The length of time it takes me to read a book definitely is an indicator of my grade. Pick it up and read straight through falls in the B range. Pick it up, put it down and not finish it until weeks later is the C or D range. Cover Me took over six weeks for me to finish. The pacing and the writing are good, but within the first forty five pages, Ms. Mann hit on two hot issues for me: Professionalism, and pain, or rather sexual attraction while in pain.

Sunny Foster and her family live off-the-grid in the Aleutian Islands. She makes her living with her survival and wilderness trek business and running a gym with internet access. She also handles escorting people out of their small secular community when they decide they no longer want to live there. Sunny has just finished escorting two individuals to their next contact, a deputy from the mainland when she runs into trouble. Her snowmobile has died, leaving her on foot. Suddenly she and her dog Chewie are surprised by an individual parachuting down from the sky.

Pararescueman Wade Rocha and his team have just finished a long training exercise rescuing their team leader off of Mount McKinley, when they are asked to divert to a real rescue mission. Four climbers are stranded after an avalanche on Mount Redoubt. After picking up the four climbers, the group believes their mission is accomplished but then infrared cameras show a fifth person nearby. Unable to get any information from the unconscious survivors, Wade jumps out of a MH-60 intent on saving this unknown member of the group. What is discovered is a woman as versed as he is in survival techniques. Since she has already found shelter in a cave, he follows her.

While the cold is a hardship, watching each other getting rid of the wet clothes is not. Soon both are sitting on his thinsulate blanket, and wrapped up in hers, snuggling against Chewie for warmth. After agreeing to take turns at keeping watch, Sunny waits until she is sure Wade is asleep and makes a break for home. Wade runs after her. Even though she has explained that she isn’t part of the group and isn’t in any danger, she is Wade’s mission and he won’t quit until she is deposited into official hands.

Trying to escape Wade, Sunny falls into a crevasse. “Pain splintered her body. Sparks danced in front of her eyes like northern lights shown on speed swirl. Blood filled her mouth as she bit her tongue.” As she is lying on the ground hurt she is mesmerized by Wade’s strength as he climbs down like Spiderman. When he starts giving her grief for running away for him, she decides to distract him by kissing him. At this point I am like, “Really? Your mouth has just been filled with blood and you want to kiss someone?” While in the crevasse they find the bodies of the two individuals she just escorted away from her community. Things take a more deadly turn when a sniper begins to shoot at them. Afraid to cause an avalanche by shooting back, Wade calls in his team. After being rescued they are transported to Elmendorf Air Force base in Anchorage. However, Sunny is desperate to get home. Her sister, is planning on leaving and Sunny is afraid she will become a victim too.

Maybe in my younger years I wasn’t so picky about professionalism. However, now, when an individual is doing a job to protect, heal, or rescue other individuals then the sexual fantasies and actions are off limits until that individual is no longer acting in a professional capacity. Since I work with individuals dealing with pain, I just can’t suspend disbelief that an individual falling down a crater is thinking about how sexy the guy rescuing her is, especially after “pain splinters her body”.

While these items in themselves are not deal-breakers, it sets up a milieu of scrutinizing plot devices. The one mentioned source of income for the community is selling internet articles to market investors about green living. What can these secular people know about the market that other people don’t? I thought the going rate for articles is a couple hundred dollars – can a hundred and fifty people really grow enough vegetables in tiny solar-powered greenhouses? The village uses solar panels and when they are drained, hydropower from the volcanic hot springs. These individuals have the money to buy solar panels and maintain a power plant but they don’t get paid? Sunny runs a survival and wilderness trek business but she is not supposed to mix with the outside world, so who are her clients? The community has a clinic staffed by APN, and an art teacher – really? There are small towns on the mainland that don’t have access to medical personnel. Since many of the people there are extremists, how did many of the younger individuals escape being brainwashed?

As Sunny and Wade continue to play havoc with professional ethics, the secondary plot and romance of Sonny’s sister pulled me back into the story. Misty lost her hearing 4 years ago due to a bad case of meningitis. A surgeon has offered to perform her cochlear implant surgery for free. That is why she is so anxious to leave their community.

I realize that many people are able to take stories like this at face value. If you are one of those people and like military action mixed with romance, then you might enjoy this book. However, if you need a touch of realism then I recommend you pass on this latest offering by Ms. Mann.