BUGGY

Opening Line: " Marine Corps Captain Zachariah Clark was so tuckered out he could barely put on his uniform, much less speed up the process."

This was a pretty good Harlequin Blaze. Not as formulaic as some I’ve read because our couple here does everything backwards. It was fun watching them fumble along, finally getting to know each other after 18 months of marriage (I’ll explain later) However this loses points for the stalker/suspense storyline used to carry the plot along and a heroine described on the back cover as “steely" but who for the most part I‘d just call a bitch. I will say that Julie Miller writes amazing love scenes though and that’s really what saved this for me.

At Your Command starts with a bang. Marine Corps Captain Zachariah Clark has just spent a week having the best sex of his life with a women he picked up in a bar (truthfully they picked each other up) He’s now just 5 hours left before reporting to his base in Quantico Virginia and active duty in the Middle East. So of course they have more steamy sex before Zachariah impulsively asks her to marry him. Becky (still in an uncompromising position) replies simply “Okay”

18 months later Zachariah (who the author never refers to as Zach and honestly what woman calls out “Ooh Zachariah” during sex? This just bugged me. Anyways, 18 months later Zack is Stateside on a short leave and now nursing a serious case of PTSD as well as several ugly scars. He’s had very little communication with Becky during his time away (it was classified) and yet here they are together again, knowing only that they have great chemistry together but almost nothing about the others life or who they really are.

Becky’s a busy divorce lawyer and as it turns out also an East Coast heiress which should give Nebraska farm boy Zack pause for concern especially when he learns she hasn’t yet told her parents she’s married. Becky isn’t very empathetic where her husband is concerned although we do get some honest conversations regarding whether they can make this work or if their entire relationship is just based on sex.

So to keep things moving along Becky begins receiving threatening phone calls, letters and even part of a bomb on the hood of her car (which is ironic because Zack is a demolitions expert) we also get some very silly moments in the head of Becky’s stalker while he rips up photographs and says nasty psycho things along with several sub-characters to keep you guessing his identity.

Because Beck’s parents don’t know she’s married Zack is forced to pose as her bodyguard when she returns home to the family mansion. Sleeping in separate bedrooms the two finally get to know each other and even go on a few dates. During this time we meet Becky’s cancer stricken mother and except for the mammogram preaching done here (once would have been enough) She became one of my favourite characters. Lily and Zack’s sweet relationship and the fact that she sees and knows all is awesome. The stalker storyline reaches its explosive conclusion and I’ll admit I sighed at the touching ending. Cheers