Back Cover:
They were caught in the crossfire between danger and desire...

HE’S A NAVY SEAL SUSPECTED OF MURDER
SHE’S HIS LOVER, AND THE CHIEF INVESTIGATOR

Chris Waldron, an elite U.S. Navy SEAL, is used to getting out of tight spots. But all his years of training can’t prepare him for the crisis he now faces. When a mission to rescue a kidnapped ambassador and his wife goes tragically awry, an FBI hostage negotiator is killed and Chris finds himself at the center of the ensuing investigation. Leading the charge is the blistering hot special agent and onetime lover who has re-ignited their mutual attraction.

Jamie Michaels is determined to keep things professional with Chris Waldron this time. But seeing him bruised and battered in that hospital bed has rekindled all those feelings she thought she’d left behind during their brief, passionate encounter in Africa. Now Jamie must keep her craving for danger at bay as she spearheads a search for the truth that just may blow Chris’s career to bits—and put them both in the crosshairs of an unseen enemy.

Note from reviewer:
If you have not read TOO HOT TO HOLD please read on with caution and at your own risk, as there may be spoilers concerning characters who first appeared as secondary characters in that book.

Chris Waldron, a Navy SEAL sniper, wakes up in a US military base infirmary in Djibouti after a Joint Task Force hostage rescue operation goes awfully wrong. People are killed, both hostages and members of the Task Force. Circumstances surrounding the Op are suspicious and the sole two survivors are Chris and Cam, a Delta operative. Then Jamie Michaels, the woman Chris had an intense but brief affair with 2 months earlier when they were on a mission to save his brother and her sister, turns out to be the FBI agent leading the investigation into the death of the FBI negotiator who was part of the Task Force. They said goodbye in Congo 2 months before but before long it's clear that their affair had some profound consequences. Soon Chris and Cam are both cleared but that doesn't mean the story ends there. It's just the beginning as Jamie’s past catches up with her and threatens everyone she has ever dared to love.

Chris has been a SEAL for years, his skills as a sniper are honed to perfection but personally he has trouble dealing with his psychic abilities. He has trouble accepting and integrating his "gift" into his live. He feels haunted by it because it's something he can't control and it’s hard to deal with the less pleasant part of his gift when he foresees bad things about people dear to him. He may seem laid back but the intensity comes through nice and clear. Determination and stubbornness linger just beneath the surface, waiting to erupt when triggered.

Jamie is practical, logical and stubborn. You would think Jamie is just an FBI agent like any other, but nothing is further from the truth. Traumatic experiences in her youth make that she is always on her guard and vigilant. She has built a wall of protection around herself and her feelings. Chris has a very hard time trying to penetrate that wall. She can't trust other people. No one...but she wants to trust Chris and ultimately she has to trust Chris.

To say I loved HOLD ON TIGHT would be a huge understatement...I really have no words to express what HOLD ON TIGHT did to me. Books like these are why I read. Even thinking about the end of HOLD ON TIGHT, tears jump back into my eyes at the beauty and completeness of it. I am still speechless and in awe. It was the perfect combination of suspense, romance and action, with just the right amount of unpredictability to it. It is an ode to strong women. Women, who make it through the most horrible things but still manage to come out on top, live and love. It was the sublime conclusion to a wonderful trilogy.

There are many secondary characters and again and consistently multiple story lines and POVs are part of this book. Where in HARD TO HOLD and TOO HOT TO HOLD they were good, didn't bother me and gave the books that something extra to make them great books. In HOLD ON TIGHT I wouldn't have wanted to miss any of them, the book would not be complete without the multiple POVs. They were so perfectly executed that I am still wondering what hit me. The plotlines were once again threaded throughout the book to come together and fall into place in the very last part of the book. Few of my hunches turned out the way I thought they would. For example, the PJ (Jamie's sister) and Saint (Chris' CO) hook-up. I called this one the minute PJ entered the scene and showed up at Jamie's doorstep, way before she and Saint even met. Or who was threatening Jamie. But these two were about the only ones I called right. Unexpected revelations and twists made the end extremely fast-paced and filled with action. I just couldn't stop reading as I went from surprise to laughter, from fear to anger and from arousal to tears.

