Gritty realism in Afghanistan surrounds this story of a
military blogger and a far-from-home journalist who
realises she's got into deeper trouble than she'd expected.
Sgt Ryan Pettit has garnered a few fans for his online
military diary, and he has just endured an Afghani winter
only to have spring usher along incessant rain, lightning,
mud, snakes, scorpions, and enemy action. The local almond
and grain harvests have failed and the people are
cultivating poppies for an opium harvest. Every drop
potentially buys guns and mortars for the local warlords.
Then the rain pervades the roof of Ryan's mud-walled
quarters and the building collapses.
Vicki Vanover, one of the fans of the anonymous milblog,
attends a press conference in London and asks about
improvements in the status of women in Afghanistan. Given
a bland answer, she resolves to go out and do her own
coverage. Other news includes that Prince Harry, son of
Charles and Diana, is being deployed to Afghanistan along
with his regiment, but Vicki is no celebrity-spotter.
Unable to meet women in the beleaguered country, she
persuades American soldier Hawk to take her along to his
mountain base. A helicopter ride later, Vicki is in more
Spartan accommodation than she could have believed. With
not enough space, the men are shoving bunks into tiny huts
and the latrines come complete with giant spiders and
disposal rules. The US and British soldiers can't get
enough of looking at her, so Hawk and Ryan offer her space
with them to let her feel safe. However when the enemy
action hots up Vicki and Ryan admit the feelings they have
for each other, and Ryan struggles to focus on his duties
rather than lose his life while thinking about hot action
in another field entirely.
A PRINCE AMONG MEN is a great read which jolts the reader
out of ordinary life and into a war-torn situation, showing
that people still behave decently and care for one another
at the most stressful of times. I loved the descriptions
of the base and environment. I did find it very unlikely
that Prince Harry would go unidentified - he travels with
bodyguards in war zones. The romance between Vicki and
Ryan was a good match and we can understand the motto of
living for the day. This is Cat Johnson's ninth book in
the Red Hot and Blue series. Read this one - learn a lot.
and enjoy.
Sergeant Ryan Pettit blogs anonymously as Groundpounder,
recording non-confidential details of a deployment where
every day feels exactly the same—until a female reporter
shows up at his firebase. And he realizes nothing will ever
be the same again.
Though his orders are clear—protect her, but make her life
so miserable she high tails it back to London—the last thing
he wants is to watch her leave in a cloud of Afghanistan dust.
Intrigued by Groundpounder’s blog posts, Vicki Vanover
flirted, bribed, and outright threatened her way to the
front lines outside of Kandahar. Nothing has ever stopped
her from getting a story, but an accidental night in Ryan’s
bunk is a distraction—and attraction—she never anticipated.
Yet Afghanistan leaves Vicki with more questions than
answers. Why won’t Ryan let her anywhere near the local
women she wants to interview? Who is the mysterious,
red-headed Lt. Wales everyone treats with such deference?
Worst of all, why is watching Ryan run toward danger,
instead of away from it, enough to stop her heart?
Warning: Contains super-hot sexual encounters in the war zone.
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