ARC Review: The Woman Left Behind by Linda Howard

“…this was a great read, it was very entertaining with a fantastic heroine, a few tense moments and a lot of sexual tension.”
~ Under the Covers

Who knew that being good at video games would throw her straight in to couch potato hell? Jina Modell works in the Communications department in a secret government organisation. Or at least she used to. Now, after a secret assessment carried out, via video game, she is being thrown in with the one of the GO-Teams, a highly trained military unit, as a drone operator. Her days of 9-5 in a climate controlled office are over. However, Jina is no quitter and no matter what her new team throw at her she is determined to fit into the team. Even if team leader Levi, call sign Ace, doesn’t seem to want her around.

I need more romantic suspense in my life, so I decided to pick up The Woman Left Behind, I was hoping to fall in love with some sexy military types and enjoy a fast paced plot. That isn’t quite what happened. Although I definitely fell in love with a team of sexy military types, however, I found it was the Jina “Babe” Modell that kept me hooked to the book. I loved how sassy she was and that she had no quit in her. As for the high octane plot…that was a little lacking. There was only one explosion and a scattering of gunfire in the whole book. However, that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.

The Woman Left Behind centred mostly around Jina’s initiation into the team and her training. She went from an office worker to a fully trained and fighting fit soldier and seeing that journey was funny and a little awe inspiring. What made this book so interesting, despite not having a fast moving plot, was Jina herself. She was easy to identify with as she approached the training regime/physical torture with reluctance, trepidation and the will not to fail. She liked her comfy office job and she had no desire to work outside air conditioning. The humour and camaraderie that this brought was a lot of fun and made this a quick and easy read.

Now the romance part. Levi and Jina have a lot of tension between them. At first, it was dislike and lust but as they got to know one another it was just plain ol’ lust, which developed to more as the book continued. The tension and chemistry was fantastic, especially as neither of them were able to act on the pull between them. However, I found when the romance did finally come to a head right at the end, after all the build up, it seemed a little anti-climatic. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I thought they had more chemistry when they weren’t a couple than when they were.

However, this was a great read, it was very entertaining with a fantastic heroine, a few tense moments and a lot of sexual tension. I now need to go back and read the first book in the series (not essential to read to understand this book) and look forward to the release of the third.

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