Reviewer: Judith
Daring Her SEAL by Anne Marsh
Series: Uniformly Hot #3
Also in this series: Teasing Her SEAL, Pleasing Her SEAL
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication Date: May 1st 2016
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Subject: Navy SEAL Levi Brandon

Mission: Sort out his accidental marriage...without sleeping with his "wife!"

Devil-may-care Navy SEAL Levi Brandon faces a terrifying task: telling Ashley Dixon that their faux wedding during their last mission together was actually real. It's bad enough that she completely loathes him, but she's DEA. Levi will be lucky to get away with his life...

Now Ashley and Levi have returned to Fantasy Island to sort things out...and are tempted to play a dangerous game of lust and restraint. A game of dares. All Levi has to do is keep himself from having sex with the hottie DEA agent. But Ashley's playing to win--and darers always go first.

He’s a womanizer, or at least that’s the rumor and that’s what Ashley believes.  And she really can’t stand womanizers.  She has pretended to be his girlfriend on an earlier mission when they were undercover together with a motorcycle gang.  But the one kiss they shared, hot as it may have been and as much as they each appreciated that hotness, was a one time thing, and to hear Ashley tell it, she was prepared to cut off Levi’s tongue if he got it anywhere near her again.  Now he has to tell her that the pretend marriage they staged on the beach of Fantasy Island on their last mission undercover, was inadvertently registered and is legal.

Levi is the kind of guy that teases and drives everyone sort of crazy with his unceasing talk, mostly about their glitches and mistakes and booboos.  He does indeed love the ladies and he does manage to hook up frequently.  But there’s just something about Ashley, and while they may be legally bound, Levi is wondering what it would really be like to have someone like Ashley in his life.

This is the third novel in the trilogy involving the members of SEAL Team Sigma, a group of Navy SEALs who are totally off the grid and whose identities and appearances are guarded to protect them when they go undercover.  Levi is a sniper and a man who has given himself heart and soul to his team.  But he is now over 30 years old and beginning to wonder about what it would be like to settle down, especially as two of his team are now preparing to walk down the aisle.

This novel has a lot more adversarial conversation that the two previous stories in this trilogy.  Levi and Ashley simply don’t like each other.  But like all situations of this kind, especially in romance fiction, there are changes in the offing and we know that Levi and Ashley will probably have their HEA.  It’s just a matter of how they manage that, and Ms Marsh is so good at getting us to that HEA in creative ways with lots of fun and sexy encounters thrown in.  I read this book as an ARC from Netgally and after reading the first two books I was delighted to have the chance to read this one as well.  I think readers who already enjoy Ms Marsh’s writing will find these three books delightful.  If a reader is just encountering this author, there’s lots of good reading ahead.  I suppose some would call this light hearted reading, but I just simply enjoyed the book and it kept my interest.  It is entertaining and took me to a Fantasy Island where anything was possible.  I believe most of us would be happy to have the wherewithal to go there ourselves.  Since I know I can’t, this is the next best thing.

I give this book a rating of 4.5 out of 5.

Reviewer: Judith
Teasing Her SEAL by Anne Marsh
Series: Uniformly Hot #1
Also in this series: Pleasing Her SEAL, Daring Her SEAL
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication Date: September 15th 2015
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Subject: Navy SEAL Gray Jackson 

Objective: Stay on mission. And out of her bed.

Surgeon Laney Parker is on her honeymoon. Alone. Without her cheating fiancé, she's enjoying her nonrefundable "vacation" at Fantasy Island, an exotic resort filled with lush greenery, white beaches and staff who apparently grant every sexual request. Including an unbearably hot massage therapist whose touch turns Laney to molten lava…

Laney has no idea that Gray Jackson is actually an undercover Navy SEAL who's supposed to keep his hands off. Or that Gray wants to take total control. To give Laney just what she—hell, what they both need. Gray can grant her every erotic wish, just as long as he keeps his cover. And just as long as their sexy little tease doesn't go beyond the week…

It’s been a long time since I have read an Anne Marsh novel and now I don’t know why I haven’t been enjoying her books right along.  Reading this first book in a new trilogy has been a reminder that I have always enjoyed her books, her stories which seem crafted right out of real life, her characters that are gritty and edgy, and the way her stories develop unexpectedly.  Teasing Her SEAL is a great start to a new series that will feature three men of SEAL Team Sigma, whose specialties have been honed in out of the way places for years.  Most of the guys have been together for years, yet even the newer members of the team are all committed to being ready at a moment’s notice to put their talents and experience at the disposal of their government.  All of them have watched SEAL relationships tank and several have themselves learned the hard way that being gone for weeks or months at a time is too hard a burden to bear for some relationships.  So Gray Jackson has come to believe and he is OK with that.  That is, until he meets Laney Parker, a gritty, mouthy, I-know-what-I-am-doing, take charge trauma surgeon who doesn’t sugar coat anything, but who also has a few things to learn about herself and how to give in when she butts up against Gray and his take-charge ways.

This is, for all intent and purpose, a love story about a vacation fling that somehow goes awry.  But that’s the nature of romance, isn’t it?  Somehow these two begin to really listen to each other, really begin to understand that they each provide something the other needs.  Yet there is the barrier of secrets that Gray cannot divulge and no matter what kind of future they may or may not envision, getting past that barrier is going to be tough.

Ms Marsh has introduced readers to her SEAL Team Sigma guys and their evident trust in each other, their commitment to one another and to the tasks they believe in come through loud and clear.  They tease and teach, advise and correct, commiserate and keep each other’s secrets, but in the end, they want their brothers in arms to be good within themselves.  Laney is an interesting character in that she is a woman who has dared to dream of some semblance of normalcy in her emotional life by becoming engaged to an older doctor she respected and came to love.  She was angry and hurt to discover that he felt that being with any nurse or another woman of his choice was kind of his right.  He really couldn’t understand why she was so upset.  To lose her job the same day was an additional blow.  So gifting herself with this resort vacation, even though she was alone, seemed like something she had earned.  Making a couple of new girlfriends on the island was icing on the cake as friends were not an aspect of social life she had allowed herself with her education and medical practice pressures.  All in all, this is a delightful love story and a credit to Ms Marsh, a worthy addition to her writing resume.

And, once again, I have to congratulate Harlequin Blaze and the editors for putting out a quality product, well edited, good grammar, correct spelling.  A joy to read by someone like me that enjoys the use of good language in and of itself.  So latch on to this one.  It’s a terrific read, and a great lead in to the rest of the trilogy.

I give it a rating of 5 out of 5.