Publisher: Harlequin Blaze
Where did you get the book: Purchased
Release date: Out now
Subject: Captain Luke “Solo” Carnes.
Current Status: On temporary assignment.
Mission: Public recruitment and saving his ex’s tail!
Obstacle: He wants much, much more than that…
Sara Weston, an Air Force Captain herself, needs a pilot for her recruitment program, and fast. And she’s found the perfect candidate. Top gun pilot Luke Carnes is qualified, charismatic and available. Problem #1—he’s ridiculously hot. Problem #2—he broke Sara’s heart years ago…
But she’ll be professional. Just as long as she’s never close to him. Never under his gaze. And never in his bed.
Then again, never is a long, long time…
*Blurb taken from author’s official website*
Every so often (usually every two months) on Harlequin’s site, I go and look at the new releases and splurge. I go through the imprint lines I like, and I buy whatever catches my eye. When I do this, sometimes I end up with a few titles I like, others end up being duds. I also rarely buy from the Blaze line, but the cover of Hot Shot caught my eye. It’s a really really good cover :D. It’s different to the others as it really catches your eye, and I found myself drawn to it. And my book radar pinged when I saw that it was an ex-lovers trope which I’m a big fan of.
Captain Sara Weston works as a recruitment officer, and is in charge of her recruitment team that travels to give talks on life in the Air Force, and to try and encourage people to sign up. She’s missing a pilot in her team, but gets the shock of her life when ex-lover Luke Carnes suddenly shows up for the job. Sara hasn’t seen Luke in over seven years when he left her without warning, breaking her heart and disregarding her so callously. She doesn’t want him in her program as it will cause her problems personally, but knowing him to be one of the best pilots, she doesn’t dismiss him out-hand because she knows she needs to stay professional, and knows that he would be an asset to her team. The only problem is she doesn’t know why Luke is here, and is suspicious of his motives.
Luke has signed up to the recruitment team because he needs to do something important — he needs to apologise and make atones for his behaviour seven years ago. What happened to him whilst on mission made him realise how much of prick he had been for all this years. Even after leaving Sara, he was still a cocky son of a bitch and never understood or really cared how he treated others. But what happened to him on that mission made him realise he didn’t like the person he was, and knew that apologising to Sara was a must.
What really worked for me that made their HEA believable is that I believed in Luke’s remorse, and I believed that he was a changed person — even though I still have a little trouble believing why he would suddenly disregard Sara so badly after they were together for so long. Yet again Luke fully admitted how much of a prick he was. But throughout the book, Luke never rushed Sara, and he left it up to Sara on her terms. There were no flashbacks to what happened when they were youngsters, but it was conveyed well how deeply Sara was hurt when Luke left her, but that didn’t stop her from her career and her achievements, and what impressed me the most about this was that Sara’s professionalism never wavered throughout the beginning of the book to the end. Sara was a quiet heroine, yet she had a dignity about her that I really liked. There’s no major external plots except for a bitchy co-worker that brought tension between Luke and Sara, and that worked for me as there was no ‘required separation’. It was enough tension that was believable for the careers they had.
The smex had a good heat level, but it was toned down compared to a lot of Blaze books. And the main focus was Luke gaining Sarah’s trust back, and Sarah falling in love with the man Luke had become. O’Malley, a secondary character, was great, and I really hope he has a book of his own as he made such an impression on me. And I enjoyed this book so much that I’ve put Jo Leigh’s backlist titles on my wishlist.
I give Hot Shot a B+.
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