Heart of Danger

A Ghost Ops Novel, Book 1

By: Lisa Marie Rice

Narrated by: Seraphine Valentine

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Ghost Ops. A small unit of super-elite soldiers so secret only two men know of their existence. Betrayed by their commanding officer while on an antiterrorist mission, the team is massacred. Only three survive - and find themselves framed and disgraced. But en route to the court martial, they escape...and disappear.

Beautiful, brilliant, and determined, Dr. Catherine Young is on a mission to find a man who has vanished into thin air. Walking into a high-tech hideaway bearing an essential message to Tom "Mac" McEnroe, team leader of the betrayed Ghost Ops force, is the most dangerous thing she has ever done. The soldier she encounters is frightening and suspicious, but her senses reveal the man underneath: tough, honorable, and so breathtakingly masculine Catherine feels weak in his presence.... But to surrender to Mac's passionate desires would put her life in dire jeopardy. Catherine has a gift that enables her to see into the heart of others - and looking into Mac's is like staring into the very heart of danger itself.

©2012 Lisa Marie Rice (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers

Another winner from Lisa Marie Rice!

Lisa Marie Rice was one of the first authors I ever paid for when I got my first Kindle and I've never been disappointed with any of her offerings. While her writing is fairly formulaic (strong alpha male, often in a team of three with one being scared in some fashion, meeting up with a seemingly fragile but strong willed woman), her books are always enjoyable. This story follows that premise and is set in a future world in which drugs that can wipe a persons memories back a few days are available, and the cure for cancer has been found but hidden away by an unethical 'baddie'. Enter Catherine, a brilliant doctor, who is compelled by her gift to seek out 'Mac', a disgraced soldier in hiding, and share a message with him warning of impending danger.

As I mentioned, I'm a little biased when it comes to Ms Rice (I think her writing is wonderful and her biography at Amazon makes me giggle every time I read it), but I'm very happy to have spent a credit on this story. I hadn't heard Seraphine Valentine's narration before, but enjoyed it (despite sometimes cringing at her 'surfer dude' voice). There is another Ghost Ops Novel available, which I'll be listening to next and I can only hope that Audible will soon release other books written by Lisa Marie Rice.

Romance and Action!

I am a lover of Military and Romance - books and movies. I have a lot of respect for our military and those that protect us which makes it that much more exciting reading these romance novels.

The action and tension starts off immediately and grabs your attention. I like that in a story. I want my attention to be caught and kept. I want to be antsy, waiting to listen and that is how this book was for me :)

Lisa Marie Rice writing is great. I like the concept of the book and the characters are great. The underlying love story is my favorite part, which didn't disappoint. With intense situations, I always imagined that this is the way it would be.

Seraphine Valentine does a great job on narration. Her reading has a lot of expression in it. She is a perfect fit for this book. She is very good at what she does.

Hats off to both Lisa Marie Rice and Seraphine Valentine; the writing and narration of this book makes me feel like I am there.

If you enjoy romance and action, you will enjoy this audio book!

Almost..

I really liked the idea behind this book. The storyline was interesting. The author got so weighed down in descriptions that it stunted the flow. It became distracting. Good story though.

Not your average military romance!

4.5 Stars

Heart of Danger is an intense military/spec ops romantic thriller that had me hooked from the beginning of the story.

Unlike the majority of books in this genre the hero, Mac, is not drop dead gorgeous. He's not even average, much less handsome and that was before the scars and the burns to his face. The heroine, Catherine, a multi-degreed doctor has a special "talent" that adds a slight paranormal storyline to the book.

If you enjoy the works of Suzanne Brockmann, Pamela Clare and Cindy Gerard you will not want to overlook this book.

Fascinating fast paced romance!

Set a few years in the future, our heroine Dr Catherine Young is a neuroscientist at a lab in California studying dementia. When her hidden ability startled her into mental contact with one of her patients, she is driven to find the man the patient focuses on. The hero, Mack, is a former Ghost operator for the military who is on the run after a mission gone terribly wrong. He and two teammates are set up to take the fall for the mission, but escape. When Catherine’s car stops working in a snowstorm and she’s found half frozen by Mack, the true adventure and romance begin. This is one of those books you can’t put down and I listened to it straight through in one day! Lots of action, sex, romance and mystery. Looking forward to the next in series! Narration was excellent! Lisa Marie Rice is one of my favorite authors.

