Ame’s review of Breaking Daylight by MJ Fredrick.
Touching her crosses the line…and shoots his code of honor all to hell.
Sergeant Alex Shepard is all about getting the job done. That single-minded purpose helps him forget the fact he hates the jungle as he leads his Special Forces team in search of Honduran drug lord Santiago Saldana. His quarry eludes him, but the woman left behind in the compound is the next best thing. Saldana’s mistress—an American woman who clearly puts her own pleasure over right and wrong.
Isabella Canales has been Saldana’s prisoner for four long years. Worse, he’s taken away her most precious possession. Except Alex doesn’t believe a word of it. The clock is ticking, and she’s frantic to do anything to convince him to take her home. Even agree to serve as bait to draw Saldana out.
As they push through the tangled jungle dodging bullets and ambushes, Alex fights his growing respect for Isabella’s determination—and an attraction that’s impossible to resist, whatever she’s done. But Saldana never lets go of what’s his. And betrayal is his deadliest weapon…
This book frustrated me to no end. There was so much promise (the writing was good) but the characters. The characters just about drove me crazy!
Isabella is being held prisoner in Santiago Saldana’s Honduras estate. Only the DEA and Ranger Alex Shepard believe she’s Santiago’s mistress. This assumption on their part leads to a very harsh relationship developing between Isabella and Alex once she escapes the compound and is caught by the DEA in the jungle. Despite not trusting Isabella (and a fiancée back home), Alex is attracted to her. An attraction that grows as they trek through the jungle to meet back up with his men. You see, Isabella is a little trooper and her non-complaining ways endear her -grudgingly- to Alex. When Isabella reveals that she escaped to find her 3 year old son (Santiago is the father, as Isabella has been imprisoned for 4 years) Alex still doesn’t trust her (we’ll get to that later). Once they get to the US embassy, Alex hears news that his woman back home married someone else and gets drunk and goes to Isabella’s room for some consolation, the kind he knows she can offer because she’s a heartless woman who’s been a criminal’s mistress for the past 4 years.
Here’s where the frustration sets in, this attitude that Alex has towards Isabella? It persists for the majority of the book. And despite this, Isabella is still attracted to him. WTH? This woman has no backbone! And Alex is all over the place with how he feels. He’s hot and cold and poor Isabella takes it. She was also TSTL. When they were escaping the jungle, she constantly questioned Alex. Like honey, what do you know about survival in the jungle, especially compared to a Ranger who’s been on countless missions in all kinds of environments? Frustrating I tell you!
The author does have talent though. Her writing style made it so that I couldn’t deem this a complete failure and I did want to see how it all ended up.
Breaking Daylight gets a 3 out of 5 from me.
This book is available from Samhain Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Ya…I think Id get frustrated too. I like my girls to kick ass and have MAJOR backbone! Like COME ON…give the guy back some of that attitude! ;o) I think I might pass this one up…thanks for the great review honey! And the cover is REALLY pretty!
Drat, drat, drat. Once I read the summary for this book I was ready to jump on in and start reading. I love kidnapping/rescue jungle plots (don’t ask). But after reading your review I know I would be annoyed. I can’t stand it when the hero is hot and then cold. Make up your mind already!! Great review!
Monroe-I like my heroines that way too. The writing was good, so I’d try another book by this author.
Jill-Yeah, the hero disliked/distrusted the heroine for far too long.