Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE: Charlie’s Doctor

SERIES: Shadow Elite #1

AUTHOR: Jocelynn Drake

PUBLISHER: Self Published

RELEASE DATE: Aug 19, 2022

BLURB:

A second chance to say ‘don’t let me go’.

When paintings for an artist who disappeared roughly fifty years ago suddenly surface, Charlie and his friends decide it might be worth looking into what really happened. Besides, who isn’t up for adventure and fun in Buenos Aires?

But things go horribly sideways when Charlie stumbles across Dr. William freaking Monroe—the only man to claim and then destroy Charlie’s heart.

Now they’re on the run, dodging bullets and digging for the truth. Charlie wants nothing to do with Will. It’s his heart that’s screaming for a second chance.

Is it too late to get past years of anger and misunderstandings to grab the love that still burns between them?

REVIEW:

Jocelynn Drake describes her books as having “action, explosions, and romance. Her newest series to fit this successful formula is Shadow Elite. It features four mercenaries – former CIA agents – and two side characters – another agent and his assassin partner (Soren and Alexei from Accidental Lover.)

This second chance romance, Charlie’s Doctor, kicks off the series with the story of the group’s de facto leader, Charlie, and Will, the lover he walked away from six years ago. Their year long relationship in Paris ended on a terrible note and they haven’t been in contact since.

Charlie and his fellow mercenaries – Edison the explosives expert, Kairo the recon/hacker extraordinaire, and Westin the sniper – travel to the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires to solve the mystery surrounding the renowned, presumed dead artist, Thiago Vergara. It is widely believed he was among the Los Desaparecidos, the 30,000 Argentinians who disappeared and were murdered during the Dirty War military coup forty years ago. But lost paintings have surfaced and been authenticated as having been painted in the last twenty-five years. (I suggest you read the prequel novella, Stephen’s Translator, available free on Drake’s website, for an introduction to the characters and the premise of this current book.) The mystery of Thiago kept me guessing until the end.

While there, Charlie runs into Will completely by coincidence and to their mutual shock. Will is still bitter and angry about Charlie leaving him and considers their time together as the biggest mistake of his life. He hasn’t been able to get him out of his head, though, in all these passing years. He’s been running from his past, from one country to another, trying to escape the emptiness inside. He doesn’t want anything to do with Charlie now. Well, except for maybe a bit of sex. Charlie, however, knows that letting go of Will without a fight in Paris was also the worst mistake he ever made. Now he wants Will back as his own but he’s also afraid to give them a second chance because the loss would be too great if they fail again. Charlie thinks maybe he’s just “clinging to a ghost”.

This book had a similar tone to the outstanding Unbreakable Bonds series by Drake and Rinda Elliott with its…well, unbreakable bond of the characters’ brotherhood. It has the same ride-or-die, found family dynamic paired with suspense and action with chase sequences, breaking and entering, mind bending hacking skills, shoot-outs, explosions, and secrets, and of course, romance. Charlie and Will are engaging and well-developed: Charlie is a natural born leader whom his friends turn to during their missions; Will is determined and dedicated to doing what’s morally right. It would seem that would clash with Charlie’s penchant for killing others but, in fact, Charlie only goes after despicable low-life deserving of death. Edison, Kairo, and Westin have been well-positioned as future leading men with enticing, fun personalities. It will be great to have Charlie and Will along for the ride. In addition to the second chance theme, Drake employees age gap and forced proximity tropes.

The book ends with a prelude to book two, Kairo’s Billionaire. It sounds intriguing but be forewarned… it ends on an edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger. (Charlie’s Doctor is fully and satisfactorily concluded, though.) I recommend this beginning of the series and look forward to more to come.

RATING: 

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