Wish "Ghos Opst" would Knock on my door !!

Any additional comments?

Wish "Ghos Opst" would Knock on my door - I'd offer to feed them all :))


Tom "Mac" McEnroe, Jon Ryan and Nick Ross were all that remained of a Ghost Ops unit that had been betrayed during their last official mission. Instead of facing a court martial they escaped and began to build a high tech hidden fortress called Haven. Slowly over time other "misfits" have found their way to joining them and offering their talents for the self-sufficient town. The "ghosts" protect and provide for those who join them but never forgot those who betrayed them. But once the truth is found the "ghost" go into action to protect one of their own.

Dr Catherine Young, a research scientist, believes she is studying the effects of Alzheimer and new drugs, but one of the test subjects whom she knows only as Patient #9 begs her to find a guy named Mac and let him know that what they thought had happened in that final op wasn't true. That the man they thought betrayed them wasn't living it up in the tropics but slowly being tortured and soon to be killed. All Catherine has to go on are images that she has gotten from the patients poorly functioning mind, but she finds herself in search of this stranger for a stranger ... until she finds a home and acceptance that she never dreamed possible with a man who also thought having a real home was only a dream."Heart of Danger" is a deeply compelling read that shows what miracles love can accomplish when least expected.

This book opens up a new world with a certain freshness amid characters that are not story book handsome and perfect. I loved that the hero is, in fact, considered ugly by most standards with his scarred face but his toughness melts with a woman's acceptance. And though the heroine is beautiful she doesn't really see that beauty in herself but she does find it in the scarred man that she was searching for. It's a marvelous concept, the making of a private self-reliant place for those who need a haven from a world that isn't always accepting of those less than perfect, considered weaker or just in need of place to hide out and live in peace.Ms. Rice will have you laughing at some of the dialogue, especially the talks Mac has with himself and at other times - It's Soooo Sexy Hot - you will be breathless. !!

I was captivated from the very beginning

Lisa Marie Rice has started and hot new series with out of this world military hero's that will knock your socks off! HEART OF DANGER: A Ghost Ops Novel, which comes out Nov 6th from Avon Red, is just up your ally if you love sexy military men. Thing is that these men no longer exist, erased from all records they are off the grid trying to live their lives with the few people that have come their way by chance and by fate. They have ran from the law and imprisonment for a crime they didn't commit, in total belief that their commander in chief has set them up, therefore changing their lives forever.

Tom aka MAC saves the life of Catherine who is on a dire hunt for Tom, she has made a desperate decision to risk her life and career in hopes to save a patient who she knows is Lucius, who she knows is currently a victim of her biological research company. Something is wrong with her patient Lucius and he is able to tell her telepathically information that she shouldn't be privy to.

Mac doesn't know what to make of Catherine, she is an enigma to him. She isn't suppose to know that he exists or even how to find in and his new city. But what he does know is that he is strangely attracted to her and that her story isn't quite legit that she is telling him.

Together they are able to unravel a deadly plot and learn they are more apart of the bigger picture than they realize. Not only that but Mac and Lucius might end up paying the ultimate price, their lives. A sacrifice Lucius is willing and ready to make.

The relationship and bond that forms with Mac and Catherine is explosive. After all, not only does she come to find his most coveted secret, his city of rejects and criminals, the unwanted and used and abused; but she holds a power he can't understand. Once hell of an incredible ability that will save lives and put hers at great risk. I felt constantly on edge as Ms. Rice just keeps throwing curve ball after curve ball at you with so much adventure to only heighten the sensuality and bring the story to a differently level with some fantastical elements that will only add and complete the first edition to a story filled with love, with heartbreak with in-depth characters that are intense and tender at the same time. The story's concept will will draw you in and one you are in you are hooked!

riveting thriller

If you want rich characters that you will care about instantly, and to be sucked into the thriller, yet be wowed and exhilarated by how these two fall into each other, this is an audiobook you should be prepared to stay up all nite listening to.

