Blog Tour and Giveaway: Honor Bound (Love and Honor #1) by Hallee Bridgeman

When she was just five years old, Melissa Braxton watched her father take her mother’s life and suffered the pain of separation from her sister, Lola. Melissa grew up with a strong desire to help those stuck in abusive relationships. It’s why she became a therapist and opened a domestic abuse shelter.

After losing a leg to a gunshot wound in the line of duty, Phil Osbourne has felt like a man without a purpose–until he hears Melissa’s story and decides to use his Special Forces contacts to track down her missing sister, the wife of a Colombian cartel teniente. He knows what he discovers will break Melissa’s heart. What he doesn’t realize is that helping the women reunite will bring the cartel down on them like the category 5 hurricane striking Miami..

Bruised yet not quite broken, Melissa and Phil battle the storm and the cartel, calling on strength they didn’t know they had to escape death, save the innocent, and–just maybe–find healing in each other’s arms.

Doctor Cynthia Myers has found new passion and purpose serving on mission in a war-torn African country, providing medical care to villagers who would otherwise go without. Her hard-won peace is shattered when she is unable to save a local warlord’s mortally wounded son, and her life and the lives of those she has workd with and served are now in danger.

Captain Rick Norton and his team seek out Doctor Myers when one of the team is seriously injured. They are able to permanently neutralize the threat the warlord’s men pose. Thus begins the slow burn between pacifist doctor and committed soldier. Cynthia is very much opposed to guns and violence, and she isn’t shy about telling Rick what she thinks of his career choice. He doesn’t think much of her opposition and tells her so. But they both soon realize that they have feelings that go beyond dislike, or even just friendship. How can they – or can they – reconcile their opposing viewpoints?

I do love a good suspense novel, and Hallee Bridgeman delivers! The action is pretty intense in places. There are some nail-biting moments when Cynthia has to provide emergency medical care, finding a way to address injuries that are beyond the scope of her experience. Hostile forces are trying to keep our heroes from getting out of the jungle, and the team has to fight fire with fire. Their maneuvers to get to the landing zone for extraction are hair-raising! And getting back to civilization is no guarantee of safety, as the warlord and his men come after Cynthia and her father, now the Vice President of the United States, at a state dinner in Africa.

Cynthia and Rick are both strong characters with deeply held convictions. Bridgeman does a good job showing their thought processes as each works through their feelings for the other. I appreciated that both of the characters had a strong Christian faith, and that faith played a prominent role in their decisions and actions. Rick faces danger with courage – actual, weapon-wielding, potentially life-threatening danger. But Cynthia shows courage, too, in breaking free of what’s expected of her to walk into God’s plan for her life.

The soldiers on Rick’s team are fascinating characters in their own right. Two of those soldiers, Bill “Drumstick” Sanders and Phil “Oz” Osbourne, get their own books in the series. I can’t wait to see how their stories unfold!

An enemies to lovers clean romance, action aplenty, and characters that are easy to root for make this a five-star read for me. Highly recommended for people who enjoy a good Chris>tian fiction story that doesn’t skimp on the suspense and that gives you that happily ever after.