NavySEALs series by Marliss Melton

Months ago, I took this book home from the library but ended not reading it. Not sure why exactly, guess I wasn't in the mood. Well, I brought it home again recently and this time I read it. I'm so glad I did - Melton is now one of my can't miss authors. Forget Me Not is the first in this trilogy. She continues with more SEAL books but the first three are all related.

Gabriel Renault has been dead to his wife, Helen, for one year. She was just starting to let Gabe go and move on with her life when she's notified that he's been found and is still very much alive. Here's the catch: he doesn't remember the last three years. That includes the year he spent in captivity and the two before, which includes their marriage. He doesn't remember his wife or stepdaughter at all. Gabriel has to come home to a home he doesn't remember, a wife and stepdaughter that he wasn't ever close to when he was married, and he has to figure out who betrayed him and tried to murder him and why he can't remember three years of his life. I loved this book; I generally enjoy a series about SEALs anyway but this one is almost as good as Brockmann's stuff.

This is book two (duh). It involves a subplot in the first book and continues through this one. The officer that masterminded Gabriel's capture is going to go free if Hannah Geary and SEAL Luther Lindstrom don't get the evidence Gabe needs. Someone else is also trying to kill Hannah, so Luther and Westy (he's the 3rd book) work to keep her safe and save their team leader at the same time. I liked Hannah and Luther and was really anticipating Westy's book after this one. It's almost as good as the first one.







Westy's books was a bit of a disappointment. I was so looking forward to this one because he seemed mysterious in the first two. I also had read the preview in the back of In the Dark; it was a scene where Westy offers Sara a ride to where she needs to go on his motorcycle. It was not in the actual book however, and I felt it would have helped. Anyway, here's the deal: Sara Garret is the wife of the JAG prosecution attorney who is trying to put away Gabe Renault. He's an abuser, and when he strangles his son's pet rabbit in front of him to teach him a lesson about playing his music too loud, Sara decides that it's time to leave. She approaches Westy, who's real name Chase McCafferty, to plead for help. It appears that the two of them have an almost relationship - they keep running into each other, especially when she needs help. (This is where a little more backstory showing their previous run-ins would've helped. I definitely would have been scratching my head if I hadn't read the missing preview.) Chase is leaving Virginia to head to Oklahoma to see the ranch that he inherited from his abusive stepfather and Sara begs him to take her and her son with him. And he does! He risks his military career on this woman that he supposedly barely knows and shortly after they leave he sees an Amber Alert on the tv, showing the boy he's "kidnapped." Awaiting them in Oklahoma are skinheads who want their guns back from Westy's dead stepfather so that their militia can shoot up a country club. You know, I liked Westy in the first two books as a background character but Ms. Melton didn't do him justice in this one. I'm not sure why she had to rewrite parts of it - that's the only conclusion I can come to since the book didn't match the preview. It does have a happy ending though. :)