Title: Unleashed
Author: Penelope Marshall

This is book 1 in the Mr Black Series

Penelope Marshall is a new to me author, she posted for reviewers in one of the groups I am on so signed up. It was nice going into a new book knowing nothing about the author, story or characters for a change. With no preconceived idea’s of the story or people within I really enjoyed the web that unfolded. I haven’t read a lot of military romance books so this was new territory too.

Lieutenant Elijah Xander Black, now what we can I say about him? He is a hard core Navy Seal, he is a love em and leave em kinda guy, not interested in working for sex never mind a long term relationship he picks up whatever spreads its legs for the uniform. He’s classy like that! He works along side his mentor and commanding officer and runs his own team of Special Ops Navy Seals. When they go in for a black file extraction, all hell breaks loose!

Nasima is a nurse, she works alongside her cousins tending to the injured in the name of the cause. We all know that kindness breeds affection, that over time affection can be fueled to lust and sometimes that lust can simmer to love. A young woman, alone every day, tending to the wounds of an injured soldier could be in real trouble of this – if she weren’t devout and of pure mind and conscious, as Nasima is.

This is a captivating story of pain, pleasure, love and lust. Gently guiding us through a relationship in the midst of this war torn place. Penelope has a fantastic way of tempering the hard with the soft while still being true to the characters themselves. The pick up in temperament from our hard headed hero, when it would be too much for anyone else, really shows his true inner strength. Nasima is not a heroine to be written off, to hold her own in a place like this is a hard thing to do, to be the devout woman and yet still maintain respect, to be present not passive.

I really enjoyed this story and am looking forward to reading more from Penelope 🙂