Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Last Marine Standing
SERIES: Heroes #2
AUTHOR: R.J. Scott
PUBLISHER: Love Lane Books
LENGTH: 211 pages
BLURB:
Former Marine Recon, Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Jackson has secrets. The things he did for his country, the things he saw, must never be spoken about. Until that is, his team is targeted.
A shift in political alliances means one particular mission undertaken by Mac and his Fire Team needs to be wiped from the history books. Starting with the team itself.
Forest Ranger, Samuel Larson wants to find the Marines who saved his life. He just wants to say thank you. What he can’t know is that he’s walking into a firestorm of betrayal and murder.
When Samuel arrives at Mac’s place he throws Mac’s plans for hiding out of the window. Abruptly Mac has to protect a man who threatens his heart, only this time he can’t be sure he will succeed in keeping Sam alive.
When the people you trusted turn on you, when you are the last one standing, should you take your secrets to the grave? Or make the murderers pay?
REVIEW:
Samuel Larsen makes his first appearance in A Reason to Stay, the first book in this series, he plays a small role, but seemed like he might be an interesting guy. We start this book off when Sam is fourteen and has just been rescued from a kidnapping. His father is a diplomat traveling in Japan with Sam and his older sister Jo. They are kidnapped (I didn’t really understand why) and Sam is raped and beaten severely. He and Jo are rescued by a four man team of Recon Marines, but Sam never really recovers, physically or mentally. Well, he does I guess, but it takes years. Ten or so years later, we pick the story back up. He is now a Forest Ranger and friends with Aiden and Viktor from the first book. He has been wanting to find and thank the Marines that saved his life, and finally has a lead on one. He takes a month leave of absence and heads out.
Mac Jackson is a Recon Marine to his core. He was part of the team that rescues Sam in Japan, saving his life then and again in the hospital. He and his team are later involved in some bad shit, one of their team is killed, and Mac gets injured and is medically discharged. He floats a bit, has a job part of the time, but hides out in the mountains alone with his dog. Eventually their past catches up with them, and one of the three remaining team members ends up dead. Spider and Mac assume they will be next.
Along comes Sam, at just the perfect time to get caught up in this years old conspiracy. I’m not sure if he helped or hindered really, but he’s there and involved. He hunts down Spider, who sends him to Mac, who ropes him in. Off they go on an adventure to save Mac and Spider.
Unfortunately the plot didn’t work for me as well as it could have. I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on and who was after Mac. It was a little vague to me, there was a conspiracy but it just wasn’t developed enough. Even at the end, I was a bit lost, and it was suddenly over. There are always two parts to a romance novel, the big plot line that gets them together, and the romance between the two main characters. Although I liked Mac and Sam as individuals, I didn’t feel the romantic connection between them. The romance part of the story was lacking somehow. I don’t need flowers and dinners out to see a romance, but I do like to see an emotional bond form between them, and this didn’t quite work. Sam and Mac have a rough start ten years before, then a rough initial reunion when Sam finds Mac. There is some physical sex between them, but no real emotions, and it was odd. By the very end they seem to get themselves together, I would have liked to have seen that happen sooner.
I was a big fan of the first book in the series, I loved the plot and the two main characters, even though one of them was an asshole. One of the things I liked about it was the smaller plot. There was no big background story, no big drama, it was just happening right then. Bad shit was going down on the mountain, Aiden and Viktor solved it. They had been involved sometime before and had a nice connection in place. At the start of the story the emotion connecting them was hatred, but still, it was emotional. In this book Sam and Mac meet early but I didn’t pick up on a lasting connection. Mac offers some advice to Sam, but Sam is not in a place to receive it and kicks Mac out. End of story, until ten years later. I could see that Sam wanted to thank Mac, and wanted to like him, but I didn’t get the feeling he had been pining for him. I think if this conspiracy thing hadn’t thrown them together, Sam would have found him, said “thank you” and gone home. It was like they were in this together, they may as well have sex, and then maybe they should stay together. Oh, and maybe we love each other.
So it was good, I liked it, I enjoyed it, but I didn’t like it nearly as well as the first book. The writing was good, even though the plot wasn’t as strong as I was hoping. I’ve had issues with RJ’s books not being “American” enough, but this one was just fine in that department. I liked Sam and Mac, as well as Spider and Rosie. I liked Cisco the dog, although I was concerned about him at times, he occasionally got lost in the story. I am a fan of books with military characters, and this one was good, RJ got the feeling of Mac right, I appreciated that part of his character. I liked Sam’s strength and resilience, working past such a horrible thing as a teenage boy, and growing in to a strong man. I liked the ending of the book, they finally do really connect, and may well have a happy life together.
RATING: 
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