jenjn79's Reviews > Under the Wire

I think this series just keeps getting better and better. I liked the first two books, but these last few have been great. Gerard has managed to make me like plot hooks that I generally am not a fan of. Kudos to her.

Series note:
Probably best to read this series in order. You may be able to read this one as a standable, but I'm not sure.

Summary:
Seventeen years ago in Nicaragua, Manny Ortega and Lily Campora had a blazing affair that turned ugly when Manny believed Lily betrayed him and left him for dead. With the help of the CIA, Manny moved to the US and joined the military, but he never forgot or forgiven what Lily did to him. As for Lily, she believed Manny had been killed in battle and never stopped grieving the young soldier she lost.

But now Lily has found out Manny has been alive all this time and she sets on a path to confront him. Before that can happen, tragedy strikes someone close to Lily and she must got to Manny for help. As much as Manny believes he hates Lily, he knows he has to help her. So they set course for Sri Lanka to rescue the most important person in Lily's life...and maybe find a way back to each other.

Review:
When I realized this was another book with a storyline that involved the characters trekking through the wilderness at times I just kinda sighed and thought, here we go again. For those of you who regularly read my reviews, you now that I don't really like wilderness stories. But Gerard has done that a few times in this series and I haven't necessarily minded it...as was the case with this book...though it's still not my favorite story hook.

It was an interesting storyline, though, and I liked that it took place in Sri Lanka. Definitely an atypical story location (for a romance). And hey, I got to learn a little bit about the political situation of the country, too ;)

On the romance front...well, I'm a little torn about the age thing. I liked both Lily and Manny...especially Manny (hello...sexy Latin hunk!), but there was the age thing. In the prologue, Manny is 18 and Lily 28, then in the bulk of the story he's 35 and she's 45. Not my favorite set up. I'm not really one for older woman/younger guy...plus 28-18 at the story...slightly icky feel there. Surprisingly, within the book, between the characters, the age thing isn't much of an issue. It's brought up a few times, but that's it. For me, I just wasn't fully on board with the characters' ages. But I did enjoy Lily and Manny. They had good chemistry.

Overall, the storyline kept me reading and wanting to come back for more. That's really all you can ask of a good book. Can't wait to read the final book of the series.