A review by michellesantiago
Dangerous Desires by Dee Davis

4.0

Dangerous Desires is the second book in Dee Davis's A-Tac series and follows a group of men and women who are member of a CIA black ops unit called American Tactical Intelligence Command (aka A-Tac). The book began with Drake killing a woman he was working with on mission after he found out she was a double agent. He was attracted to the woman and was deeply troubled by what had happened; he vowed never to let a woman get under his skin again. Enter Madeline Reynard and she has been under the thumb of a ruthless crime lord until she found out that the sister she was trying to protect was dead. Now she wants out, has reached out to the U.S. for help and they sent the A-Tac. Madeline knows too much about the crime lord's illegal activities, however, and will stop at nothing to get her back. After being separated from the team, Drake and Madeline were on their own, evading hired mercenaries, surviving the Colombian jungle and fighting their growing attraction to each other.

Madeline is a great heroine--she is resilient, smart, brave, tough and she goes after what she wants. She is a great match for Drake, though I feel Madeline had more of the spotlight than him and that's okay because her past and her years with the crime lord was interesting. But in the end, I feel like I didn't get to know him as much as I did her. I thought Drake and Madeline are great together and there are plenty of chemistry between them. As for secondary characters, I thought the villain was a bit cartoonish especially during the confrontation in the end but we do see Annie and Nash from the first book as well as the other A-Tac members. The most interesting character we are introduced to in this book is Drake's brother Tucker--he was thought to be dead until Madeline proved otherwise and is rescued from a Colombian prison. I hope Tucker gets his own book in the future because I'd like to know more about him. For those who read the first book, Dark Deceptions, the overarching storyline involving the mysterious mole sabotaging A-Tac missions continues in this book and I am anxious to see more about that in the next book.

I admit I wasn't a big fan of the first book so I was a little iffy about starting this book but Dangerous Desires surprised me as it is a lot better than Dark Deceptions. I thought this book was well-written with great characters and the pacing was exciting as there is always something going on. This book, which can be read as a standalone, began with a bang and doesn't let up until the very end. This book is a non-stop, edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense with plenty of action that is hard to put down until you've read the end. 4.25 out 5 stars