Crazy Sweet was fun, but a bit crowded by two romances. Neither couple got the attention they deserved, but I’ll probably seek out at least one of the other books in this series because these SDF (almost like special forces) guys are smokin’ hot.

Gillian Pentycote was once a sweet, slightly scattered secretary. After being kidnapped and tortured with a new experimental drug, she is a different person, literally. The drug took her memories, and left her with only four things she recognized: the doctor who injected her; the man who caused the torture; the name Angel; and the man’s face it belonged to, her lover the night she was abducted. Gillian has become Red Dog, an SDF operative. She’s more like a loose cannon, and vengeance is what guides her life. Although Angel killed the doctor, the traitorous CIA agent, Tony Royce, has gone on to bigger and better crimes. Red Dog wants him dead and will stop at nothing to take him down, even if it means losing Angel and being hunted the rest of her life by her former co-workers for turning rogue.

Travis James a/k/a Angel, is one tough cookie, but Red Dog has him beat in spades. She became a stone cold killer, but the memories of her abduction and torture have never left him. He loves her desperately, but knows that revenge occupies her fractured mind. The XT7 drug shut her down emotionally, and it causes physical problems with her body at times. Travis stays with her when they have down times between jobs, and hopes one day her mind and body will heal. Little does he know that her plan to confront Royce and finally extract her revenge is in motion.

Deep in El Salvador, C. Smith Rydell, the operator working the last job with Red Dog, has been delayed by – of all things – a blonde bombshell wearing red polka dots. Rydell is trying to save Honoria “Honey” York-Lytton’s high-society butt from the mini-revolution occurring outside his hotel room. Honey has all the earmarks of a ditzy blond, but actually manages to comport herself with dignity considering their circumstances. I wanted to dislike her, but instead found myself intrigued. Her reasons for being in El Salvador teetered on the edge of TSTL, but she somehow never went over to the dark stupid side. I’m hoping to see more of this couple in this author’s future books.

Travis and Gillian clearly have serious issues to overcome in their relationship, and because the secondary romance had so much screen time, I felt cheated, and somewhat let down by the anti-climatic ending to Gillian’s serious and much deserved search for vengeance.

Normally I don’t get excited by writing style or word usage, but I have to mention this next item because it literally stopped the flow of the book every time she used it. These are all big, tough special forces operators who swear a bunch, no problem, I get it. However, words like Geezus and Kee-rist exactly as written here drove me crazy. If you’re going to have a character say them, just use the accepted spelling please, or don’t use them at all. And then to have them italicized every single time, well, I was swearing myself by the time I was through.

All this may seem like I didn’t enjoy the book, but I really did. It moved quickly, and I finished it almost in one sitting. I don’t read that many books with special ops heroes so that was a refreshing change, and these guys are all on the dark and tortured side, which is always a plus for me. Gillian is definitely tortured as well, and her sheer perseverance, as well as the fact that she could hold her own with anybody, made her an interesting character. Clearly, all the characters from the previous books were at least mentioned in this book, and I definitely want to pick up Dylan Hart’s book (Crazy Love) and Crazy Cool, featuring Christian Hawkins, the ops guy who trained Gillian.

I’m guessing that fans of this series will definitely want to pick this one up, and if you’re looking for something that moves quickly, with both light and dark spots, this one should fit the bill.