Little Miss Bookmark: Review: Target Engaged (Delta Force #1) by M.L. Buchman

Delta Force: The most dangerous elite counter-terrorism force on the planet
• The deadliest shooters •
• The most out-of-the-box thinkers in any military •
• Will die to get the mission done •

Sergeant Kyle Reeves: The premier soldier of the new recruits
Sergeant Carla Anderson: The first woman of Delta Force

If the training doesn't kill them, their passion may-but Kyle Reeves and Carla Anderson blast right in. Show no fear. Have no fear. Then they get the call. The most powerful drug-smuggling ring in Venezuela needs a takedown, and Delta's newest team leaps into the deep jungle to deliver. Giving their all? Not a problem. Giving their hearts? That takes a new level of courage.

Ever since I was introduced to Vince Flynn back in 2001 when his first Mitch Rapp novel came out, I have been a fan of military/spy/covert-op-shit books. I love everything about them ... the intrigue, the secrets, the characters, the plot, the sometimes scary correlation between reality and fiction ... I just love everything about them. So when I saw that there was this author that I've never had the pleasure of reading before and the book is a military/suspense/romance ... I was sold. I couldn't wait to rip into my copy and find out if I had found another author/reader soulmate.

Before I get into anything ... it needs to be said that this author knows their stuff. The book reads like the author has done this stuff before and is writing from experience. That being said ... I have no idea if the author has that kind of background. Someone on Goodreads dinged me because I had a status update and said "This has some serious military shit going on and the author sounds like she knows what the hell she's talking about." Turns out that the author isn't a she but a he ... oopsie daisy ... I apologize for any offense I may have caused by saying she instead of he. Here's the deal ... when I start reading a book, I purposely don't look into the book OR the author. I don't want to be swayed by someone's review or things that are written about the author and/or the book. I like to have a fresh perspective until after I've written my review and it's already public. I just don't want to be swayed in one way or another unless it's by my own thoughts and feelings. Anyhow. I shouldn't have said she.

But this author does know what the hell he is talking about. It made the reading experience enjoyable from that end because it was so realistic. But on the other hand, that kind of attention to detail really took a toll on my overall thoughts on the book. I'm more than okay with action and a little back-story but I really would have liked more dialogue. I felt like I wasn't able to get to know the characters on my own because I was hardly ever able to see them interact with other characters and that adds a lot to who a character is, in my opinion. There was just soooo much about the process they were going through with Delta and again, I think that the book needed that kind of detail but there also needs to be a balance that I was just missing.

I really wanted to love both of the main characters, Kyle and Carla but at the end of the novel, while I knew all about them, I just didn't know them. You know? It was almost like reading a redacted military file. Yes, you have all of the information but little details were missing about who they were. I think that is why I felt like their romance wasn't hot and sexy and it wasn't even a slow burn type thing ... it was more of a smoldering fire that is almost out. It just wasn't what I was hoping for. I wanted those sparks and to not get them was a little upsetting.

Is this a badly written book? Absolutely not. It was well written but just not for me, I guess. I don't know that I would be opposed to reading another book by Buchman. I might in the future but just not right now. I need a little decompression time because after all that Delta went through, I felt like the author put me right there with them and it's exhausting!

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

Available: December 1st, 2015