Breakpoint is the fourth book in the High Risk series. This book stands alone, though there are several references to the event that brought the characters of the series together. The story started out interestingly enough, but sagged a lot in the middle and fell apart at the end.

Dallas O’Halloran is an Air Force combat controller who was part of a mission that went badly in Afghanistan. He and his friends had to break some rules to save another friend’s life and the result was a long trial in which JAG Lieutenant Julianne Decatur attempted to have them all court-martialed. Later, Dallas’s black ops career was effectively ended when a reporter they were in the process of rescuing captured him on film. He is now working in conjunction with THOR, Team High-risk Operational Resources, which is a high-powered government agency created to fight terrorism without all the restraints of the military. He’s called up to investigate a death that occurred aboard an aircraft carrier. It’s been listed as a suicide, but there is some doubt as to whether the female pilot would do such a thing. Of course, who is assigned as his partner? Ms. Julianne Decatur.

Julianne no longer works for the Navy and is now employed by THOR. She’s incredibly put-out that she’s been partnered with Dallas because he twists her up in several ways. She was doing her job when she was the prosecutor for the court-martial case, but deep down she felt that the men did what they had to do in order to save a life. It was difficult for her to interrogate Dallas, not only because his animosity towards her shone through, but because he was capable of making her knees mushy. That last bit hasn’t changed and he’s no longer angry with her. In fact, he’s made his attraction to her quite clear and it’s becoming more and more difficult to resist his charm.

It becomes clear from the beginning that the pilot didn’t commit suicide and coincidentally the main person they want to question has also gone missing. While aboard the carrier, Dallas and Julianne question lots of people and deal with attitude along the way. It’s obvious that many of the officers don’t appreciate THOR’s involvement in the case or that the two have been given unlimited clearance (something that is drilled home often). Before they got to the ship, things were capturing my attention, but unfortunately, the investigation aboard ship, which takes up a good chunk of the book, is rather boring. There’s lots of talking and working out the case, and I just wanted to jump ahead to some action. The case itself wasn’t even that interesting.

There also wasn’t a whole lot of romance in the relationship. Though one could see some chemistry at the beginning, by the end I didn’t really believe in the couple’s love. The love scenes felt very average and not truly moving. A certain aspect of the writing took me a while to get used to and was quite confusing at first. Many of the sentences are incredibly long, with lots of phrases, so that three-fourths of the way through it, I couldn’t remember what the original point was and had to jump back and read the beginning to make sense of the end. This happened again and again until I finally had to see those sentences coming and focus really hard when I got there.

The ending really clinched my inability to enjoy the book. Some action finally kicked in, but it was rather cheesy. Then, completely from left field, a paranormal twist saves the day. It was absurd, so unnecessary, and just didn’t belong in a military suspense novel. Then, the cheesy just kept coming with an unrealistic labor scene (not our heroine) and the requisite run-down of the case. Finally, there was the HEA, which fell flat, because I just didn’t feel the love.

I wasn’t impressed with Breakpoint. The beginning had me interested, but things proceeded to boring and then to annoying. By the end I was pleased to be closing the book. The other storylines of the series sound intriguing, but if this book is an indication, I suspect I won’t like them.