Yet again the multiple POVs and storylines really worked for me and made for a coherent trilogy that was set up in the first installment, developed further in the second part, only to end in a well-rounded, perfect third and closing book. I loved that the POVs are all elaborate enough to really get to know the characters, their feelings, their backgrounds and their pasts. I've said it before in the reviews of the other books comprising this trilogy: they enrich and layer the stories and make them so much more than SEAL meets girl, they avert danger, fall in love and live happily ever after. The love scenes, all of them, had a sense of urgency, desperation and intensity, which made them fit the rest of the book and the characters perfectly.

I loved the equality between the women and men in this trilogy. The men stand behind their women, the women stand behind their men. They handle things and deal with their problems, external or internal, together and there's no overpowering or dominance. They are all strong and brave people but not overly so. In TOO HOT TO HOLD Stephanie Tyler surprised me with the action and suspense. In HOLD ON TIGHT it was with the powerful emotions and the characters that she blew me away. She showed me the men and the women behind the tough military and law enforcement façades. She took me into their lives and heads and showed me their fears, hopes, dreams, insecurities and desires. She made them realistic and believable, which is a remarkable feat and it was carried out to perfection. The combination of strength and vulnerability in all the main characters is written so perfectly that I am still in awe.

HARD TO HOLD, TOO HOT TO HOLD and HOLD ON TIGHT are three very different installments of this trilogy. On their own they are great books to read but together they form that consistent and complete whole to make the trilogy utterly commendable. Initially I had a very hard time deciding which of these books I liked the most but after finishing HOLD ON TIGHT I can honestly and profoundly declare it my favorite of the three. Hands. Down. The small things that kept HARD TO HOLD and TOO HOT TO HOLD from being perfect reads, weren’t present in this one. No inconsistencies; not even the smallest one. An enticing little bit of bad guy POV I missed in HARD TO HOLD. The brotherly connection I missed in TOO HOT TO HOLD was back full force and I welcomed and loved it. The brothers were amazing together, their bond deepened more and became even stronger than in the previous books.

In this book there is no primary hero/heroine couple. It revolves around a group of people who are all equally important to the plot, no matter if they had a large or small word count in their POV. And two couples formed the foundation of both that plot and more importantly, the romance. Neither is more or less important than the other. Both couples took up their own space in my heart, broke it and then put it back together with an ending that was just perfect. I have no other word for it. It was closure to a beginning that was made in HARD TO HOLD, expanded in TOO HOT TO HOLD and perfected in HOLD ON TIGHT.

All added up I couldn't do anything but rate this book a perfect read. It definitely deserves the 10 out of 10 and contrary to many other perfect reads this time it didn't give me a hero to add to the favorites list, but a heroine...and not even the one mentioned on the back cover of this book: I am adding PJ to my favorite heroines list. For me she was the character who stood out the most in this book, and believe me, that is saying a lot because all the others weren't too shabby either. PJ is an enigma. She seems to be harsh and volatile but there is something about her that makes her likeable at the same time. To me she is the female equivalent of Nick: aloof, tough and straightforward but underneath there's a caring, soft woman who is searching for something that lasts, someone who will love and accept her. Someone she won't feel the urge to run from scared of messing up their lives. She finds this someone in Saint. Saint who totally blindsided me as I wasn't impressed by him in HARD TO HOLD but in HOLD ON TIGHT he just took my breath away in every sense of the word.

I am literally feeling sad to leave these all the couples from these three books behind now that the trilogy is completed. I secretly hope to get glimpses of at least the brothers and their women in Stephanie Tyler's next SEAL book as it's about Cam and loosely connected to this trilogy. I am beyond ready to venture further in this military romance world Stephanie Tyler has created. This first taste definitely has sparked a craving for more.

With the Hold trilogy Stephanie Tyler has made me a devoted fan and an extremely satisfied and happy reader. She has given me a trilogy to hold dear and treasure forever.

