First Strike (I-Team #5.9)
8.0
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Just a weekend… Laura Nilsson knows what she wants: a successful career as a broadcast...
Carma (21 KP) rated Cowboy SEAL Christmas (Navy SEAL Cowboys, #3) in Books
Jun 17, 2019
Gabe Cortez is a grouchy, ex Navy SEAL who hates Christmas. He hates most things actually and is more than happy to tell you how much it all sucks. He had a horrible childhood that led to him entering the military and losing a good friend in one horrifying instance. He comes to Revival ranch with his 2 friends, Jack and Alex, to help start a new program for injured military servicemen and women to get back on their feet. Jack and Alex both find love (spoiler for the first 2 books haha) and he is once again the odd man out. Then he meets the new ranch therapist Monica Finley and hope starts to rise in him again.
Monica Finley is looking forward to working with all the men and women headed to Revival Ranch for therapy and help getting back to civilian life. Growing up with a Marine father suffering from PTSD has helped her understand some of the struggles men and women face upon returning home. She has a 10 year old son named Colin, with her late Air Force husband Dex, who is her entire world. She protects him, well overprotects, as well as she can as a single mother and is hoping the closeness of the ranch will help them all start a new life. Gabe has been the only one to deny needing therapy and keeps his distance from her both literally and figuratively. She has to find a way to crack his shell. Can Gabe help her understand not only his struggles but some of her own struggles since her husband died?
This story flows really well from start to finish. I was able to get a great idea of where Monica and Gabe are in their lives as well as some past situations that have molded their current state of mind. Throw in great friends (who meddle), a Montana snowstorm, being snowed in for days without heat (snuggle alert), past secrets, daily questions (1 for her, 2 for him) and a llama and you have pretty much the perfect love story. Nicole Helm once again draws me into her cowboy world and makes me sad to leave when the story ends.
The book tackles each of these items in a series of chapters. Each chapter talks about what the job entails, training needed, salaries, and employment figures. It then concludes with an interview with someone who is currently employed in the field that touches on their background, their job, and what they do and don't like about it.
The book is interesting and covers a range of things that anyone considering a new career would find interesting. However, it does have its shortcomings. At 150 pages, including an appendix of professional associations, the book just barely wets your appetite for more. Each chapter only focuses on one or two jobs and basically lists the others. This means the book isn't one stop shopping, but it does give you a general idea whether you might want to look for further information on the jobs listed.
Additionally, the book was published in the last decade, so some of the information, like salaries, is already out of date. The book focuses on the US, so if you live elsewhere, you'll need to look into local standards, and all the addresses given won't do you any good.
David McK (3425 KP) rated The Genesis Fleet: Vanguard in Books
Jan 30, 2019
Like the intial series (and it's first set of spin-offs in the 'Beyond the Stars' series), the main character in this is once again a Geary: like his descendant, a fleet officer in the Navy who just happens to be the only such on the brand-new colony world of Glenyon, with the leaders of that world turning to him for help when they are attacked by a neighbouring star system. Alongside Rob Geary, they also turn to a former Marine (Mele Darcy) for help when that star system illegally sets up a colony on their planet, with two of Mele's former associates also pulled in the orbit of the story.
Alongside the usual military sci-fi of this series ('Newtonian' battles in space and on land), what I found to be the main 'hook' on this particular one was just how it lays the groundwork for the state of the universe as shown in 'The Lost Fleet' series: the start of the recerence for ancestors movement/religion and the proto-type (in effect) for The Syndics and The Alliance, alongside how politicians would become (?) to be viewed, and how those same politicians would view the military.
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