Sniper’s Pride by Megan Crane – Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

 

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Description:
After Mariah McKenna lands in the hospital with a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction she knows she didn’t cause, she realizes her cheating, vindictive husband would rather have a dead wife than a divorce. Afraid that he will succeed in killing her next time, Mariah goes to Grizzly Harbor to hire one of the Alaska Force special operatives to help her survive long enough to finally live a little.
Griffin Cisneros traded in a comfortable future for boot camp, where he learned the virtue of patience and focus—skills that served him well as a Marine sniper. Few things get to him these days, but something about Mariah’s mix of toughness and vulnerability gets right under his skin. Until it’s clear she’s the one thing in the world that might melt the ice in stoic, reserved Griffin, whether he likes it or not.

If he can just keep her alive…

 

 

Review:

Sniper’s Pride by Megan Crane is the 2^nd book in her Alaska Force series.  We meet our heroine, Mariah McKenna immediately, as she just gets out of the hospital, knowing that her husband is trying to kill her.  Mariah wants a divorce, but her husband, who is wealthy and has aspirations to become politically involved, wants nothing to do with a divorce; she knows he wants her dead.

Mariah decides the best thing for her is to leave town, let her lawyer fight for the divorce.  She writes to a firm that helps people in trouble, and when she gets a response to go to Grizzly Harbor, Alaska to meet with the Alaska Force group Mariah leaves for Alaska.

Griffin Cisneros, our hero, is one of the operatives from Alaska Force, and he has been assigned to meet Mariah.  When Griffin sees the beautiful Mariah get off the boat, he becomes determined to sent her back home; since he thinks she is a rich wealthy princess, who wants to be pampered.

Of course, Mariah is nothing like that, even if she is ultra-friendly to everyone, underneath it all, she is very scared for her life.  Griffin treats her coldly, and finds Mariah annoying, as she does things on her own to walk around the town and meet residents.   After a bit, Mariah’s independence and friendly attitude creates problems for Griffin, who is fighting off his attraction to her.  Griffin thinks himself as a machine to do the job he is good at, and not meant for a woman.  

Just when Griffin convinces his leaders that Mariah is probably imagining the threats on her life, things change that will bring Griffin and the Alaska Force team working together to help Mariah against the threats coming against her.  Griffin realizes the error of his ways, and becomes deeply involved in saving Mariah, especially when due to his lack of attention, she is now in danger.

What follows is an exciting, intense suspenseful story, with intrigue and a romance that was a slow burn, but in the end, they did make a great couple.  There were a few surprises, as we race to the exciting edge of your seat climax, and the discovery of who was really behind the attempts on Mariah’s life. I loved watching the members of the Alaska Force step up and together battle the bad guys.   A talented group that I look forward to see more of in future books.  I really liked seeing Everly befriend Mariah, and help her, as well as to find a way to make Griffin open his eyes to his true but hidden feelings for Mariah.

Sniper’s Pride was a wonderful romance suspense story that was written very well by Megan Crane and had a bit of everything.   I look forward to the next book and suggest you give this series a try.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

 

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” Griffin said in a warning tone that made her heart thump. “I’m not sitting in this lobby for my health. It’s yours we’re concerned about.”
“I appreciate your concern,” she assured him. “Truly.”
“Then appreciate it quietly. Up in your room.”
He sounded furious. But Mariah was so close to him now, and she could see him. And for all his icy fury, he didn’t step back. He didn’t set her away from him. He didn’t do anything but continue to stand there, straight and stiff, his jaw clenched like he was this close to exploding.
Mariah would bet anything that he was.
“You should be careful.” Griffin’s voice had grown even darker. More intense. Which meant only that Mariah could feel it in even more places. “You might not like the response you get.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Mariah drawled.
It was now or never.
She held Griffin’s gaze. Then she reached out, entirely too aware of her own breath, and slid her hands over his chest.
It was like sliding her palms over one of the wood-burning stoves that heated the inn. He was as hard as iron and as hot. She could feel the simmering heat and the power of him through the henley he wore, and it made her shudder, because it proved what she already believed.
He wasn’t cold at all. He burned the same way she did.
She waited for him to order her to step back. But he didn’t.
His face still seemed carved from stone. But if he imagined that was a barrier, he was mistaken. She liked the stone, particularly when she could feel that all those sculpted marble ridges in his abdomen were hot to the touch.
He made her want to curl up against him and purr.
Instead, Mariah did the next best thing. She surged up onto her tiptoes, tilted her face to his, and then pressed her lips against Griffin’s.
And for a moment, it truly was like kissing some kind of statue.
He didn’t move. She would have thought he didn’t breathe, either, but her hands were on his chest. She could feel the faint movement. And better still, the wild pounding of his heart.
So she kissed him again. She kept her mouth on his, like she was teasing him awake. Like something out of a fairy tale.
Once. Again.
And then he broke.
One second he was motionless and still, the most beautiful sculpture of a man she had ever beheld. And the next he was . . . liquid heat.
He angled his head to one side, opening his mouth over hers, and she felt the sound he made—half fury, half need—light her up inside. His hands were on her face, moving her head where he wanted it, and taking control with a swiftness and a certainty that made her toes curl.
And it was better than an explosion. It was deeper. Wilder.
He kissed her like a starving man, but she was just as hungry.
She couldn’t get close enough. She couldn’t taste him enough. She couldn’t get enough.
And when he pulled his mouth from hers, his hands wrapping around her shoulders and holding her away from him, his gaze was the darkest she’d ever seen it.
Furious all over again, but this time without a shred of that deep chill she was used to seeing in him.
“Griffin . . .” she began, through lips that no longer felt entirely like hers.
“You think this is a game.” His face was so close that it was almost like another kind of kiss. “You think— what? If you shatter every boundary I have it will end well? Because it won’t. You have no idea who I am. You have no idea what I’m capable of. The control that I keep over myself isn’t for me, Mariah. It’s for you. It’s for the world in general. You don’t need to see what happens when I’m out of control.”

 

 

Megan’s publisher, Berkley, is offering a paper copy of SNIPER’S PRIDE to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe

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