UNDER THE SURFACE (Alpha Ops 4) by Anne Calhoun-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 31, 2016

Welcome to Eye Candy, the East Side’s hottest nightclub where the bartenders are hot, the cocktails are fancy, and danger lurks just under the surface…

Eve Webber, the gorgeous and savvy owner of Eye Candy, knows better than anyone that growing up on the wrong side of the tracks comes with certain complications. Determined to run a clean business and fix up the East Side, Eve’s plans get temporarily stalled when a potential new hire walks into her bar. The sexual chemistry crackling between them is a potent distraction…even if she refuses to mix business with the promise of pleasure.

Detective Matt Dorchester lives by strict rules that have kept him alive in impossible situations. When his latest undercover assignment has him playing a bartender, his desire for the passionate owner has him breaking every single one. Eve is in danger and her life depends on his secrecy. But once their attraction reaches a climactic conclusion, Matt must make a desperate choice: Tell her the truth about who he really is―or risk a once-in-a-lifetime love to save her life?

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REVIEW: UNDER THE SURFACE is the fourth installment in Anne Calhoun’s contemporary, adult ALPHA OPS erotic romance series. This is detective Matt Dorchester, and bar owner Eve Webber’s story line. Eve was first introduced in Alpha Ops 3-THE SEAL’s SECOND CHANCE. UNDER THE SURFACE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty.

Told from dual third person points of view (Eve and Matt) UNDER THE SURFACE focuses on an undercover operation in Eve’s bar-EYE CANDY-where Matt Dorchester (aka Chad Henderson) sets himself front and center as the newest bartender at Eye Candy. Hoping to gain information regarding a possible money laundering scheme, and threats against the people living on the East Side of Lancaster, Matt finds himself getting in deeper when his relationship with Eve Webber becomes personal and something more. Matt is an over protective male; a man who has closed himself off from the people in his life but a man who is falling for his latest assignment.

Eve is our heroine; a strong willed, alpha female who wants Matt but is unaware of his true identity and his undercover assignment at the Eye Candy bar. Several attempts to seduce our story line hero finds Eve frustrated and threatening to look elsewhere for comfort and sex. What ensues is the building sexual relationship between Matt and Eve, and the threats against our heroine because of her connections to both Matt, and the undercover operation. The $ex scenes are intimate, intense and seductive. Matt knows he has stepped over the line with his relationship with an undercover mark.

UNDER THE SURFACE has a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including Matt’s younger brother Luke who has been in a wheel chair since the accident that killed Matt and Luke’s parents. We are also introduced to Eve’s over protective parents, and her brother-local attorney-Caleb Webber. Several of the local law enforcement members go undercover at Eye Candy.

The world building focuses on the revival of East Side-a run down neighborhood known for corruption, drugs, and any number of unlawful businesses. Eve Webber is a one-woman revitalization tornado, and with it comes the start of a neighborhood clean up, and Eye Candy is the first of the new businesses in the area.

UNDER THE SURFACE is a story with mystery, suspense, action, romance and love. The premise is entertaining but slow to develop-the majority of the ‘action’ takes place in the final chapters of the book; the characters are colorful and animated; the romance is a bit of a struggle towards a happily ever after-but a happily ever after-none the less. This is my favorite Alpha Ops installment to date-I felt more connected to the characters than in previous story lines.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy