Review: "Hide and Seek" by Jeff Struecker & Alton Gansky

Reviewed by *Katie McCurdy for Legacy of a Writer

5/5 Stars

THE BOOK:

She traded her gun for the power of words, but now she needs both.

Amelia Lennon no longer wears a uniform or carries a weapon. An Army trained Foreign Affairs Officer, she's negotiating a dispute with the Kyrgyzstan government that threatens to leave the U.S. without an airbase in that region. While following her government contact-Jildiz Oskonbaeva, the lawyer daughter of Kyrgyzstan's president-Amelia witnesses an attempt to abduct her. She manages to prevent the kidnapping, but now the two women are on the run in a city that's erupting into chaos.

Master Sergeant J.J. Bartley is the Special Operations team leader tasked to rescue Amelia and Jildiz. With two new members in his unit-one with a secret that could endanger everyone's life-J.J. must soldier his unit through crazed mobs intent on overthrowing the government. Back home, his pregnant wife is misinformed that her husband and the team have been killed. But before this is over, Bartley will find out that's the least of his problems.

MY REVIEW:

What an intense read! I knew from the previous book I read in this series—Fallen Angel—that I would like this newest release by Jeff Struecker and Alton Gansky…and I wasn’t disappointed! Hide and Seek might take a few chapters for things to start happening, but once they do it continually escalade till the last page!

I really enjoyed getting to read more about the characters I got to know in Fallen Angel. I had forgotten how these guys can crack the jokes—several times I cracked up myself! I loved the camaraderie between the spec ops team members. And even the humor between their wives! It really added something to the book, in my opinion.

It’s hard to write this review without giving away a spoiler! There were a lot of twists and turns in Hide and Seek, that’s for sure. I’m starting to get a little crush on Crispin, known as Hawkeye…or Junior…or many other names the team plagues him with, haha! I loved Amelia’s ability to kick butt—dang, could she do some damage! The scenes from the home front, showing the team’s wives, were really emotionally touching. I admit getting teary-eyed—after reading a book like this, it gives me fresh respect for the women who have husbands serving overseas. What a sacrifice!

As I said before, the action in Hide and Seek was awesome. I was seriously gripping the pages toward the end, unable to even take a break from action! There were a lot of short scenes, cutting back and forth to the action. While some might think this would make understanding the full story confusing, Struecker and Gansky did a great job of presenting a clear storyline for the reader to follow. These two make a great team! I don’t know how many more books they plan to bring out with these characters, but I definitely hope there will be more!

*I reviewed this book for B&H Publishing via FIRST Wild Card Tours. Special thanks to Rick Roberson, The B&B Media Group, Inc for sending me a review copy. It was not required that I give a positive review, but solely to express my own thoughts and opinions of this book, which I have done.