Review: Hot Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 13, 2011
Would you like to have telepathic communication with the man you love? What if he were in the jungles of the Amazon with no other means of contact? What would you do if those messages told you that he was being held captive and routinely tortured by terrorist arms dealers?Best selling author, Faith Wilding and Captain Mark Halloran of the Delta Force, a military special ops team, both possess psychic gifts. They have been close friends since children, and that friendship has turned to love, as adults. As teenagers they discovered that they were able to talk to each other through telepathy. How exciting would that be? Faith's Aunt Vivi is psychic, too, and has counseled and mentored her along the way. Aunt Vivi is a member of a group that educates, and practices psi abilities. They will prove to be indispensable to Faith during the terrifying journey ahead.Mark is being held captive in the Peruvian Jungle by Al Qaeda arms dealers. Somehow, his team's objective has been leaked. This highly trained, extremely strong man proves to be unbreakable to his diabolically evil captors who are determined to find out who revealed their mission and location to Mark's team. They have wiped out the entire elite ops team except for Mark and one other man who escaped but is now in a coma, and they are torturing Mark in horrible ways.Faith is also an empath, as she is soon to discover. Unfortunately that discovery comes with the horror of experiencing Mark's pain and anguish. On the plus side, he is able to tell her of his plight, that he is in great danger and needs her help. He is unable to tell her where he is because he is being blocked by one of the terrorists who also possesses psychic talent. It becomes a race against time while Faith uses her writer's connections and resources to locate Mark and arrange a rescue.There are so many plot twists and branches in this story that it almost overtakes the reader in its complexity. However, it makes for a very intense tale that is a constant page turner. One example of the complex nature of the story is the way the author weaves in the sexual and romantic relationship between the main characters with regular flashbacks and dream segments on the part of both lovers. The sexual descriptions are hot and sensual; the romance, sweet. I was transported by the eloquent details in the story whether it was the sticky heat of the Peruvian Jungle or the memories and dreams of urgent, passionate lovemaking.Most of all, this is a tension-filled action thriller that means serious business. I was struck by the realistic nature of the story and the razor sharp accuracy with which Ms. Holt captures the current state of world affairs. The addition of very believable psychic ability and the important role it plays in every part of this book was a key part of my enjoyment and interest. My only problems with the story were a few editing errors and a sense of abruptness at the end. After such an emotional and tension-filled ride, I longed for just a little more of an ending. An epilogue for the lovers after Mark had recovered from his ordeal would have been great.Despite that, the book was an exceptional read that I do not hesitate to recommend to all. It truly and fully engaged me emotionally and mentally. I loved the creative way the author developed the characters and scenes in this story, further involving me in it's adventure and steaming romance. My advice is, go buy Jungle Inferno and prepare to burn!This book is the first in the Phoenix Agency series, and I eagerly await the next installment.Originally posted at Whipped Cream Reviews