Samhain Publishing, $4.50, ISBN 978-1-61923-362-1
Contemporary Romance, 2016 (Reissue)
Just like the previous Men of S.W.A.T. entry, Tactical Pleasure, Tactical Maneuver was previously published by Ellora’s Cave. There isn’t any indication on the publisher website that this version has been revised or expanded, however.
Emma Taylor is the kind of lady who gets all worked up in randy frustration whenever she reads naughty books in which the heroes are virile masters who dominate their heroines, ooh. She suspects the real thing will be hotter, especially if the man in charge is Jay Barnes, that hot SWAT officer who, apparently, is so hot in bed that he always leaves a lady begging for more. Anyway, Emma is only working temporarily in town and she has always played by the rules, but now that she’s about to go back to Columbus, her more outgoing friends convince her to go for a ride on that SWAT machine as her bye-bye celebration. Ah, all those more outgoing BFFs of these so-called proper ladies – without them, our romance heroines will never get laid, and the world birth rate will decrease by at least 25% as a result.
Jay, fortunately, has always has a thing for Emma. According to the synopsis given by the publisher, in fact, he “itches to loosen her conservative bun” – which is either a sentence fraught with double meaning or I have just a very filthy meaning. When Emma volunteers to be the hostage in the SWAT boys’ play-pretend practice, it’s sexy time for everyone.
This one may have SWAT dudes sweating to go at the quivering rear ends of libidinous heroines, but it isn’t a romantic suspense story, just our heroine getting it on with the hero. I have no idea how these two would fare as a couple once he gets back to work and she starts complaining that she doesn’t see much of him. Maybe she will whine and complain that the pressure of worrying about his safety is driving her crazy and she is tired of raising their kids all of her own.
But that’s for the future, and out of the scope of this one. This is a short and simple story that makes no pretenses about serving up the sexy. It’s breezy, easy to read, and that’s pretty much it. If you adjust your expectations accordingly to expect less depths and characterization, then this one would be an alright read.
