Targeted by Katie Reus

Narrated by Sophie Eastlake

Targeted is the first book in a brand new (and full length) romantic suspense series, Deadly Ops, by Katie Reus. I have only listened to one other of her books (in the Red Stone Security series) but I was very impressed with it and plan to listen to more from her when I find the time. My main criticism of the earlier book was that it was a little short. It’s hard to show character growth and deliver a believable happy ending AND solve the crime/neutralise the threat in a short word count. Targeted doesn’t suffer from that issue.

Trigger Warning: (off page) Sexual Assault

Sam Kelly and Sophie Moreno were both foster kids in the same foster home in Miami for a while when they were about 17. They fell in love and were planning on their own happy ever after when Sophie was moved to another foster home because their previous foster mother had been in an accident. Sam, at that point, had aged out of the system and had enlisted in the Marines and was away at boot camp.

Sophie was raped by her new foster father and following her trauma, she sent Sam packing. She didn’t reply to any of his letters and they eventually lost touch. [There is not a lot of exposition about the rape and I didn’t feel it was a character shortcut. Or rather, if it was a character shortcut it was barely utilised. In the end, I decided it was pretty much a reason to split Sophie and Sam up and, as reasons go, I’d have preferred there to be another one. In other words, I don’t feel Sophie’s experience of rape was given the attention it deserved.]

Sam ended up as an elite Marine sniper and, five years before the main action of the story begins, he is recruited into a super seekrit branch of the NSA which deals in black ops and undercover work – but only for good of course.

“Sam Kelly” died in Afghanistan and “Jack Stone” was created to work for the NSA. He has some plastic surgery to change his face and voila: new person.

Jack has just returned from two years undercover when his commanding officer sends him to Miami to investigate a terrorist/biological weapon threat and the link between it and a certain not-for-profit air carrier. (The carrier flies much needed medical supplies into remote/developing areas and therefore has a great distribution network available to it.) Coincidentally, it’s also where Sophie works and Jack’s boss wants Jack to finally put to rest his leftover feelings for Sophie while he’s on the case.

The set up does require a fairly large suspension of disbelief. It’s not that hard to poke holes in it. However, after that, things do make a lot more sense and, given that the setup is for the purpose of getting Jack and Sophie together again, I was prepared to go with it. I think this is a common issue with romantic suspense and certainly not unique to Targeted.

Even though Sophie doesn’t know Jack is really Sam, she does feel ‘inexplicably’ close to him very quickly and of course, for his part, Jack/Sam has always loved her. This helps the romance to be believable because the main action of the story takes place in only a few days. There is an epilogue which takes place months later and helps to bed down the HEA.

I had been expecting a fairly high number of sex scenes, based on my (admittedly slight) experience of the Red Stone Security books. However that’s not the case in Targeted. There is plenty of sexual tension but not a lot of actual sex. I didn’t mind it but it did seem like something of a departure so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Sophie Eastlake is one of my favourite/go-to narrators. I like the way she gave Sophie (er, the character Sophie that is) a subtle accent which fit with her Latin heritage. I always enjoy the emotion Ms. Eastlake brings to the story. It’s never over the top but it always adds a layer of depth to the characterisations.

The downside to her narrations is that the heroes sound almost identical. There is another character, Levi, who plays a side role in the book, who is, no doubt, a future hero and when Levi and Jack talk it is only context (and dialogue tags) that makes them two distinct players. I like the hero voice Ms. Eastlake does but I’d recommend not listening to a number of her narrations one after the other because it can get confusing. Another audiobook spaced in the middle is enough to “re-set” my brain so I can recognise the voice applies to a different hero.

Targeted was an entertaining listen, performed by a trusted narrator. I’d certainly recommend it to romantic suspense fans provided they can get behind the premise.

Kaetrin

Narration: B

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Fighting/Escalated Fighting

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Targeted was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.