Review: Desperate Deeds by Dee Davis

I simply love this series, and book three did NOT disappoint! Quite the opposite - I couldn't put it down, and Desperate Deeds literally kept me up at night (not only could I not stop reading, but I thought I heard noises in the house, and I was just certain that someone was going to jump out of the closet at me!). Not only was I captivated by the ongoing story of the A-Tac team, but I got to continue learning more about the lives of the team members. This was Tyler's story, and we meet Owen, who isn't quite what he seems... or is he?

Tyler is the team's munitions and demolition expert - she is great at building and disarming explosives. She is also the daughter of a retired General, has had multiple step-mothers, and has a half-brother she is still close to. She is also the A-Tac team member involved in helping with the transport of some prototype parts for nuclear weapons and the sole survivor when the transport is ambushed.

With the knowledge that Tyler survived the ambush and that there is a mole in the team, Tyler becomes a suspect. Feeling bruised from the ambush and grilled by the powers that be, Tyler has a passionate one-night-stand with the handsome Owen Wakefield, the teams contact from the British team's MI-5. Little does Tyler know that the one-night-stand is going to become a temporary partner in her upcoming adventure in stopping a possible nuclear disaster and finding the mole within the A-Tac team.

Owen has a troubled past with MI-5, and after his one-night-stand with Tyler, he is unexpectedly assigned to provide assistance to the A-Tac team, and to uncover the mole within their group. All the evidence points to Tyler, but as he works with her and finds himself becoming more involved, he finds it harder to believe that she is a traitor.

As numerous attempts are made to kill Tyler, she and Owen must fight for their lives as they fight against the clock to stop a disaster from happening. Their growing relationship is threatened when the team finds out that Owen may not be all that he appears to be, but Owen vows to stay and complete the mission he began.

One thing that I thought was super: the continuing undercurrent running through the entire series is that there is a mole in the team who is sabotaging the missions, and YES, you find out who it is in book three... and boy was I surprised! Of course, it made complete sense when I look back, but I thought for sure I knew exactly who it was, so it was really fun to have a few more twists and turns to keep me on my toes while reading. Not only do we find out who the mole is, the team finds out that there is a much bigger threat out there, and as of the end of the book, they are only one step closer to knowing exactly what that threat is.

This was the third book in the A-Tac series, and I loved it just as much as the first two, and I love that each book picks up right where the one before it left off. Note - it can be read as a stand-alone book... but then you'd miss out on the great story of Nash and Annie in book one, and Drake and Madeline in book two. Lucky for us, it sounds like three more will be joining the series in 2011 and 2012, can't wait!



Desperate Deeds (A-Tac, Book 3)
by Dee Davis
Publisher: Forever (August 2, 2010) ~ 400 pages
Fiction / Romantic Suspense

About the Book:

As the demolitions expert for A-Tac, a black-ops CIA unit masquerading as Ivy League faculty, Tyler Hanson has two great loves: literature and explosives. She lives by the motto “duty first” and doesn’t have time for personal attachments . . . until a steamy one-night stand turns into a professional partnership.
BURNED BY BETRAYAL

When Tyler meets Owen Wakefield, a handsome British operative, she seduces him with no intention of ever seeing him again. But then the sexy Brit is brought into A-Tac, and despite Tyler’s efforts to keep her distance, she finds herself falling for him. Trusting him.

Owen seems too good to be true—and he is. He’s hiding his true motives and identity, and no matter how he feels about Tyler, he can’t keep her secrets. One of A-Tac’s members has turned traitor and helped terrorists to hijack a shipment of nuclear weapons. As witnesses start dying and evidence starts disappearing, Owen and Tyler must race to find the mole—and prevent a final, cataclysmic act of destruction.


Enter A-Tac and find out more about the special forces team and their missions!

Excerpt:

About the Author: (from the publisher's site)

Dee Davis has a BA in Political Science and History, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration. During a ten-year career in public relations, she spent three years on the public speaking circuit, edited two newsletters, wrote three award winning public service announcements, did television and radio commercials, starred in the Seven Year Itch, taught college classes, lobbied both the Texas State Legislature and the US Congress, and served as the director of two associations.

Her highly acclaimed first novel, Everything In Its Time, was published in July 2000. Since then, among others, she’s won the Booksellers Best, Golden Leaf, Texas Gold and Prism awards, and been nominated for the National Readers Choice Award, the Holt and two RT Reviewers Choice Awards. To date, she has sold eighteen books and three novellas, including Chain Reaction and A Match Made on Madison.

She’s lived in Austria and traveled in Europe extensively. And although she now lives in Manhattan she still calls Texas home.

Edition Reviewed: ARC - Review copy received courtesy of the publisher, many thanks to both the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review!