In Love and War is a collection of military stories from three authors who take different approaches to the material. One is flat-out action, one is more relationship driven, and the third is a combination of the two. Together they make for a good, but not great, read for fans of military romance.
Contemporary Romance In A Military Affair by Merline Lovelace, Tess Ross is an Air Force sergeant assigned to a recovery mission in the South Pacific. The wreckage of a plane lost in WWII has been found on a war-torn island, and Tess and her team are assigned to recover the pilot's remains. She isn't about to let photojournalist Pete Quinn exploit the story for his own gain. But when they come under fire from hostile natives, she has to depend on his knowledge of the island to help them survive.
Lovelace's story is very fast-paced, with almost nonstop action, which makes it a very compelling read and also a completely unconvincing romance. Other than a brief epilogue, the entire story takes place in less than a day. The instantaneous lust could not be more forced and I didn't believe this couple had any future at all. The heroine is also a humorless grump prone to jumping to irrational conclusions, which doesn't make her the most likable person. That said, I enjoyed the vicarious thrills, the relentless pace, and the way the author conveys the feelings of the soldiers for their fallen comrade, which is expressed with a great deal of heartfelt sentiment and stirring patriotism. Grade: B-
Contemporary Romance Lindsay McKenna's Comrades in Arms takes place in the fall of 2001, just after 9/11. Special Forces Captain Dave Johnson needs an interpreter for his mission into Afghanistan, but he doesn't want Captain Tara McCain. There's no place for a woman on his team. Tara isn't about to be pushed around though, and she soon wins his respect, until long nights spent in the desert together lead to other, deeper feelings.
McKenna does her best to tell a novel-length story in less than a hundred pages, and while she doesn't quite succeed, it's an admirable attempt. Unlike the first story, there isn't too much external action. The setting is mostly background for the romance; the characters and their love story are the main focus. The story takes place over four months, but with such a short page count, there are some large gaps in the timeline, skipping weeks at a time, so that it reads like a novel where half the chapters have been left out. The backstory is also clumsily inserted. The hero and heroine pour out their life stories at the drop of a hat. There are quite a few nice moments and powerful scenes, though, and I did believe Dave and Tara when they expressed their love for each other in the end. Grade: C+
Contemporary Romance Captain Jack Gage, the hero of Candace Irvin's An Unconditional Surrender, is on an undercover mission in Sarajevo when he comes across his former lover, Captain Danielle Stanton. Dealing with a slave trader, Jack doesn't expect to find Danielle up for sale. Undercover herself, Danielle was captured and only Jack can save her. The only question is whether she's willing to accept help from a man she believes betrayed her in the past.
Of the three, this story has the best blend of action and a convincing romance. To be fair, Irvin's job is slightly easier since this is a reunion story between two characters who already have feelings for each other. It's also significantly longer than the other two by about fifty pages. Jack and Danielle have a complicated and involved history they must reconcile, and their backgrounds and personalities are substantial enough that they seem like fully realized characters. This is a slightly slower read than the first two novellas, with a great deal of exposition often delivered in long narrative passages. But it is a nicely complex story considering the form, and features strong characters and plot development. Grade: B-
In Love and War offers three military stories that mostly deliver the goods. Two of the three novellas earn qualified recommendations and the third, while constructed less well than the others, features a believable love story.
-- Leigh Thomas
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