Thursday, 2 October 2014

CODE NAME: Ghost & Fire (Books 1 & 2) by Natasza Waters




This is a bit of a hard one to review, military based thriller/erotica/romance is not my thing but I was offered the, two parts of the story, to review.

When I first started it I gave up. It didn't grab me and I found the set up a little confusing especially when NW was describing the main characters and all the periphery elements, I couldn't keep up with who was who!

However, I went back to it and was sort of glad I did.  I have mixed feelings over the books as they are a bit dragged out, but there is an engaging story, a traumatised heroine and an alpha male hero who engage in some steamy sex scenes, but even that becomes a little formulaic by the second half of the story (in book 2) and there is a limit to my sympathy for both main characters.

The sexual tension and inevitable sex was initially exceptional. The multiple male characters are fantastically hot alpha males.... they would certainly make my knees knock, and this is fiction after all – I don’t really want too much reality in my erotica!

What can I say about Kayla; she is strong with a lot of past trauma that really shapes her character and how she reacts to things.  She is also abrasive, cold and not overly likable plus many a time I wanted to scream at her to just stop, just stop!

Thane, the male lead, at the start I didn't quiet “get” him but he grew on me eventually, but the on/off almost abusive relationship between the two of them I think was supposed to be sort Burton/Tayloresque but never really got pulled off correctly.

However, this is not some bubble headed erotic, drool a minute story though, there is some real gusty stuff in here and the serial killer aspect is very well written. That said you HAVE to read book 2 to get any closure, which I feel is a little bit of a cheat when with cleaner, more concise writing and fewer subplots and characters the story could have been easily concluded in this one book and been a better read for it, but it didn’t the author leaves you on a cliffhanger, with no closure.










After reading the first book "Ghost" you have no option but to continue the story. However, I didn't find this book as gripping as the first and to be honest the on-off relationship between the two lead characters got a bit tiresome. Having said that, I would recommend these two books.

As said before, NW would have been better just extending the first book then putting this sequel out. Kayla remains true to form with her stop/go emotions, yes she has severe emotional trauma in her past but does that really give you the right to treat others like rubbish? Also I found the constant reminder by NW of her past a bit boring and therefore I lost sympathy eventually.  Basically in Ghost she was strong and coping, in Fire she became a moaning, boring bitch.

Overall, I like NW writing style the serial killer aspect of the story is defiantly wrapped up in this second book and if you enjoy military romance/thriller novels but can suspend all sense of reality then you will love these books.

Will I go onto book no.3 - if I see it on offer, then yes!




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