Quotes:
There were two things Chris knew well: his rifle and a woman’s body. With either he could spend hours studying their intricacies, their individual quirks and hot spots…their flaws. He knew when either one was going to jam up and let him down or settle in to give him the shot of his life. Rifles and women –he loved them both, and not necessarily in that order.

“What do you want, Jamie?”
“You,” she whispered. “Can that just be enough for now?”
“Yeah, that can be enough.”
She watched his face carefully. “You saved my life.”
“And you’re saving mine right now. Every time you touch me or say my name, you make me feel human again,” he said quietly. “So go ahead, make me feel.”

A bit of PJ and Saint:
Tonight he didn’t bother to get up, laid with one arm over his head and the other hand moving up and down his rock-hard erection. Even without looking, he knew she was there in the dark, watching. It was hot and dirty and he wanted her to do more than watch, wished she’d push her way into the room and into his bed, the way she’d pushed herself unwittingly into his life, just when he needed someone the most.

She moaned into his mouth, tried to remember, how long it had been since she’d actually kissed someone, and couldn’t.
But she knew no one else had ever kissed her like this, like they owned her. Saint had everything it took to back up that claim –and more.

Rating: 10 out of 10

===================================


The Giveaway:
Question: The Hold Trilogy contains books that have multiple POVs. I adored this in these books and now I'm curious: Do you like multiple POVs? If so, what do you like about them? If not, what is your reason for not liking them? If you've never read books with multiple POVs, would you want to?

The rules are really simple. Answer the above question(s) and one random commenter will receive a brand new copy of HOLD ON TIGHT. I received it last week but as I also received a copy for review from Stephanie Tyler I decided to give my copy away to a random commenter on this review. The giveaway is open to anyone, worldwide, who answers the above question. No answer, no entry for the giveaway...

You have until Saturday January 30th to comment. I will draw a winner on Sunday January 31st.
Please leave a way to contact you, either in your blogger profile or in the comment. Please note that if I do not find your email in your profile or the comment, I will select another winner.

Back Cover:
Together, they’re an explosion waiting to happen

He's an elite Navy SEAL living a risky double life. She's the gorgeous reporter hot on his trail.

Nick Devane’s life is one big, classified secret. Until Kaylee Smith busts his covert world wide open, threatening to blow his cover. Digging around where she doesn’t belong could get them both killed…especially when the beautiful journalist uncovers top-secret information that could set off a global disaster if it falls into the wrong hands. Nick can’t let that happen, even if he has to battle deadly mercenaries and an irresistible attraction that is all consuming…

Kaylee didn’t expect her search for her missing ex-husband to lead to this sexy and dangerous SEAL. Now she’s teamed up with Nick on a mission that takes them into deepest Africa--and into the middle of a massive government cover-up. With rogue agents hot on their trail, Kaylee’s going to unearth all Nick’s secrets. Before they both vanish without a trace. Before the passion burning between them sets off an explosion no one may survive…

Kaylee Smith is an investigative reporter and the widow of an Army Ranger who saved Nick Devane's life 6 years earlier, Aaron. When Kaylee gets a mysterious phone call from someone claiming to be Aaron she seeks out the last person who saw him alive: Nick. She wants Nick to help her find out what happened to Aaron and why she is being targeted. Nick is very reluctant to help Kaylee, especially when he discovers she's a journalist. Nick has deep and dark secrets to hide and a reporter is the last person he wants sniffing around him, no matter how strong the attraction between them might be. But when two agents try to kill Kaylee, his protectiveness overcomes the need to keep his secrets hidden and he accompanies Kaylee to Africa, to the last place where Aaron was seen alive. Kaylee and Nick get involved in a situation that is far more complicated and dangerous than they could ever imagine and they encounter both unexpected enemies and surprising allies.

Nick and Kaylee have more in common than they think. They both enjoy hotwiring cars and taking them for joyrides, they both have a wild streak and distrust authority and therefore both have had their brushes with the law.

Nick is a navy SEAL and a wild child. He is curt, aloof and has a disdain for clothing, to which I absolutely had no objections; the more naked Nick, the better. Solitude is another thing he can't handle well and he tries to avoid it by living fast and loose. Stephanie Tyler told me Nick was a PITA to write; well he certainly wasn't to read. Admittedly, he is stubborn, headstrong, rebellious and obstinate but underneath the cool, nothing-touches-me attitude there's a really sweet man. He’s protective of whom he cares for and tender and caring when he thinks no one is noticing.

