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Leave Me Behind by K.M. Moronova
Publication date: November 6th, 2024
Pages: 351
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Synopsis:
Nell Gallows is the sole survivor of an elite dark forces squad, Riøt, after a detrimental attack two years ago. Unsurprisingly, she's being put up as the top candidate for the special ops team: Malum. The squad that goes where no one else will or can. There's only one problem: Malum blames their one casualty from the Patagonia mission on the Riøt squad.
So what is she to do when she finds herself on a plane to California and on her way to a sure death sentence? A one-night stand. At least, that's all it was supposed to be--one last night to be free. Only, she finds out too late that the dark and mysterious man she solely wanted as a fling is not only her new comrade but also the one she dreaded meeting most--her immediate superior and untouchable devil in the field. Bones.
He's hell on earth--cruel and unforgiving, but most of all, he hates her, and he makes sure she knows it. And yet, she finds herself unwilling to leave his side when he's unable to get to the evac point when their mission goes awry.
She stays behind with the devil and the secrets he keeps. They only have one another to trust when no faith is left.
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Review:
Nell knew that the next mission would likely be her last. After losing her entire squad and the man who trained and loved her, she has no more reasons to be cautious and try to stay alive. She thinks that maybe one last fling before the ultimate end wouldn't be so bad. So when she meets Eren and Bradshaw on the plane over she agrees to go out with them. Little did she know that the more broody of the men was the one who would hold her in a trance the most. He was dangerous and had a killer behind his bright blue eyes. It spoke to the killer inside her and before she knew it she was naked in her hotel room with him. After he left she thought she would meet her new squad and deal with some hazing until she found her new placement. But it seems Malum soldiers don't take kindly to Riøt soldiers if their motto of, 'the only good Riøt soldier is a dead one', is any indication. Little does she know how connected her old squad and her new squad seem to be. As a mission goes sideways she must learn to trust and fight beside the same men who tried to run her off the squad. But the ghosts of her past start to tangle with the ghosts of her most caustic bully, and one-night stand, Bones, and becomes a question of who's team is she on?
When I first started reading this book I was thoroughly into it. A military bully romance with a little bit of espionage in it? Sounds like a winner to me. And it was for the first half. It had intrigue and the characters were growing on me and then it just... stopped its forward momentum. It was like the author was working diligently on the story and then something got them frazzled and they started rushing the project. This book could have easily been the start of a series and it would have been perfect. But towards the end there were three time jumps: three years later, six months after that, and then five years. I can get behind a time skip as a epilogue as a window into what happened with the characters and how did they turn out. Also, the "rescue" was way, way, way too easy. It was alluded to taking three years to put into place but the task they accomplished shouldn't have taken that long of time and there was never any real explanation about any of it. It just felt like the author was completely done with the story and just wanted to tie it up to move on.
This book had such promise for me that I was thoroughly disappointed in how it turned out. I think if the author chose to go back into the story and change things that they should start at the middle and get rid of the second half, build slowly and give more detail, and flesh out the characters a bit more so the reader can be more invested in their stories. I was more upset over some of the side characters getting hurt or killed than the prospect of the FMC or MMC dying. I just don't feel this book wasn't something I would pick up again but also wasn't frustrating enough to DNF.
