Checkmate

The Athena Force Series from Silhouette Bombshell started off with a bang in June of 2004, and Doranna Durgin's current installment, CHECKMATE, continues the action-adventure style! Each book centers around a woman trained both mentally and physically at the Athena Academy, a school for women funded by the government. These women truly know how to kick butt and take names, and Selena Jones, the heroine of CHECKMATE, is no exception.

What starts out for Selena as a routine change of pace quickly becomes a taut engagement amidst military unrest. As an FBI legal attache, Selena has seen her fair share of danger. Running away to a post in Suwan, the capital city of Berzhaan that's been ravaged by war and civil unrest, was simply supposed to show more be her way to get away from the States-and her cheating husband Colin. Desperate to get away from the emotions she's not yet able to face, Selena sees her new position far away from home as a welcome respite.

Until Kemeini rebels take control of the United States Embassy in Suwan-and along with it hostages that range from the country's Prime Minister, the US Ambassador, and several visiting college students. Only Selena remains free, having escaped the rebels' notice, and she immediately makes use of her anonymity to rescue the hostages.

Even though outsmarting the rebels and their fearless leader is anything but a walk in the park, what weighs even heavier on Selena and her emotions, is the fact that Colin, her cheating ex-husband who she vowed would never get under her skin again, is her only link to the outside world. Colin knew something was wrong the minute Selena failed to return to their Washington, DC, home, but he's still clueless as to what exactly happened. All isn't what it appears to be, both in Selena and Colin's marriage, and the political envoys she's trying to rescue.

A true action-adventure thriller with a romantic undertone that shows the underbelly of marriage, love, and trust, CHECKMATE is Doranna Durgin-and the Athena Force-at its best. show less

Selena Jones sees her husband in the arms of another woman when he should be on assignment in another country she decides that a foreign post is the way to escape some of her feelings. She then finds herself in the middle of a hostage crisis, chaos and confusion with her trying to convince the powers that be that she is serious. The only person who will help or listen is her husband, but she doesn't know if she can trust him.
Readable but nothing spectacular.