Code of Honor

I love it when an author actually knows what they’re talking about - it’s so nice to read a military (or police or whatever) novel where the details of the job actually seem right. Catherine Mann knows quite a lot about her subject matter, and it made a huge difference to my enjoyment of this book. However, sometimes all that military knowledge got in the way of the plot a bit - a few too many details sometimes. But kudos all the same to an author willing to actually go out of their way to make the details correct.

Joe and Cooper were best friends, and war photojournalist Brigid was with Cooper when he appeared to die in battle. The story catapults to two years in the future, where there are still a lot of questions left unanswered. show more

This was a solid story that kept me turning the pages. It’s not my favourite military romance ever, but I’m glad I read it. There’s something that never seems to get old about the ‘man loves dead best friend’s girl’ stories, and I loved the characters in this one. Brigid was a strong character without being a gun toting superwoman. Joe was a wonderful hero.

I think this book could have been shorter though. It seemed to waft around for quite a while before getting to the point, repeating things we already knew over and over. The secondary romance also took over too much of the book - a problem as I didn’t particularly like the other woman.

My heart hurt reading this. Some of the twists and turns were horrible because they seemed so real - great writing, but sad. But I one major thing that kept me from rating this higher was Cooper’s role in the story. I guess I just don’t want to read a romance where a guy who lets both the heroine and the hero down gets his own happy ending. I applaud the author for tackling a difficult subject, but when you read a book like this you want to identify with the heroine, and I felt anger and betrayal on her behalf (and the hero’s too), which meant I couldn’t appreciate that part of the story much. There was about as much time devoted to that part of the story as the main pair, and I don’t think the other woman - Lena - was special enough to deserve all that love. I wanted to hear more about Brigid and Joe.

One other thing I did not like was the made-up country. I know a lot of writers do this, but it always ruins the story for me a bit when the conflict happens in a place that doesn’t actually exist.

This book had some interesting concepts, and was - for the most part - a good read. show less

I've been reading the Elite Force series from Mann, and love it. So I decided to read some other Mann books. I chose this one, and I am so happy I did. SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading if you don't want spoilers.
This story was so fast paced and gripping, I loved it. So much in fact that I found some extra reading time to finish it. It starts with a bang with a vivid and powerful war scene in Iraq. Our hero is Joe, our heroine is Brigid. They are drawn together because of the death of Joe's best bud and Brigid's boyfriend Cooper. For two years they grieve his death and form an amazing friendship, neither one of them acting on their feelings. Until one day, Brigid decides she wants something more with Joe. He turns her down because he thinks show more she's still in love with Cooper. Flash forward to Cartina. Joe and Brigid take things to the next level only to find out that night that Cooper is ALIVE. He wasn't killed, is an undercover CIA agent and we find out he lost a leg in Iraq. So much going on here!! I didn't see that coming. Cooper is hung up on Lena, a single mother, who is the unwilling mistress of our villain Alessandro. The suspense in this story is awesome (spies, listening devices, tons of military action), the romance is so steamy both the Joe/Brigid story and Cooper/Lena, it had almost everything. The only thing missing were the dogs that are present in the Elite Ops series, but I was okay with that even though I love the dogs. I'm about to start the second book in this series. Mann is definitely now a must read for me. show less