Review: Honor by J L Drake

Bullets fly during a dangerous mission, and Major Mark Lopez is critically injured…

A Blackstone soldier, Mark is transferred to the North Dakota hospital with the security clearance to treat members of the elite covert team. The pretty new nurse assigned to his case knows her stuff, but Mark soon discovers she knows more than just how to save lives. Mia Harper knows the Blackstone Code.

Mia is a bit of gypsy and doesn’t engage much with people—but there’s something about her mysterious new patient…

After Mark recovers from surgery, he is discharged from the hospital with orders to rest. Not that he does. Instead he rushes to México for the team’s next assignment. But when he returns to the hospital again and again with minor—and not so minor—injuries, Mia suspects he’s only coming to see her. Romance ignites, and because Mia signed a non-disclosure agreement at the hospital, Mark is able to open up more with Mia than any other woman.

Some debts demand payment in either cash or blood…

When someone from Mark’s past comes to him for help, old secrets start to resurface, and more blood is shed. Worlds collide and lies are exposed in an all-or-nothing underground poker game.

Mark must put his life on the line to keep Mia safe…and to finally learn the answer to the question that’s haunted him his whole life.

What really happened that night twenty-five years ago? 

3.5 Stars

Review by Jen Hagen 

My lingering question I had from the previous books where Mark was a secondary character was why the Hubba Bubba gum?  Suffice it to say, Ms. Drake answered the question and there is a whole lengthy reason behind it.  What I have discovered from this author’s writing is that she doesn’t put a detail in a book just to take up space.  There is a reason it’s inserted, and sometimes that reason may not be divulged immediately, but when it is it is a crucial part of the story.   Mark’s story is made up of flashbacks to the time when he was 7 years old and chewing bubble gum.  It is at this age that he meets Cole and forms a brotherly bond.  Mark is now part of Cole’s special ops private sector.  His missions are all secretive and because of his unpredictable schedule and inability to say where he’s going, it’s pretty hard to have a girlfriend.

Mia is a nurse working at the same hospital that Mark and his crew use for those times when they can’t fix up their own men.  She knows more about them than she initially lets on.  If there was a quality of Mia’s that I did not like it would be that she was always at the hospital!  She was a very caring person and it showed in how she devoted herself to her job.

Mark and Mia have an attraction towards one another and they are both fully aware of the consequences forming a relationship would have.  Can Mark focus on Mia and his job?  Can Mia live with the unpredictability?  Or maybe neither of those factors will play a part in the decision as Mia’s past is revealed and causes a disruption in the entire safe house. 

"This house is built on truth, and you broke rule number one by lying to Mark about who you are."  

Besides dealing with Mia’s issue, Mark has a person from his past withholding the truth that would finally allow the demons from Mark’s past escape.  His person isn’t going to go down lightly and not on his own.  There’s also special ops action that makes you hold your breath…"Man down!  I repeat, man down!"

I didn’t have the connection with Mark and Mia like I had with Cole and Savannah.  I just couldn’t feel anything palpable coming from the pages.  The story is well written and I will continue to look forward to what this author bring us.