Title: Eagle
Author: Janie Crouch
Year of publication: Out today! The author kindly gave me a copy to read and review
The heroine: Tutor/bartender Charlotte Deveraux
The hero: Ex-special forces soldier/survival skills trainer Finn Bollinger
The blurb: He’s fighting for what’s right.
She’s fighting just to survive…
When former Special Forces soldier Finn Bollinger is asked to help with a deadly government mission, he’s up for the task. His job teaching survival skills to civilians at Linear Tactical keeps him sharp, and he can still handle himself in the field.
But the Army damn well didn’t teach Finn how to handle Charlotte Devereux. She’s back and she’s all sorts of bad news.
Charlotte can’t change the past. Can’t change the choices she made or the fact that they cost her everything. All she can do is endure the fallout. Even if that means putting her future in the hands of Finn, the man who has every right to want to destroy her.
And can in so many more ways than he thinks.
When the undercover mission goes impossibly wrong, they’ll all have to depend on Charlotte’s strength in order to survive. But everyone has a breaking point…
Standalone or series: Book two in the Linear Tactical series, but can be read a standalone
The review: Eagle is the second book in the Linear Tactical series and it just keeps getting better. We met Finn in book one, Cyclone, and were very briefly introduced to Charlotte.
Finn and Charlotte were in a relationship years ago, until Charlotte broke Finn’s heart – very publicly – by marrying another man. Finn believed it was because his rival came from a wealthy family, and Charlotte never told him the reason why she chose Brandon over him. Despite almost losing his career, Finn got over his heartbreak to make it as a Marine and then start Linear Tactical with his teammates.
Eight years later, Finn is a father to seven-year-old Ethan, who has some learning difficulties thanks to his mother. When a tutor is suggested for Ethan, Finn is keen to meet her – until he learns the tutor in question is none other than Charlotte. His anger at their past leads him to turn her down flat, and Charlotte is devastated – she can’t work as a teacher full time because of her ex and his family, and she needs all the money she can get. Her family was once rich, but their money is long gone, and Charlotte’s father is battling a serious illness for which he requires constant care.
Charlotte does whatever is required to make ends meet, and that means sleeping in her car, missing meals, and working two jobs. When Finn spots her coming out of the town’s dinghy motel, he’s stunned – and can’t work out what she’s doing there. He agrees to let her tutor Ethan after her employer tells him Charlotte is the best in the field, and as they spend time together, Finn begins to notice how much Charlotte has changed. She isn’t wearing designer clothing or driving a new, flashy car. She’s lost weight. He’s determined to find out what she’s hiding from him.
The Linear Tactical team has accepted a job from their former commanding officer to try and catch someone within the military who is trying to sell secret codes to people who wouldn’t do anything good with them. Aiden Teague is undercover, with Finn and his teammates helping where they can. The meets are taking place at a strip club, where Charlotte works as a bartender, and when she finds a piece of paper with some weird codes on it, she memorises them as they are similar to the ones she uses to help Ethan.
This leads Charlotte to be in danger, as someone wants the codes she has memorised. Finn, who has realised he still loves her and is able to forgive the past without explanation, will do everything he can to stop the woman he loves from being hurt. But will all his expertise be enough to save her?
This book has everything: characters you’ll grow to love, a mystery you’ll want to solve, and a romance that is both sweet and hot. Another excellent instalment in the Linear Tactical series, one of the best romantic suspense series out there.
the romance shelf 
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