Kaylee is strong and bold. She has guts and a defiant streak. She's impulsive and was 18 when she married Aaron to escape a life of neglect and hardship. But early in Kaylee's POV there are hints that her marriage to Aaron wasn't a happy one but it was better than the life she had before so she stuck with it.

TOO HOT TO HOLD is the follow-up to HARD TO HOLD and what a follow-up it is. I was smitten with Nick from the moment he set foot in HARD TO HOLD and was dying to read his book. When it finally arrived I dived straight in and only came up for air when really necessary. This book had a totally different vibe compared to the first book of the trilogy. Nick is very different from Jake and Kaylee is very different from Isabelle. To be completely honest, I connected more with Isabelle than with Kaylee, which is one of the reasons I loved HARD TO HOLD more than TOO HOT TO HOLD. But where the connection with Kaylee was lacking, the one with Nick definitely made up for it.

Same as with HARD TO HOLD in this second book of the trilogy there are multiple POVs and storylines. It comprises no less than 9 POVs; with Nick and Kaylee's being the two most important and prominent ones and the ones with the highest count. But there are more and very intriguing storylines; two of them are 2 secondary romances. One is continued from HARD TO HOLD and rounded off in this book. The other is the start of the romance between Nick's brother Chris and Jamie, an FBI agent who plays an important role in the storyline surrounding Aaron. This storyline around Aaron is enticing, and intriguing from the start. You want to know what the deal is there. Is he really dead or just missing? What did he do 6 years ago to leave Nick so shaken up? What did he do to Kaylee during their marriage? These where a few of the questions that immediately popped into my head while I was reading and they all get an answer.

While some readers may find the multiple POVs and storylines distracting or bothersome, I didn’t, I really loved them. The multiple POVs and storylines in these books gave them a richer feel, they are not book-filler storylines and they are excellently executed. Seemingly unimportant or unnecessary side plots or POVs all come together at some point because they are all connected in a way and every POV plays a connecting or clarifying role towards the major plot and the romance in some manner, not only within one installment but some also covering the whole trilogy, starting in book one going into book two and connected to side plots in book three. Without them the books would be as emotionally powerful to me as they are now.

Stephanie Tyler has the talent to connect and weave the plots and POVs together like few authors are able to. And she leaves no question unanswered and no loose ends. With every turn of the page a new surprising development came at me, throwing me for a loop or confirming some of my lingering speculations and I wanted to whisper: "and the plot thickens...” Some of my hunches were correct but there were others where I was totally wrong. For example I was way wrong with my hunch about Aaron and Clutch, while reading one of the secondary POVs, but what it ultimately turned out to be was so much better than my hunch.

As you will notice I don't tell much about the plots in this book. That's because anything more elaborate than I've already told would spoil the fun of discovering and disentangling the plotlines and the connections between them. Suffice to say that nothing is what it seems, unexpected and unlikely alliances needed to uncover what is going on and betrayal comes from where you least suspect. Because of the connecting plotlines and some of them cover more than 1 installment I do advise people to read this trilogy in order. If not it could be confusing and I you do read in order the enjoyment of Stephanie Tyler's writing and talent will be so much greater. She is making this trilogy a tight-knit whole and still each book has its own romance and primary plot preventing them from being carbon copies of each other.

One thing I missed in the first part of the book was Chris and Jake. Because of the prominent presence of Nick and Chris in Jake's story I was expecting the same in Nick's story but they did not make an appearance until over 100 pages into the book. I loved the brotherly banter and the vibe it gave to HARD TO HOLD and missed this for a great part in TOO HOT TO HOLD. Fortunately not long after I was missing the banter and the brothers, Chris and Jake did make an appearance and the brotherly interaction I missed appeared again, making me a very happy reader.

