Code Name: Virgo (Zodiac Tactical 2) by Janie Crouch-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 18, 2022

My code name is Virgo. The stars say I’m practical, honest, stubborn as hell.

Guilty as charged.

Zodiac Tactical is the company that gave me a second chance. We guard, protect, rescue…eliminate the threat when nobody else can. And as a former SEAL, I’m good at those things. Good with weapons, good with missions.

But with people…not so good.

So when a gruesome enemy takes Bronwyn Rourke, one of Zodiac’s newest young recruits—with blue eyes that take up nearly her whole damn face—I shouldn’t take it personally. Shouldn’t allow her to consume my every thought and become my only mission.

They took her because they thought she was alone. Easy prey. That no one would fight for her.

They were wrong.

My code name is Virgo. And I will grind my enemy to dust to bring her home.

••••••

REVIEW:CODE NAME: VIRGO is the second instalment in Janie Crouch’s contemporary, adult ZODIAC TACTICAL romantic, suspense series focusing on the men and women who work for Zodiac Tactical-a spin off from the author’s Linear Tactical series. This is former US Navy SEAL Harrison ‘Sarge’ McEwan aka Virgo, and twenty-three year old Bronwyn ‘Pony Girl’ Rourke’s storyline. CODE NAME: VIRGO can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous series is revealed where necessary.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Sarge and Bronwyn) following several time lines CODE NAME: VIRGO follows the search and rescue of our story line heroine. Five years earlier, while on assignment in the Czech Republic, Harrison
‘Sarge’ McEwan would come upon a then eighteen year old Ukrainian Bronya Roch who had fallen upon hard times, forced to for the local cartel. In an effort to protect our heroine, if only for one night, Sarge would befriend Bronya Roch only to find himself the victim of an assault by someone else. Three years would pass before Sarge would, once again, find our story line heroine, and with the hopes of helping, offers Bronya the information to secure help from Zodiac Tactical. Fast forward to present day, Bronya now known as Bronwyn Rourke, was about to go on her first big assignment for Zodiac Tactical, an assignment in Marrakesh that would place Bronwyn on a path of death and destruction in the name of retribution and revenge. With no knowledge of what happened or why, the Zodiac Tactical team spend months looking for our story line heroine who disappeared without a trace, only to discover that she is but a shell of her former self, working for the group that was once connected to human trafficking, medical experiments, murder and fraud. What ensues is the hunt for Bronwyn, and the take down of the people in control as our couple struggle to make sense of their growing feelings for one another in the face of betrayal and an unknown enemy.

Harrison ‘Sarge’ McEwan has bided his time forming a relationship aka friendship with Bronwyn Rourke. Over five years had past since their first encounter but Sarge knew Bronwyn needed time to establish herself as an agent working for Zodiac Tactical but Sarge never suspected that Bronwyn had betrayed their friendships, and the people with he she worked, but proving otherwise found Harrison struggling to stay neutral when the proof said otherwise. Bronwyn Rourke has never been in control, and has found herself both the victim and perpetrator of horrendous events. Hoping to escape the h*ll that has become her life, Bronwyn comes face to face with the man that she loves, a man that is unaware of the path someone else is forcing upon our story line heroine.

The slow building relationship between Sarge and Bronwyn struggles in the face of time and distance, secrets and lies, power and control. Throughout most of the story line Sarge and Bronwyn remain apart-Bronwyn’s whereabouts are unknown but the few times she reappears she is nothing like the woman with whom Sarge would fall in love. The $ex scenes are limited but passionate.

We are reintroduced to former US Navy SEAL and CEO of Zodiac Tactical Ian ‘Aries’ DeRose, Landon Black, tech support Jenna Franklin, contractor Mark ‘Outlaw’ Outlawson, former SEAL turned rancher Lucas Everett, Evelyn, and Lena as well as the return of Callum Webb from the Omega Sector Series. There is something developing between Evelyn and Lucas. The requisite evil has many faces. Landon’s story is next in CODE NAME: LIBRA.

CODE NAME: VIRGO is a story of betrayal and vengeance, power and control, manipulation, abuse, rescue and recovery. The fast paced, character driven premise is intriguing, engaging, dramatic and edgy; the romance is emotional; the characters are energetic, tragic and broken.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one CODE NAME: ARIES

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

USA TODAY bestselling author Janie Crouch writes what she loves to read: passionate romantic suspense. She is a winner and/or finalist of multiple romance literary awards including the Golden Quill Award for Best Romantic Suspense, the National Reader’s Choice Award, and the coveted RITA© Award by the Romance Writers of America.

Janie recently relocated with her husband and their four teenagers to Germany (due to her husband’s job as support for the U.S. Military), after living in Virginia for nearly 20 years. When she’s not listening to the voices in her head (and even when she is), she enjoys engaging in all sorts of crazy adventures (200-mile relay races; Ironman Triathlons, treks to Mt. Everest Base Camp) traveling, and movies of all kinds.

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