Risk No Secrets
Grade : B-

Risk No Secrets is the fifth in Cindy Gerard’s romantic suspense series featuring the men of Black Ops Inc. (known as the BOIs). I thought it began well, dragged in the middle, then zipped along to a rousing finish. It ended as slightly better than average.

Years ago Wyatt Savage was in love with Sophie Weber, but she was in love with his best friend Hugh. Wyatt did the noble thing and stood by Hugh when he married Sophie. Then Wyatt lost himself in the Black Ops Inc. group and spent years living in the world’s danger zones. As the book begins, he’s thinking about hanging up his membership in the BOIs, but out of the blue he gets a call from Sophie who lives in El Salvador. Her daughter Hope has been the victim of an attempted kidnap. Luckily, they didn’t get Hope, but they did take her best friend Lola and Sophie is frantic.

Wyatt takes off for El Salvador. His Black Ops training tells him that Lola was probably the victim of the vicious MS-13 gang and that they will want ransom and that proves to be the case. Wyatt wonders why Hugh is not there to take care of his family and he’s shocked and surprised to find out that Sophie and Hugh have divorced.

Wyatt and several members of the Black Ops team track down some leads, most of which turn out to be false ones, although they do rescue a another kidnapped girl, but not Lola. In the meantime, Wyatt and Sophie have given in to the attraction they feel for each other and have become lovers. Just at the most inopportune time, Hugh shows up, but Wyatt and he can’t fight it out over Sophie – they’ve just gotten a very good lead on Lola’s whereabouts and it’s going to take all the Black Ops skill they possess.

Risk No Secrets begins by introducing the characters and I found myself liking them very much. Sophie is kind and altruistic, but thankfully not naïve. She is aware of the viciousness of the M-13 gangs and willing to do whatever it takes to rescue Lola. She is brave, and happily not TSTL – she’s a good romantic suspense heroine.

The same goes for Wyatt. He has all the requisite skills of a Black Ops member and he’s a walking lethal weapon, but he isn’t hardened and angsty. There’s a lot of the polite country boy in Wyatt and he is the kind of man who would sooner cut off his arm than allow an innocent to be hurt. He’s an alpha with a soft core.

While I loved the characters, I found the story dragged in the middle. There’s a lot of characters who are introduced in the middle third of the book, and I think they were characters who had been featured in earlier Black Ops Inc. books. Since I haven’t read them, I was alternately bored and lost and wanted more of Wyatt and Sophie. However, during the last third of the book when they went after the M-13 boss (and a wicked, evil man he was), things picked up considerably and it ended in a sweet epilogue.

If you aren’t bothered by a sagging middle, you will love Risk No Secrets. Even with that flaw, which makes this book one I can't quite recommend, this is still a slightly better than average read because of the characters. I liked them, I really liked them!

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti
Grade : B-

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : June 24, 2010

Publication Date: 2010/06

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Ellen Micheletti

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