Though less emotional than HARD TO HOLD, Nick's story did create lumps in my throat several times. It was just a little bit less intense than with Isabelle and Jake and I think this is because what Isabelle went through was so traumatic it gave HARD TO HOLD that more urgent and intense vibe. TOO HOT TO HOLD is scorching hot from the start. The sexual tension between Nick and Kaylee is just as instantaneous as it was between Jake and Isabelle but Nick and Kaylee are in a situation where they can act upon it immediately and do they ever!

This is not to say TOO HOT TO HOLD was less captivating, by no means! I was fooled a bit by the slower pace in the first part of the book but in the last part, when all the little pieces came together and everything fell into place in a fast-paced and action-packed conclusion, I was as enthralled by TOO HOT TO HOLD as I was with HARD TO HOLD. At the end there was closure and a HEA for Kaylee and Nick but for Jamie and Chris things are just getting started and I'm more than ready to see what will happen with them in HOLD ON TIGHT.

With TOO HOT TO HOLD Stephanie Tyler has kept herself in the upper regions of my romantic suspense/military romance favorites. If you like action and intrigue, if you love to tackle a story from multiple angles and if you like your heroes stubborn, hot and wild, then you shouldn't miss TOO HOT TO HOLD because it brings you all this and more.

Quotes:

If she’d been writing an article about him, she could already picture the opening paragraph:
Every bit the warrior. Tall, broad shoulders, an aristocratic face –handsome…and it is as though Nick Devane should be modeling menswear instead of running around the world with weaponry.

He noted the black leather pants and the vintage AC/DC T-shirt the second he’d laid eyes on her, and yes, Kaylee Smith might just be the most dangerous thing he’d run across on a non-mission basis. Part angel, part hellcat, and shit, it was not cool when he realized that one night wouldn’t be enough time with her, not even close.

“This has nothing to do with Aaron,” he told her before he brought his mouth down on hers, swept her into his arms –and the surge of desire was enough to make her knees buckle.
The man tasted like sin, something she shouldn’t need or crave or want. Something she couldn’t resist.

Little bit of Jamie and Chris:
So the CO had gotten rid of her by sending in the distraction. And Chris was distracting, so much so that she wanted to freeze time and just stare at the way one of his eyes was a deep cerulean blue and the other an intense green –eyes that made him look slightly unbalanced but somehow handsome in a crazy, rock star kind of fashion.

Rating: 8.8 out of 10

Cover blurb:

Maximum danger.
Maximum desire.
And holding on for dear life…

The Special Ops hero feared nothing -until he met a woman too hot to hold…

Lt. Jake Hansen has survived some of the riskiest missions known to man. But now the wounded Navy SEAL faces his toughest job yet: Smuggling Dr. Isabelle Markham out of Africa without triggering an international incident. Not easy to do when the gorgeous hostage happens to be a senator’s daughter —and about as easy to resist as an oasis in the desert…

If it weren’t for Jake, Isabelle would still be halfway across the world, where rebel forces left her for dead. The Special Ops warrior may have saved her life, but she doesn’t need him to protect her now. Tell that to the ruggedly handsome hunk in full battle fatigues who’s just been assigned Isabelle’s personal bodyguard. Close quarters aside, Isabelle won’t let Jake anywhere near her heart — until danger throws them together again…and nothing in the jungles of wildest Africa could prepare them for a passion this wild. This crazy. This hot….

At the end of a mission in Djibouti, Jake, his brothers Nick and Chris and the other members of his Navy SEAL team are on their way to the extraction point when word reaches them a doctor working with Doctors Without Borders has been held hostage and left for dead. They are to rescue her and get her out of Djibouti. The hostage is none other than a US senator's daughter, Isabelle Markham. When they get to her, she is in very bad shape and the fear she won't survive is great. But they manage to rescue her and with sheer will power Isabelle survives and heals, at least superficially. Two months after the rescue Isabelle signs on as a civilian consultant with the Department of Defense and is placed at the Naval hospital where her rescuers are based. An encounter and renewed acquaintance with Jake is inevitable. Neither is the attraction between them but before they can explore it, it becomes clear that with her rescue Isabelle is not out of danger yet. What follows is a fast-paced, action-packed and heart wrenching and emotionally intricate story of strength, trust, passion and resilience.

