Customer Reviews

Willing

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This trade paperback book by Lucy Monroe is the story of Josette McCall (Josi) who is the daughter of a Vietname vet who now spends his time doing freelance training of mercenaries at his school in Oregon. After losing her mother at a young age, Josi was raised solely by her father and taught all the skills he knew in his determination to never have his daughter at anyone's mercy or have her endure some of the horrors he saw through his tours of duty.

In her mid-twenties and after a serious injury, Josi has at last decided to leave the mercenary way of life and explore a career in computers. Her father had just taken on a partner in his business in the person of brooding and dark explosives expert Daniel Black Eagle (Nitro).

When her father's compound is torched and her father disappears from the hospital she had taken him to, Josi finds herself partnering up with Daniel in an effort to discover who had destroyed the merc school and just where her MIA father has disappeared to.

This partnership throws these two old aquaintances together where we discover that their assumed mutual dislike was actually covering a great deal of sexual attraction and chemistry between the beautiful merc woman and the modern day Sioux warrior. Their hot tempers and assumptions about their own natures and desires cause them no end of trouble as well as great pleasure during the mission they are both determined to complete.

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I enjoyed this book quite a bit and it may well be my current favorite of Lucy's books. Josi was a very strong heroine and Daniel was a very caring but possessive alpha male. The sex scenes were a great balance of hot and detailed without being overly technical - I didn't need to get out the Barbie and Ken to visualize what was going on.

I really enjoyed Josi going through the effort to enjoy "girlie" things and her childlike delight in them at the same time Daniel is trying to convince himself that he's not a fit long-term companion for her.

I think I liked this second book in Lucy's Merc series more than the first book. The characters felt more 3 dimensional to me and I was able to really get into the head of Josi and Daniel.

Jossie is a "retired" mercenary, her father is the owner of a training school for soldiers. But when his school is burnt to the ground in an explosion she has to go for one last mission. Daniel "Nitro" is a loner mercenary that just recently made partners with Jossie's dad at the school and is Willing to help her in finding out what happened and who did it. This is a story of growing respect and trust. One where you will find yourself sighting, loving the way the author describes feelings and conflicts. A story with the sensual side of a romance, and the barriers that the characters due to their careers and upbringing have to overcome. As a follow up story this book can be read alone, but you will have a better understanding of some facts if you read Ready first. This one reminds me a little of The real Deal and as usual you can never go wrong with Lucy's books.

Willing by Lucy Monroe is an emotional, all out sexy and wickedly fun read.

All Josie McCall knows is being a trained solder. She realizes there is a life outside of being a mercenary and breaks away from her dad's training school. But someone has bombed the school and her dad barely escapes with his life. Now Josie's dad is missing from the hospital and she needs the help of her dad's business partner. Only bad thing is Daniel Black Eagle sets her heart and soul on fire.

Daniel Eagle has fought his attraction to Josie from the start. She is always in his thoughts one way or another. Now with her father missing Daniel is all set to protect her around the clock. He has his work cut out for him getting independent Josie to agree to have a bodyguard. Being with Josie all the time is playing with fire. Once Daniel learns Josie's feelings are the same, watch out.

Willing is jammed packed with high stakes intrigue, deep-seated emotions and smoking desires. Daniel and Josie both are shaped by their upbringing and it takes the strengths of both of them to forge a future. Their attraction is one of the most sensual books I have read in a while. You can feel both their inner turmoil's on many levels. I can't wait to read the final book in this series, Able.

The hero, Daniel Black Eagle, can be classified as a knight in shining armor. He definitely comes across as the brooding, strong quiet type in this book. I liked the story and admired the hero, Daniel and the heroine, Josie McCall. Josie McCall was raised in a restrictive man's world. Her father owned a school that trained mercenary and taught them how to be first-rate soldiers. And he trained his daughter, Josie, just the same. She was taught how to fight and handle weapons, but never taught how to be a woman. This is where Daniel Black Eagle enters and he's just the man to open up her feminine side. Daniel does not see Josie as a soldier, but a very desirable woman and he wants her. He is very much willing to become her tutor in passion and so much more.

The story line is easy to follow and really entertaining. There's some suspense thrown in when the mercenary business is blown up and Josie's father is missing. Daniel is determined to find the culprits behind the explosion and be there for Josie to help find her father.

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars, because I did not quite believe the part about Josie McCall being a fierce soldier. She was a little too innocent for someone who was raised to be a strong capable soldier around a bunch of mercenary men. But I did like the story and thought it was beautifully told. The main characters were smart and passionate and the hero was strong, and very tender in how he related to Josie. Even though she could protect herself, he very much wanted to be her protector. It was a true love story.

WILLING is the second book of the Mercenary trilogy.

Josie McCall, is a highly trained mercenary, who has decided to get out of the profession and into computer programming. She has never known any other life as her father owns a Mercenary school and trains soldiers making sure Josie was one of the best. Daniel (Nitro) Black Eagle is a highly trained explosive expert and a fellow mercenary, who has bought into the school and is her fathers partner. Daniel has the hots for Josie and is so sexually frustrated around her that all he does is snap and growl at her. Josie on the other hand feels that Daniel hates her and cannot understand why but at the same time does not understand why her body goes on alert whenever he is around. Josie may be an excellent mercenary but has no clue when it comes to relationships of the male-female kind. When an explosion levels the school with her father in it, and she gets him to the hospital, only to have him go missing, Josie and Daniel must work side by side to bring down the extremists, and find her father. It is while on this mission that they discover that they are hot for each other. Daniel takes great pleasure in bringing out Josie's feminine side, in an explosive, exciting way. Josie knows that Daniel is called Nitro for a reason, and when she finds out the reasoning behind it is not only there to help him work through a lifetime of doubts but hopefully can help him forge a future. This is an action packed, suspense romance with so much heat between Josie and Daniel that it is a wonder the pages don't disintegrate. Can they find her father in time, and bring the culprits to justice? Is Daniel WILLING to take a chance on the future? Lucy has again penned a terrific read and one well worth reading.

