second Lieutenant and AH-6M "Little Bird" Pilot
Mission : Take down Somali pirates, and deny her past

Name: William Bruce
Rank: Navy SEAL Lieutenant
Mission : Rescue hostages, and protect his past-against all comers

They both have something to hide
When hotshot SOAR helicopter pilot Trisha O'Malley rescues Navy SEAL Bill Bruce from his undercover mission in Somalia, it ignites his fury. Everything about Trisha triggers his mistrust: her elusive past, her wild energy, and her proclivity for flying past safety's edge. Even as the heat between them turns into passion's fire, Bill and Trisha must team up to confront their pasts and survive Somalia's pirate lords.

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connect with M.L. Buchman || amazon author page | website | twitter | facebook

 

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As a previous fan of M.L. Buchman's, I thoroughly enjoyed this newest addition to his Nightstalker series. It had been a few years since I've read any of these books; while my gripes I had with the first 2-3 books were still a bit evident in this book, I was more thoroughly engaged in Trish and Billy's story than I had been in any of the others!

 

What I love about M.L. Buchman, which fellow blogger Sonya Heaney points out in a review on the same book, is this:

I don’t know whether it’s good or bad that one of the romance genre’s strongest feminists is a male author. I don’t know what it says about other authors, but I love what M. L. Buchman has done with his heroines, and I love the respect he has for military romance and what he believes a woman is capable of doing.

Is she not right? The romance field is so, so heavily driven by female authors. Yes, there's Nicholas Sparks (huge fan here), but M.L. Buchman writes military romance in a way that reminds me of all my other favorite military romance writers. And for his female leads to be so strong and well-thought out? He must know of some pretty stellar ladies in his life. 

Any way... This book.

William doesn't trust NightStalkers -- they failed him. And when William meets Trisha... well, it's because she rescues him.

Trisha let him rant while she shut down the May. 03:46:10, right on mission schedule, ten seconds late this time. She made a point of chatting with Roland for a moment before she peeled of her helmet and turned to face the raging idiot.

The red deck lights for night operations were bright enough that he'd be able to see her clearly. That usually stopped guys cold.

"Oh fine. A woman. Now I'm probably going to have my ass reamed for yelling at a woman." Then he continued right along, chewing her out without further pause, which was pretty funny. 

I'm not entirely sure why I like that passage so much... perhaps because it shows that William really doesn't give two hoots that she's a woman -- he was rescued, by a team he didn't trust, nonetheless, for one, but also because it shows his ability to... talk, for lack of a better word.

And words are something he won't ever lack around Trisha. He immediately relates it to her being Irish and him being a pure-blood Scot.

One scene that particularly stands out in my head is when Trisha and William (who she jokingly, 'lovingly' calls "Billy the SEAL") are sitting outside her bird, talking about their pasts and her being shot at (which she keeps the bullet). It's one of the first true times you see a deep connection between these two people, who are attracted to one another but neither wants to be.

She was holding herself together by sheer force of will. The woman was so damn strong it was amazing. It would almost be easier to deal with her if she'd just cry. Not that he was any good with a weeping woman. But she was wound so tight.

If he did touch her, she wouldn't break, she'd shatter. And for reasons he wasn't going to think about right now, he cared a great deal that she didn't.

They spend a long time out there, sitting beside her bird, not talking. I think that that's a true testament of their impending relationship -- he spoke of some deep,  personal things, yet they still sat in a comfortable silence with one another.

I enjoyed these two's comfort with one another. I liked that he learned to trust Trisha's ability to fly, and she trusted his ability to lead.

I remember reading THE NIGHT IS MINE on a family trip (we carpool) up north for Christmas. I remember liking it, and then being impressed it was written by a man. I know that I had every intention of continuing the series, and I may have skim-read I OWN THE DAWN (...I may even own it...), but I wasn't as connected as I was with THE NIGHT IS MINE, and the series fell to the wayside. But when LIGHT UP THE NIGHT popped up on my radar, I knew that I wanted to come back to this series and am so glad I did.

Billy and Trisha's story is an A in my book, and I will be revisiting this one sooner than I did the first book!