Review: What a gem!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 13, 2013
Jungle Inferno popped up as a Kindle freebie a few days ago. Those of us who read a lot of freebies know the experience can be very hit or miss. As usual, I checked the reviews because my time is as valuable to me as money. Going off the great reviews, I decided to give it a try. Jungle Inferno turned out to be that diamond in the coal, the reason to keep sifting through the piles for the shiny object that makes the search worthwhile.The plot has been summed up by those much more capable than me, so I will give just a brief synopsis. Faith and Mark have been friends since they were children. As teenagers, they realized they had the remarkable ability to communicate with each other telepathically. As Faith and Mark grew up, their paths diverged. Mark joined the Army, committed to the mission of protecting and serving his country. Faith has become a bestselling author of political thrillers. They spent an amazing weekend together several years ago, but Mark felt like it wasn't fair to Faith to wait for him. They decided to put their relationship on hold until Mark finished his service.Fast forward several years. Faith starts to get frantic messages from Mark, telling her he has been captured and he needs her. Faith goes into hyperdrive, enlisting the help of the researchers who help her with book background to find out all she can about Mark's unit and current mission. As you can imagine, her research hits a wall pretty quickly. She reaches out to several sources to pin down Mark's location, finally ending up in Mark's CO's office. When she finds out the Army is not planning a rescue mission, she is angry, but not willing to give up.Enter the Phoenix Agency. Made of of ex-SpecOps members, they do what the Army can't. They are soldiers for hire, so far under the radar that only a select few even know who they are. They are friends, and brothers, and they have a connection to Mark. One of the Phoenix's brother was under Mark's command. Faith's IT (read: hacker) guy manages to pull the thread that leads to Phoenix, and the game is on.There is so much going on here...lots of players with a lot of plot lines that ultimately tie in so beautifully. I can't express how well all of the pieces came together. Very, very well done.What worked for me - Faith. Smart, tenacious, brave and utterly committed to finding Mark and bringing him home, Faith was just about the perfect heroine. Only one small TSTL moment, which was actually kind of critical to the plot, so I am willing to forgive the moment.Mark - we don't really spend much time with Mark, except in the flash backs to the weekend he and Faith spent together, but his love for Faith shines clearly.The Phoenix guys - Hot, secretive and determined, I can't wait to read their stories. Especially Ric. He was sarcastic and funny. "You don't have an alarm system? Isn't that great." He cracked me up.Mr. Green and Mr. Brown - two of the bad guys. These poor bumbling idiots just couldn't catch a break. They provided a lot of comic relief.The writing style of Ms. Holt. A good bit of the story was told in the form of flashbacks, but it worked. These flashbacks were so hawt...even so, Jungle Inferno just barely hit the erotica mark, but I really didn't care. Faith and Mark had such a connection and the story was so well done, the hawt scenes blended in and added a bit of depth to the plot, but did not overpower the main story. Very rich, multilayered plot.What didn't work as well - not much. I kept getting stuck on the 6 year/4 year timeline since Faith and Mark had been together. Just seemed a little unlikely if they loved each other so much, they would keep their options open for so long. Their arrangement struck me as a back up plan -If we haven't found anyone by the time Mark gets out of the service, then I guess we'll get together. It struck a wrong note with me. However, that said, every other single point in the book was just about perfect.Bottom line - Time extremely well spent. I will be purchasing the other titles in this series.