In Oregon, Tyler McCall runs a mercenary training school that he thought his best student would one day want to take over the operation. However, his daughter Josie is tired of soldering and wants nothing to do with the school; instead she switches to computers. In the meantime Tyler starting to feel his age, needs a willing partner so offers a sweet deal to Daniel Black Eagle, who accepts though he worries about the Josie connection.

However, someone blows up the school with Tyler inside. He is rushed to the hospital as he new partner and his daughter go there to see if he is okay. Not only is he not there, Josie wonders if Daniel, better known as nitro for his skills with all types of explosives, planted the bomb that devastated the mercenary school that she called home. She plans to find her dad, uncover the identity of the culprit and deal with that person accordingly. However she may be the best combat soldier in the world, but when it comes to the bedroom she is an amateur; Daniel wants to be her loving instructor even as he accepts she probably can take him in a fight.

The second Lucy Monroe exhilarating mercenary soldier romantic suspense is a fast-paced thriller that grips the reader once the explosion rips apart the school. Daniel is an interesting hero who has some childhood scars that make him doubt commitment, but knows he wants Josie at his side forever. While he defies the macho mercenary male when he accepts that his beloved is no pussycat and probably the superior fighter; Josie is a captivating mix of feminism and military toughness. Readers are READY and WILLING for the final tale to appear.

Harriet Klausner

Josie McCall has been trained as a mercenary by the best her father. Now years later she is ready to find her spot in life. She doesn't fit in within her father's world and isn't sure she's going to fit in at her new job as a computer guru. But before she can move on she visits her father only to find out he has taken on a partner. The one man that makes her feel like a woman and he hates her. Her plan is to help her dad and then leave before she makes a fool of herself with Daniel...until her father disappears. Now she needs Daniel "Nitro" to help you find him. After her father asks her to contact Nitro he arrives and together they search for those that want Josie's dad dead while trying to stay steps ahead of their attraction. Nitro comes to Josie's aid even though she drives him crazy with lust since they first met and she has made her feeling about him clear...or has she? Maybe Nitro has had it wrong all along.

The second book in the Mercenary series is riddled with issues. Readers may have a hard time relating to either character since we are never really given a chance to know them. Josie who is supposed to be hard as nails is too soft to be believable. As a result the relationship between Nitro and Josie seems contrived. This read seemed a bit more "mechanical" rather than romantic and was not as great as I had hoped it would be. Nitro and Josie's story had a great deal of potential but it fell flat on execution.

and I really like this series! I find a pleasure in her books because they are a good, solid romance read. They are not too heavy and filled with just angst and tragedy, they are not just fluff and Prada shoes, they are JUST RIGHT with just enough of both. There will be a good relationship building up. There will be great anticipation building to great sex scenes. There is always a great link to friends and outside relationships that are believable and important. There is right and wrong, and a believable and good ending. Plus I just love the links to other books. Since I'm a serial reader and proud of it :) and have been a reading junky since I learned how at 7, I always enjoy a way to make a book last, and I just love an author who knows how to spin one book into another!

I have read many a romance in my teens, moved into meatier subjects in my college years as I majored in English and worked towards a never gained masters, then side-tracked into mystery and espionage through my 20s and 30s. Just lately in my 40s I have started back into romance, and I have to say that I have found Lucy Monroe's to be some of my favorites and one of the one's that I love to go back and re-read because they are a consistently GREAT read.

Some of the romance's that I have read lately (not Ms Monroe's) have left me feeling confused and wondering what the heck was going on in the relationship. Some have left me cold during the sex scenes. Some have made me put the book aside half way through because I didn't care enough to finish it. With kids in the house and lots of stuff to do, I don't have a lot of time to waste reading a book I don't enjoy, and believe me, if it isn't working for me, I'm not going to plow through just because I started it.

But I've NEVER had that problem with one of Lucy's books. Hers are a consistent hit with me! I just love her stuff and they take me away from the unrelenting aggravation a 3 year old boy bent on destruction can dish out on a daily basis, and that's a rare gift, let me tell you!

Help me escape, Lucy Monroe!!

I liked this book. I think the key to reading this trilogy is to read them apart from one another. I read the first book about 2 or 3 months ago. Then I read this one. A lot of people are complaining about this book being a lot like the first book, Ready. Well they are, but you'll enjoy them more if you put some time between them. I'm not going to go into the plot because so many already have. I just felt that the characters could have been explored more fully. I agree with a previous poster that Josie fell into bed too fast and too easily. I wanted her to stand up to him more and be the way her character is explained in the beginning. I'm tired of weak female characters that need a man to "save" them. It's crap. I thought the ending wrapped up way too fast and way too easy. The first one of the series was better. Let's hope that the final book in the trilogy is better. I'll get to in a month or so. I would recommend it as a good middle book in the trilogy.

This was my first Lucy Monroe novel and it won't be my last. I have ordered the first in this series and am looking forward to the 3rd. I felt this was a very believable scenario. People often have the wrong impressions of how others feel about them. What I liked about this story was that the misplaced feelings didn't drag on for the entire novel as some seem to do. The situation was resolved very quickly at the beginning of the story. Daniel's hesitation over a committment had historical reasons...not any question of how he really felt about Josie. This book kept me interested the entire time and had me reading at every opportunity (I had taken it on a trip). I have only one small thing that bothered me and that was the cover of the book. The grainy image of the man on the cover did not fit my image of Daniel either physically or in his clothing. An odd point to make but it still jars me.