No Control

Shannon K. Butcher

2/11/2008

A year and a half ago Lana Hancock was part of a group of artists captured and tortured in Armenia. Everyone in her group except her died. She was rescued by an undercover Delta Force agent, Caleb Stone. He sat by her bed the first few nights in the hospital until she started to recover. Then he disappeared. After a long arduous rehabilitation period, Lana is back in her home in Missouri. She has broken off with her fiance and is starting a foundation to keep children occupied and off the streets. But now, Caleb has returned. He wants to learn her secrets about the time she was captive. She claims she doesn't have any secrets - she told them everything she knew. She's lying.

Caleb is full of guilt. He was on an undercover assignment with the terrorist group that captured Lana and her friends. He joined too late to save her friends. But he watched her being tortured and did nothing. He couldn't or hundreds more would die in another attack. He was able to rescue her before she was killed. Now he can't forget her. Her strength after her rescue amazes him. He hadn't planned on going near her again until ordered to. He isn't to leave her until he learns the secrets she hasn't revealed.

He leans Lana is more impressive than he realized and also vulnerable. She has nightmares every night where she wakens screaming. Yet each morning she gets up, puts it behind her, and goes back to her foundation. Caleb sees how easy it would be for someone to return and kill her. He knows the terrorist organization that captured Lana. They would kill her just because they hadn't finished the job before. He wants to protect her from them and anyone else who would hurt her, including himself. He wants to get her to talk so he can leave her in peace again.

No Control is the second novel by Shannon K. Butcher. We met Caleb in the first book of the series, No Regrets. There will definitely be a third one with the remaining Delta Force friend, Grant. No Control is just as intense, but not as graphically violent. It's formulaic and fairly easy to anticipate.

Lana Hancock is a fascinating character who we could have explored deeper. She is a survivor. She suffers some survivor guilt, but not much. Instead, her main fear is that the terrorists will learn she really does know something and return. She's not worried so much about herself - she knows her life is shattered. But her family could come under attack as well. That is what she is trying to avoid.

The usual miscommunication in this type of novel is there - if Lana had told all she knew when she was rescued, most of this events in this novel could have been prevented. But hey, that's why we read these romances, isn't it? I get frustrated with these heroines at times when they're just being dumb, but not so much here. She has been completely terrorized, so it's understandable she remained silent.

Again, this book definitely isn't for every romance reader. Although not graphic, the violence shows up in flashbacks. The sex scenes are explicit (pretty much the stuff of fantasies). I enjoyed the story despite its obviousness and look forward to Caleb's friend Grant's novel.

You can find more about this book at .

Notice: Extremely explicit sexual situations

No Regrets
No Control
No Escape

Provided for review