I sometimes make fun of my book instincts, that I jokingly call "the gut-feeling" but at this moment I really want to praise it for urging me to immediately put HARD TO HOLD on my wish list when I discovered at the end of 2008 that Stephanie Tyler (half of the writer duo Sydney Croft) had a romantic suspense trilogy coming out this fall. Based on just the Navy SEAL premise and the excerpts hesitation wasn't even an afterthought and once again "the gut" absolutely didn't steer me wrong. Stephanie Tyler rocked my romantic suspense loving boat with an amazing first installment that seriously has me pining for more now.

Jake Hansen is not a man of many words; he is a quiet, rugged man who lives for his Navy SEAL career and his adoptive father and brothers. If there were one man who has had a tormented childhood and was bound to end up with a "good for nothing" checkmark, it would be Jake. With every new thing I learned about his past I grew to admire his outlook on life more and more. He crawled under my skin and I had a hard time letting him go once I finished this book. His crappy childhood didn't take away his sense of right and wrong, however it did affect whom he trusts and lets come close to him and his loved ones.

Isabelle Markham is one hell of a woman. She survives the ordeal of being taken hostage and having to endure horrible things, by sheer tenacity and resilience. Isabelle is a loner; she is not a people person and is satisfied with answering her calling as a physician in order to help the less fortunate. She sometimes acts before she thinks but she is never reckless. Like Jake, her past has left a lasting impression on her; trust is not something she gives easily.

There were so many things I loved about this book I don't even know where to start but let's give it a go.

Jake and Isabelle are one of my favorite couples of 2009, but what I liked most about how Stephanie Tyler portrayed Jake and Isabelle, is that she put them on an equal level even if Isabelle may seem more sophisticated and comes from a different environment as Jake and despite the fact that Isabelle is about 5 years older than Jake. These differences don't affect the balance of power between them. Coming from different angles they still are very much alike in their perceptions of love, trust and life and there are no situations where one has more power in the relationship than the other one. Of course that's what makes them a perfect match, even if they have some obstacles to overcome in order for them to accept each other and their love.

What I absolutely loved was the romantic angle in HARD TO HOLD. It’s built up nicely and gradually and so very intense because of the characters Jake and Isabelle are. Nothing is simple about them or their history/background so it goes without saying that their courtship progresses as complicated and intense as their individual lives have been. If there's one thing that's hard in romantic suspense it's balancing romance and suspense and giving the readers who seek that balance what they want. Romantic suspense needs to be both plot-driven and character-driven and I must say Stephanie Tyler did a great job on this.

Some may find the romance/sex scene ratio a bit askew but in my opinion it was perfect. Considering what happened with and to Isabelle I don't think it would have worked for me if she and Jake had jumped each other from the start and every other chapter. The way Stephanie Tyler handled this was believable, realistic and acceptable to me as a reader. Some books need sex to be excellent, others are excellent without an abundance of steamy scenes, and this is one of the latter. The love scenes are so very fitting and they appear at appropriate moments in the story with the right amount of hotness. Don't get me wrong: there weren't many but the ones that were there were really, really hot. My body still goes into tingly-mode just writing this review and thinking about them.

I also loved that this book is not only about Jake and Isabelle, their love story and their POVs. There are so much more characters and storylines that are part of this world Stephanie Tyler has created. A world I won't get enough of soon and I was happy to find out there are more to come after this trilogy. The multiple POVs give the book a sense of richness and completeness. Information and characters that seem unrelated and multiple small story lines seamlessly clinch together to form a story rich with action and pace, and a story that also works on the emotional department.

I wonder if there will be a continuation of the story between Isabelle's friend Sarah and her mercenary lover, Clutch. Their story line was just as poignant as the romance between Jake and Isabelle. Their secondary romance added depth and variation to the story and the ending of the book definitely left room for some heavy speculating on my part. I'm really worried about what's going to happen to Clutch and I believe Isabelle and Sarah have some issues they need to sort out together too.

