Jennifer’s review of Take Over at Midnight by M.L. Buchanan.
They never thought their toughest mission would be falling in love…
Lola LaRue, chief warrant officer of the U.S. Army’s secret helicopter regiment, is a natural at everything except relationships. She’s a professional in the air, but she screws up every time she touches the ground. Sergeant “Crazy” Tim Maloney is a goner the moment he first sees LaRue on a mission to deliver a Delta Force team into the Iranian desert. He’s always been a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy, but all that changes when Lola’s in danger. Now with the stakes higher than ever, they must find a way to eliminate a threat that could destroy more than just their future.
Take Over at Midnight is the story of Chief Warrant Officer Lola LaRue and Sergeant Tim Maloney. At the start of the book, Lola arrives in Afghanistan to join the Army’s secret helicopter unit (of which Tim is also a member), flying special covert missions around the world. The unit soon gets pulled into a mysterious mission to transport a group of Delta force soldiers (the most elite force) into and out of Iran, and while they aren’t given much information they all know that covert operations in Iran means something big is going down. The operation ends up uncovering a major threat to US security, and the team must work together to save the day. In the midst of all this, Lola and Tim are getting to know each other and trying to overcome their internal and external obstacles to be together. Toss in the rest of the team members and their conflicts, and the book covers a lot of ground! The book is the most recent in the Night Stalkers series, but I haven’t read the other books and didn’t think they were necessary to understanding the story, though you do see all the previous couples in this one.
This was a bit of a strange book for me. It’s really a mash up of a romance and a military adventure. The military chunks of the book reminded me of typical books in the action/adventure genre–lots of technical descriptions of weapons and tactics, intense action scenes, glimpses into military culture, etc. I like details in my stories when they add to the realism and ambiance, but I found myself getting bored with page after page of descriptions of how helicopters work or what kinds of guns they were using. I started skimming because after a certain point the descriptions just got tedious and superfluous for me. It wasn’t really objectionable, but for me it was too much.
It would have been easy for the author to give the romance short shrift in the midst of all the military details, but thankfully that didn’t happen. Because one hallmark of military operations tends to be lots of waiting around, Lola and Tim have time to get to know each other. They spend time talking and playing games at the base in Afghanistan and even during the mission while they’re waiting for the Delta force to return. Then, there is an interlude in the middle where they return to the US for a while, and it’s then that the romance really takes center stage. They have time to learn more about each other and grow as people and as a couple, and their HEA felt satisfying.
I did have a few issues with gender in this book. On the one hand, this unit is full of extraordinarily competent women, more than I presume you would find in any real military unit. The women are equal players in the action, and in fact many of them are actually better than the men at their jobs, which was enjoyable. But on the other hand, there were things that irked me. Probably my biggest disappointment was a character named Kee, another member of the helicopter unit. She is immediately and without justification awful to Lola. It felt childish and out of character, and it annoyed me to see this “mean girl” trope in a book full of smart, skilled women. (The men in this unit never act petty and snotty–they are all professionals!) Another thing I didn’t like was later in the book. It’s hard to discuss without a spoiler, but there is one woman character, literally described as the best in the entire Army at her job, who faces a personal situation that suddenly causes her to be unable to perform her duties. Not physically unable, but suddenly too emotional and overcome with other things. She is ELITE, the best of the best, and it was offensive to me that “lady issues” would suddenly make her so incompetent she literally puts her crew’s lives in danger. Ugh. And then there are a few comments that had me frowning. For instance, Lola gets invited to an important meeting with the US President and other major officials, and at one point she offers a helpful suggestion. The President says:
“You tell Mr. Maloney to keep you close, Chief Warrant LaRue. If he doesn’t, I might be trying to steal you away.”
So the way to complement a smart professional for her help during an international crisis is to say she’d be good dating material? Double ugh. It’s not that I think any of this couldn’t be true-to-life, but why set up a book with really, really skilled women and then have them sometimes act like girls from a teen drama? There were just enough of these instances to stick in my mind and make the book a little less enjoyable for me, though they didn’t totally yank me out of the story.
If you are an action/adventure AND a romance fan, this book will probably work for you. If you are just in it for the romance, be prepared to skim a lot, or find another book that’s lighter on the military procedures.
Grade: 3.5 out of 5
This book is available from Sourcebooks. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.
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