Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Caught Off Guard
AUTHOR: Beth Laycock
PUBLISHER: Rainbow Romance Press
LENGTH: 142 Pages
RELEASE DATE: June 15, 2022
BLURB:
He’d risk his life to find his brother. But he never expected to risk his heart.
Three months since his brother went MIA, and Lane Matthews is tired of waiting for answers from overseas. Calling in a favour from his CO, he gets a posting to Jeddah—his first overseas deployment and where his brother was stationed—and the opportunity to try to find him.
Life in a foreign land isn’t quite as he imagined, and neither are his duties. And while his first encounter with his housemate, Tristan, may be memorable, it’s for all the wrong reasons.
Tristan catches him off guard, but falling for the hot—straight?—soldier is definitely not in his future. Tensions rise as Lane gets closer to discovering the truth behind his brother’s disappearance, but even the best-laid plans can get swept off course and lost like a grain of sand in the desert.
This MM military romance from Beth Laycock features an age gap, a bratty MC, forced proximity, hurt/comfort, and of course a HEA.
REVIEW:
Lane becomes a full-time soldier to find his brother, Jake, who is MIA. To get closer to where he disappeared, Lane relocates from Lancashire to Jeddah. But what he found was more than the heat of the sun. He found Tristan.
The story is told in the first person, entirely from Lane’s viewpoint. Technically, it wasn’t bad, although there were a few unqualified autonomous eyes and fingers. The story’s start was magnificent and emotional, and the imagery was superb. Unfortunately, from there, it went downhill.
I picked up this story because of the blurb, expecting to read some good military action, a bit of detective work, a dose of romance, and, to quote the blurb – of course, a HEA. As the blurb says that Lane got swept off course, I felt the same happened with the story.
Lane intends to search for his brother, but this arc ends as more of a footnote with the odd flourish of information. After such excellent opening chapters, it soon devolves into more sex than story – which is something one can find just about anywhere. However, if all someone wants to read is sex in a military setting, this fits the bill. And sex sells, so who knows.
‘Of course, a HEA’ – this statement needed to come with caveats. I kept reading because of this assurance. Again, I was sorely disappointed to the point where I cried, and several hours later, I still had a lump in my throat. They weren’t the kind of tears that one experiences after a good film that you want to go back to with a glass of wine and a box of chocolates. The next day, that upset turned to anger, because this story had so much potential.
Many military books are out there, and the genre has a strong following and a high benchmark. This story fell short.
I apologize to the author for this review. But, while the tale is short, much more could have been made of the arc than the route taken. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a visceral reaction to a story, but how it left me feeling was none of the sensations of how I like to feel at the end of a book. Hence, two stars = not my cup of tea.
On the plus side, the world is made up of a myriad of people all with different reading tastes – so it is highly likely that it will appeal to some.
RATING: 
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