Hard to Come By (Hard Ink, #3) by Laura Kaye Series: Hard Ink #3
Published by HarperCollins Publishers on November 25th 2014
Pages: 384
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Caught between desire and loyalty…
Derek DiMarzio would do anything for the members of his disgraced Special Forces team—sacrifice his body, help a former teammate with a covert operation to restore their honor, and even go behind enemy lines. He just never expected to want the beautiful woman he found there.
When a sexy stranger asks questions about her brother, Emilie Garza is torn between loyalty to the brother she once idolized and fear of the war-changed man he's become. Derek’s easy smile and quiet strength tempt Emilie to open up, igniting the desire between them and leading Derek to crave a woman he shouldn’t trust.
As the team’s investigation reveals how powerful their enemies are, Derek and Emilie must prove where their loyalties lie before hearts are broken and lives are lost. Because love is too hard to come by to let slip away…
The supposed betrayal of a commanding officer had brought together several ex-Special Forces soldiers under the roof of a tattoo parlour, inciting a breathtaking series of events that unravel the mystery behind their dishonourable discharge from the army. It’s certainly a complicated one with hooks and twists to get the reader invested in the plot and as each book brings you deeper into the conspiracy theory, each delicious ex-soldier gets his chance at love. Which is rather ridiculous, seeing as they’re hooking up like flies after a matter of days.
But the suspension of belief is key to all of this and finally it’s Derek DiMarzio’s turn to hit the deck when he meets Emilie Garza, the sister of a target/asset the team is gunning for in a so-called honey trap that goes awry when he starts to fall for her. The initial hope that Emilie would have something more ‘tangible’ to contribute to the team soon faded away (I was hoping for a kickass, soldier maybe?) but she holds up enough on her own and provides the perfect foil for Marz to lean on. Marz, in particular, left quite an impression. I’ve never come across a character so buoyant, so optimistic and so determined to laugh through his troubles in spite of all the crap in his past, though I’ve to say my heart broke along with Emilie when he confessed no one has ever said ‘I love you’ to him. The fact that he f*cks like a demon adds to that appeal, and I’m just really happy that he’s found his well-deserved HEA.