Ms Rice has clearly done a much more research on the research line pursued by our lead female, Katherine than many other authors who try to carry a doctor as a lead. In this she rivals Christine Feehan (for technical research), and Robyn Carr (medical). But she doesn't require the reader to get anything overly technical to get the plot. It just adds to authority and legitimacy of the story and plot.

In many respects, Rice has challenged the average military/spec ops romance in her depiction of our lead male and his compatriots. I haven't checked Rice's bio, but she gets a lot closer to what SEALS are made of and are like in reality than the pumped up musclebound males who populate the genre that lead me to suspect she knows quite of few that she's modeled them after. To me this made the characters so real, so believable, and is part of what made this book so riveting.

There is what I'd call a mild paranormal component which is required to further the plot, but its secondary to the plot and the romance. The romance is breathtaking, intimate and heart-stopping at times. The intensity of it, and the fact that Rice isn't trying to create superhuman soldiers of superhuman size* to sway our lead female, create a wonderful believable couple.

The narrator does an excellent job of bringing these characters to real life, even through a cold she developed in the later part of the recording. She really excels in being able to convey the persons thoughts differently than what they speak. In addition, she does a very respectable job of the Chinese accented English which I appreciated.

I have just bought the second book of the Ghost Ops series, and am ordering some hard copy books of her other works not available by audible.
Ms Rice has just been elevated into my Top 10 list of authors which include Feehan, Kresley Cole, Larissa Ione, Robyn Carr, Pamela Clare and more.,

*A note to authors: If you were to average the height of a real SEAL team--6 or any other-- I doubt you'd have a 6' average. They also don't have bulging biceps or thighs or any of the c#$#p you see in the past few years of romance novels. They wouldn't be good at what they do if they looked like that. At 5'8" or 5'10" or whatever, they are still the tallest, most commanding guy in any room. They do universally have washboard abs and not a spare ounce of flesh on them but have the lean solid muscle that allows them to perform superhuman feats. I'm a former military photographer who has taken thousands of pics of them in every aspect of training ;)
Get this book. Lock the kids out.

Compelling Story.

This book, for me, was surprisingly original, considering the absence of preternatural and fantastical characters (such as wolves, witches, vamps, etc).

Listening to stories of unseen bravery, passion, and survival, despite extreme circumstances and unconscionable acts, is especially gripping when read with the skill and emotion this narrator possesses.

HI OCTANE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE WITH ROMANCE TOO

Phew, just finished this tense, hi tech, suspense thriller with the added ingredient of someone having supernatural abilities making the storyline that bit more of an unpredictable futuristic listen and what a listen it was set about 15 years in the future.

Right from the start it draws you in and you become a fly on the wall eagerly watching the drama as it unfolds and you learn about the members of Ghost Ops a super-elite band of ex Navy Seals, their history, their mission, the life and community they've created for themselves and other hunted or lost people in need. Mac's the Leader and he's a scarred tough, no nonsense Alpha male.... that is until he rescues a damsel in distress, and his life is about to change forever. Catherine is a beautiful, strong, independent, highly skilled Neuro Doctor and she's been blindly sent to find Mac before time runs out. Because of the information she gives, and shows, them they are going to attempt a near impossible mission that is action-packed, tense and devastating.

There was far too much internal dialogue going on throughout (for me anyway) but other than that it's a sexy, passionate, intense listen with likeable H/H, interesting secondary characters and LMR's world-building lays the foundation to a battle between the Team and an evil, inhumane Scientist who's performing terrible experiments on humans in the hope to eventually arm China with Super-Soldiers in order to have World domination.

Worth a credit? I usually like a lighter and more easy-going romantic listen but hey that's just me, but I am very tempted to continue with this 'potentially' addictive series and YES it's creditworthy for anyone looking for a gritty, tactical, menacing listen with a sexy supernatural romance thrown in.