I began A Dangerous Engagement and could not get into it at all, a surprise considering my love of military romances. Even at the book’s halfway mark I remained uninterested, but since I was trying to work, grade final exams, and do the million things that I have to do during the Christmas season, I figured it was my fault and put the book aside till after the New Year. I began it again, and it was an easier read the second time around, although the first half remains problematical. It’s a complex story for a series romance, and as I had not read the first book in the series, Crossing The Line, I was lost at times.

Lieutenant Anna Shale grew up poor in Panama City. After joining the Navy she began intelligence work, and has continued to work intelligence for most of her military career. When agent Mike Foster of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service gives her a file on Luis Ortiz, she knows why she has been chosen for this assignment: Luis is her cousin and she lived with him and his family until she was 14. Now Luis is into drug smuggling, gun running, and more – and Anna is the logical one to go undercover.

Major Tom Wilde is a member of Delta Force. Luis killed Manuel, a friend and fellow soldier. Now Tom is undercover, posing as a demolition expert for Luis. He thinks Anna is both a traitor and a drug addict. He loathes her, but he needs to become friends with her in order to work with Luis. Pretty soon, he begins to wonder if Anna really is the traitor she appears to be – then he stumbles into the truth and deep, deep danger.

Dangerous Engagement begins very slowly and for a time I wondered what was going on. When A Dangerous Engagement was rehashing the events from Crossing the Line or setting up the story for the next book in the Sisters In Arms series, I was alternately lost or impatient, but about halfway through, this book took off so fast I wished for a seatbelt. I’ll leave you to discover the story on your own, but I’ll tell you that Luis plans an incident that is uncomfortably scary.

Anna is a wounded heroine. When you find out the details of her early life, you will be heartbroken. Despite her horrible past, she has survived and even thrived, but she is no hard-nosed, take-charge military type. She is fragile and at times weak, but she isn’t a wimp and she has a strong core that serves her well.

Tom is also a wounded character. His mother and the woman he loved both drank and abused drugs. He has a problem (an understandable one) with trust, and it takes him and Anna a long time to connect. He is attracted to her looks from the beginning, but there isn’t a lot of mental lusting until he realizes her real mission. And that’s when the attraction between them simply sizzles.

After the slow start, A Dangerous Engagment moved so fast that I wished it could have been a full length novel. I was interested enough to go out and get the first book in the series and I will get the third one too. In the end this turned out to be a better than average category read. I’m glad I stuck with it and look for the other books in the series to have better beginnings.