Blake Sullivan seriously messed up during a training
exercise, and
because of his lack of team spirit, his chief fires him.
Blake hadn't been
with the Destiny Tennessee PD a long time, he had been
training with
Donna Waters for four months, and had it the exercise been a
reality,
Blake would have endangered Donna's life. What makes it even
worse is
that he really likes Donna. Dejected, Blake finds a bar
where to drown
his sorrows and ponder on his future, all the while trying
to reach his
boss to apologize, but the latter is not answering, which
does not
overly surprise Blake, who was never his chief's favorite
detective.
Donna had also been calling around, to no avail. When she
catches up
with a rather drunk Blake, he spouts that he suspects that
their
superior has gone missing. But as they soon discover the
rest of their
team has gone missing; Blake will need to step up, as he and
Donna
now have to find what happened to them.
Ms. Lena Diaz has this uncanny talent of grabbing the reader
from page one
and writing such captivating stories that you feel like if
you stop
reading, something bad will happen while you're away. I
immediately
adored Donna: she's a tough, no-nonsense cop, and yet, Diaz
still
found a clever way to show us that Donna is a very caring
woman. At
first, Blake appears quite arrogant, trigger-happy, and too
stubborn for
his own good, when in fact it's because he has never felt
accepted
within the Police Department; he is an outsider and has made
no effort
to fit in. But now he has to work with Donna, and I loved
that Donna was
not relegated to the scenery; she is as much a part of the
investigation
as Blake.
Ms.Diaz seamlessly weaves the romance in the narrative:
Blake and Donna
had unquestionably noticed each other before, but being thrown
together, they naturally get closer, and finally, Blake
understands why
there is no "I" in team. The police story is excellent, and
the villains are
the sort that makes you wonder if we all have the capacity
of going to
the dark side; this is somewhat of a novelty in suspense
novels, there
are no comic book baddies here! There was, however, one tiny
hiccup: I
was literally startled when Blake and Donna first have sex.
There was
no build-up whatsoever, and I felt the sex scene, while
beautifully
written and not overly long, came out of nowhere, and could
have been
shortened just a tad in order to make it more believable.
Other than
that, the story is flawless, the writing efficient and
eloquent, and the
pace is brisk and steady. You can almost see the sparks
between Blake
and Donna, and they exchange terrific banter; in fact, the
dialogues are
particularly brilliant throughout SWAT
STANDOFF. I am sad to see the excellent Tennessee SWAT series come to an end, but I
know that whatever Lena Diaz writes next will be just as
outstanding.
Playing hero backfires on sexy SWAT team member Blake
Sullivan. He infuriates his partner, Donna Waters, as much
as he attracts her. But before they can resolve their
differences, they discover that the rest of their team have
been kidnapped by an unknown assailant. Now as they race to
rescue the small Tennessee town’s real heroes, they share a
growing mutual trust…and a hot, life-changing connection.
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