There is quite some information on the ways of SEALs, Marines and mercenaries and I gobbled it all up. The military suspense was nicely written into the story and was never distracting or disturbing. Without becoming too technical (or maybe that's because I've read quite some romantic suspense so I am getting familiar with the lingo) Stephanie Tyler takes you into the world of military (rescue) missions, training and weapons. But she also threw some fun non-military stuff in the mix, like a psychic father with uncanny talents or going out and getting into a bar fight or the delivery of a baby in a supermarket isle.

The suspense plot was excellently written and resolved, original and atypical, at least to me. The only thing I missed in it was the POV of the bad guy of the book. As there were POVs of other characters I would have expected his too. Still this is a minor thing because I totally accepted the way the motivation for his actions was ultimately presented. The plot was set up very well with very few twists that I saw coming and mostly ones that totally blew me away because I didn't expect them.

I absolutely liked the brother vibe between Jake, Nick and Chris. Their history is unconventional as is the way they grew up and it's as much fun to read their brotherly banter as it is heart warming to find the love and loyalty they have for each other between the lines. They don't pull punches with each other and form a tight knit band of brothers, able to withstand anything thrown their way. The glimpses of Jake's brothers: Chris and especially Nick really sent the anticipation sky-high. I have this thing where I fall for one of the secondary characters who will have their own books later on in series and trilogies and especially for the ones who seem to be so much more than meets the eye at first glance. This time was no different. I fell for Nick from page 1 where he was mentioned and every time he came into the picture, all thoughts of Jake, not to mention Isabella or their predicaments, were forgotten as I got all dreamy reading about Nick and wondering what his story is. Needless to say I want his book bad. Very, truly and seriously bad. Now Chris shouldn't feel neglected because I also have love for Chris and want his book badly too, but between Nick, him and Jake? Nick wins…hands down.

A few quotes to illustrate the brothers:

Nick hadn't been with a woman since he'd gotten back on U.S. Soil from Afghanistan, (...), and right now Nick craved the kind of release only hot sex --or a good demolition-- could bring.

Chris just laughed. Tonight he wore a white T-shirt, which made the fact that his eyes were two different colors stand out even more. One was bright blue, the other an intense green, and they gave him an unbalanced, slightly crazed look. Once people got to know him, they realized that it wasn't just a look.

Jake made it through BUD/s* because there was no torture they'd put him through that he hadn't already survived. Nick made it through because he was completely desensitized to pain and was constantly searching, craving, for ways to feel.
Chris made it through because he had that little edge of crazy that made it necessary for men like him to succeed.

*BUD/s = Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training

Two itty bitty tiny things kept this book from getting the perfect 10 rating: The previously mentioned lack of bad guy POV and I think I found an inconsistency surrounding Isabella's and her mother's ages and the time she was conceived. I will have to ask the author about this to know what the deal is exactly and if relevant and possible without spoilers I will update this review with an explanation. However, this by no means kept me from utterly and thoroughly enjoying my first taste of Stephanie Tyler's writing. In a genre that is one of my favorites to read, she definitely has left her mark and put herself on my auto-buy and auto-read list.

*Update on the inconsistency: I contacted the author about this and originally the inconsistency was not there in the book but due to editing it sneaked into it. Due to spoilers I will leave it at this and offer no details on it but I am curious if other readers spot it too...

Every once in a while I read books that leave me speechless in a very good way. This is one of those books. As I love to read romantic suspense I have read several of them ranging from blood chilling horrifying to simple and nicely put together, from sizzling hot and steamy to containing a bare thread of romance, HARD TO HOLD however falls in its own category and is to be placed in the higher regions of my favorite lists. I hate to compare authors because I believe every author deserves praise based on their own merits but HARD TO HOLD reminded me of my first (and to-date only) Suzanne Brockmann book I've read, THE UNSUNG HERO.

From the first page I was lost in the world of Navy SEALs, Marine, bad guys, good guys and action, but that was not all. Between the rescue missions, bullets flying, battle wounds and political and personal agendas I was mesmerized by a love story so beautiful and powerful it had me in tears one moment, fanning myself the next and wanting to bud some heads together in another. In conclusion all I have to say is: Keep ‘em coming Ms. Tyler, I’m more than ready for the next brother!


Rating: 9.7 out of 10