Show No Mercy (Black Ops, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Cindy Gerard (Author)
Key Phrases: Buenos Aires, Bahia Blanca, Erich Adler (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Romantic suspense at its best." -- Kay Hooper, New York Times bestselling author

"Cindy Gerard's roller-coaster ride of action and passion grabs you from page one." -- Karen Rose, USA Today bestselling author

Product Description

The sexy heroes of Black Ops, Inc., a covert private security team, sizzle in New York Times bestselling author Cindy Gerard's electrifying new romantic suspense series.

THE SULTRY HEAT...

Only two things can compel journalist Jenna McMillan back to Buenos Aires after terrorists held her captive there just months before: a rare interview with a shadowy billionaire and the memory of the dark and dangerous man who saved her....

HIDES THE DEADLIEST THREATS...

Bad guys, bombs, and bullets are Gabriel Jones's way of life. But he'll never forget the brash redhead he rescued not so long ago...or the passionate kiss they shared before he sent her packing....

AND EXPOSES THE DEEPEST DESIRES.

Now, forced together by a bombing at the National Congress, Jenna and Gabe confront the urgent longings that simmer between them. But this surprise meeting is no coincidence. A ruthless enemy stalks them with deadly precision. The question is...if they make it out alive, will Gabe turn his back on Jenna...again?

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pocket; 1st Pocket Star Books Pbk. Ed edition (September 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416566724
• ISBN-13: 978-1416566724
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,371 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 1 in The Black Ops Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great start to a new series, October 1, 2008

By	Janet (Colorado) - See all my reviews

I loved Show No Mercy. Gerard just gets better with each book she writes. The characters in SNM had such great depth and Gerard really gave them excellent back stories to reveal their personalities and reasons for why they are who they are. Gabe was your great alpha, don't-want-to-love-again hero. But, he was so much more than just your typical alpha hero and wasn't just a cliche. Jenna was a tough, yet vulnerable, very likeable heroine and the two had great chemistry together.

What I especially liked was the balance of romance to suspense. It seems more and more romantic suspense books are leaning more to the suspense story and the romance is more of an afterthought or just a sub-plot. Some seem to think if there is the prerequisite sex scene or two that constitutes a romance. Not so, in my mind. Gerard knows how to write great romance and her suspense stories are taut and nail-biting. I can't wait to read the next in the series. The excerpt at the end of SNM was really a teaser - it didn't even reveal who the hero is in the story! But, it will surely be great whoever gets to be featured, as she laid out the groundwork for the next books well and she presented the characters well so that the reader will want to read more about them.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Read!, October 12, 2008

By	weathered1 (Nashville, TN, USA) - See all my reviews

This book features two characters dealing with various emotional scars, who are forced to team up to combat not only external forces, but also their own inner demons.

Jenna is a hotshot, globe-trotting reporter who is struggling to come to terms with an event that left her questioning, on very fundamental levels, who is she and if she'll ever be able to reclaim her sense of self.

Gabriel is a man scarred both physically and emotionally. A true alpha male in every sense of the term, he is take charge and intensely focused and skilled in matters of combat. He is also dealing with a profound loss, and extreme guilt and anger that have left him closed off emotionally.

While less capable authors would take the aforementioned factors and use them to create a novel that is little more than unrelieved melancholy and characters who are (voluntarily or otherwise) self-centered, Gerard allows her characters to be very real, in terms of being simultaneously flawed and honorable, grief-stricken and truly funny and snarky.

As Jenna and Gabe grow closer (whether they like it or not), their romance does not in any way take away from the action and danger, and the almost palpable suspense, and the reverse holds true, as well. What the reader is left with, then, is a novel that is equal parts action and romance, which is a rarity this day and age, as all too often authors allow one aspect or the other to languish undeveloped or virtually ignored while the other receives most of the attention.

Fortunately, Cindy Gerard has proven that she is adept at handling everything from explosions and gunfights, to passionate love scenes and intensely emotional conversations. This is a very well-written book that is a truly great kickoff to what promises to be a fantastic new series.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How did this book get 5 star reviews here?, February 26, 2009

By	CORTEGA (The Great North) - See all my reviews

I truly don't mean to be mean-spirited about this book, but I thought it was terrible. It took me a week to get through 40 pages because I had to keep putting it down from sheer boredom. It was full of cliches, such as the boss man saying "I want to have your baby" in response to the gal agreeing to take a job he wanted her for. Overall, it seemed like a poor rip-off of Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooter's series. Gerard's black ops group was founded by a former spec op, who got his old comrades to join his private black ops company, just like Brockmann's series. But, these characters do not compare to Brockmann's, and I'm not even that big of a fan of the Brockmann series.

There was a part of the story where the main guy, Gabe, gets hurt saving the main gal, Jennifer, and while they are speeding in a car with other ops guys, they are being pursued and shot at, and while all this life and death stuff is going on, Jennifer is wondering about Gabe and how she was so into him (they had known each other previously), and questioning the other ops about what they were doing in Argentina. Give me a break! I have never been shot at, thankfully, but I'm certain if anyone was in a situation like that, the last thing they'd be concerned about was a past love and interrogating the fellow passengers.

The whole book just seemed ridiculous, with the female character being the worst. I'm glad others enjoyed it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Very juvenile, and the writing just not up to par with other black ops type books.