Book Review & Giveaway: Close Pursuit by Cindy Dees

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Close Pursuit
By:  Cindy Dees
Published:  February 25, 2014
Publisher:  Harlequin
Source:  Publisher
Mature Content:  18 & Up

GR's Summary:

On the run and under fire…

Providing medical relief in a war-torn region helps Alex Peters forget his past and focus on the job—delivering babies. Less easy to overlook is his blonde comrade-at-arms, who knows nothing of the trouble he's running from. Katie McCloud makes the assignment bearable, although her perky innocence proves to be an arousing distraction. Then, as combat explodes around them, their only option is flight. 

A kindergarten teacher seeking adventure, Katie hoped this humanitarian mission—and the mysterious, sexy doctor sharing it—would push her out of her comfort zone. With Alex, she starts taking tantalizing risks and becoming the survivor she knew she could be. 

But back on U.S. soil, Alex and Katie face a new threat, and this time they're the target. Forced into close confines, neither can believe the other isn't the intended mark. With only each other to depend on—and suspect—Alex and Katie can't avoid the simmering attraction between them. But to stay alive, they'll have to trust more deeply than ever before…

Lindy's Thoughts:

Close Pursuit was an interesting story, and very well-written, but it just wasn't for me.  The story dragged, and I found myself having to put it down several times to take little breaks from it.  I enjoyed the fact that there was a lot of action, suspense, and plot twists.  However, I felt like there was too much going on, and I found myself lost and confused at times throughout the story.  

I loved Katie McCloud's character.  She was determined, sweet, caring, and very likable.  However, I did not connect to Alex Peters.  He was suppose to be an irresistible, and sexy playboy.  I found him to be awkward, unappealing, cold, and a bit strange.  The intimate scenes were very hot and well-written between Katie and Alex.  However, I just didn't feel the connection between these these two characters.  It felt forced, fake, and very contrived to me.

Even though I wasn't a fan of this story, others might be.  Some of the great elements in the story included running, hiding, and wild car chases from unknown enemies that would stop at nothing to capture and harm Katie and Alex.  As the reader, I found myself contemplating all options, and trying to put the puzzle pieces together to find out who the "bad guys" were.  I enjoyed reading about Katie and Alex as they worked together to deliver babies in  dangerous, and war ravaged villages.  

I give, Close Pursuit, by Cindy Dees, 3 War Torn, On the Run, Suspense Filled Stars!  This story wasn't for me.  However, if you enjoy complex plots, with espionage, action-packed suspense, and a puzzle to solve, give Close Pursuit a try!

Ro's Take on This Journey:

Close Pursuit, by Cindy Dees, is told in dual perspective.  It is an emotional ride filled with engaging combat, drones, rebels, patrols, chases, war torn Zugahstan, (a fictional country set high in the remote region of the Hindu Kush,) repressed women in Burkas, and two unlikely people teamed up to save the day.  This was an action packed drama in the highest sense. The setting is a war torn area where the government deems it necessary to send Doctors Unlimited, a low-profile military organization, as well as other aid organizations into the remote area for relief. Doctor Alex Peters, former mathematician, is being sent, as a trauma surgeon, to train midwives in the area. Unfortunately, this past winter there had been a massacre of the feminists and midwives.  So women are dying left and right. It is illegal for a man to deliver a baby (even if he is a doctor) or the woman and the doctor will be killed.  No one can see the woman but her husband.

Alex Peters, a man with a dark past and many secrets that he keeps to himself, and Katie McCloud, a Kindergarten teacher, and language specialist, who has been recruited by her military intelligence brother, Mike, to go because she knows the ancient language that the people speak in that area. Katie was told to keep an eye on Alex, though she doesn't know why.  Alex is a genius who graduated from Harvard at 16, who is brilliant, but at the same time, lacks the day to day common sense necessary to fit in.  Alex is always on high alert.  No one can penetrate his bubble, until naive Katie McCloud enters his very secretive space and makes him realize more than he feels he is capable of receiving.  Alex is in this for redemption, though Katie does not know this at the time. Katie is a wonderful character, intuitive, full of life, witty, spontaneous, what you see is what you get, gutsy, and more intelligent than Alex has given her credit for being.  Katie has grown up with a father and brother's all in the military.  She know's what special ops look like, guns, drones, seals, carriers, and other important information that is helpful to Alex.  All definitely information that another basic translator would not be able to relay at the drop of hat, as Katie can.  Katie has always wanted to camp and be adventurous, but was never allowed to be a part of what her brothers did.  This was her opportunity to prove herself as someone who could stand the test of hell itself!

Alex and Katie were complete opposites. Most times, Alex was aloof, speechless, with one word answers at best, but mostly to himself. As the reader reads on, they realize that Alex has a lot of skeletons in his closet and is afraid of getting close to anyone.  He is good looking, strong, and attractive when he finally smiles or smirks at Katie, and the heat rises.  Katie would read whenever possible to pass the time during the day, when the novel first began, but as time goes by, they are mostly on the run and begin to bond with one another. They set up a tent, well hidden away, and camouflaged, to keep from getting killed, still knowing the women would come to him in their time of need.  The scenes are set in a desolate, barren, unforgiving terrain, terrifyingly dark, scary, and mind blowing.  The constant listening for noises, attacks, and religious extremists finding them to kill them, had me on the edge of my seat.  These two are attracted to each other and as time goes by, a lustful, sexually charged, romance starts with a bet or dare of sorts, and eventually proceeds into a caring, loving relationship.  This novel takes you from the ravishes of war to the states, where they are still not out of danger, and each starts to question the others objectives.

I was a bit confused from the beginning of the book, but as time went by, I was able to understand what was going on.  Though, there was a multitude of things going on at all times, and extremely large amount to absorb.  I did enjoy the constant danger, mystery behind the story, espionage, survival of the fittest, differences in backgrounds, and all around descriptions, prose, and creative license that Ms. Dees took in creating this very controversial novel.  There is a lot of character growth in the novel and I found it disturbing throughout the ravaged, war torn environment, the suppressed women who cannot comfortably have their babies without fear of death, and revolted by the outdated ways that women are treated in war torn countries.  These types of novels are usually on the top of my list.  I think there was a lot going on in this novel, and had to put it down a few times to regroup.  Overall, it was very interesting and exciting.

I give Close Pursuit, by Cindy Dees, 3 1/2 Action Packed, War Torn, Terrifyingly Scary Stars!!!

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About Cindy Dees:

Cindy Dees started flying airplanes while sitting in her dad’s lap at the age of three and got a pilot’s license before she got a driver’s license. At age fifteen, she dropped out of high school and left the horse farm in Michigan where she grew up to attend the University of Michigan.

After earning a degree in Russian and East European studies, she joined the U.S. Air Force and became the youngest female pilot in the history of the Air Force. She flew supersonic jets, VIP airlift and the “C-5” Galaxy, the world’s largest airplane. She also worked part-time gathering intelligence. During her military career, she traveled to forty countries on five continents, was detained by the KGB and East German secret police, she got shot at, flew in the first Gulf War, met her husband and amassed a lifetime’s worth of war stories.

Her hobbies include professional Middle Eastern dancing, Japanese gardening and medieval reenacting. She started writing on a one-dollar bet with her mother and was thrilled to win that bet with the publication of her first book in 2001.

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