I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Marley has been the glue that keeps the Aegis group together for the last three and half years but with Jake still not letting her go out into the field and changing up missions without including her, she is done feeling under appreciated. When an ex-boyfriend from the past is resurrected, Marley decides that now is the time to prove to Jake and her father that she has what it takes to get the job done. Jake is not familiar with this lost feeling and anxiousness that has dominated his feelings ever since Marley took a little vacation. When he finds out she went to Columbia, he just knows he has to get there. At his arrival, finding Marley with another man, witnessing her capabilities, and not able to keep his usual professional distance, has his Pandora's Box of feelings cracking wide open. Their jungle adventure is about to become more dangerous than they ever imagined.

After getting a hint of Jake and Marley's boiling pot relationship in the last book, Lethal Consequences, I was highly anticipating their story and I was not disappointed. Marley had somewhat of an unconventional childhood with following her father all around the world as he built up his security company. She grew up with the knowledge of how to run operations and is good at her job but while her father let her travel with the team, he never let her go directly into the field. Wanting to branch out and grow, Marley quits and joins Aegis, Jake Ryder's new and upcoming security company. Unfortunately, Jake turns out to be even more of a brick wall and even after three and half years of proving herself, refuses to not only let her go out into the field but doesn't even let her travel with the team. Their story starts here when Marley finally pushes back at the domineering men in her life and Jake gets a taste of his own medicine when Marley leaves.

I found Marley and Jake to be (mostly) believable, likeable, and frustrating. Marley may have taken Jake's dominating attitude for too long but he was still her boss and she was building a reputation at a new company. Jake may have come off as an alpha-hole one too many times but he is a former Navy SEAL, head of a growing company, and man with years of training to take charge of situations, be a leader, and get things done. Jake respects Marley but as his buried feelings for her start to come to the surface, he also fears for her safety, in the way that people who have seen far too much do. Marley was a mixture of capability and a touch of naivety; she has the skills for the field but not the emotional experience. I thought the author did a great job of showing how all these factors swirled together to show why our couple is attracted to one another and how the tension between them is created.

The snarky dialogue between these two was fun and helped to create what I like to call a thunderstorm couple. When Jake arrived in Columbia, we could hear the rumblings of an approaching storm, then as they trek through the jungle and he sees how capable Marley is and he begins to become aware and address why he can't relax or settle down unless he is around Marley, the storm hits. Lightning cracks the sky when they meet a group of indigenous people and drinking their jungle juice had them having one heck of a night. The eye of the storm comes when Jake does his patent push away move and they rescue Marley's ex-boyfriend. Then things really come to ahead as lightning crashing, thunder booming, and swirling winds catch Jake and Marley up as anger, jealousy, hurt, impromptu and poorly timed sex against a wall, and love make up the storm's tail end.

I focused a lot on Marley and Jake's relationship for this review and that is because it is the main part of the story and worked the best. The story arc of Marley's ex-boyfriend needing rescuing works to start off our adventure and keep our leads together but was fairly weak with an obvious villain and the how and why of the ex being mad at Marley's father and all the manipulated story that came as a result of this; it was a bit of a stretch.

If you like some adventure in your books and a fair amount of hot and heavy scenes, you'll want to pick this one up. Marley may have started off naïve but after getting a taste of the field, she intellectually realizes it may actually not be for her and while Jake's capabilities may keep him headstrong, we do get to see him respect Marley's more and bend a little on letting her be in charge; great growth by characters. The leaders of the Aegis group didn't disappoint and I'm looking forward to future characters getting their story, particularly Marley's lone wolf brother.
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This was a gripping read... Kept me on the edge of my seat throughout ( )

Wow! Passion, action, longing....this book had it all! Ms. Naughton's writing is amazing! If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would!

I have been waiting for Jake and Marley's story from the very first Aegis Security novella.. and all that waiting has definitely paid off.

This is fantastic addition to a great series. If you have never read one of her books, I strongly urge you to change that!

Original review posted at:
http://paragraphsandpetticoats.blogspot.ca/
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FINALLY! Marley and Jake's story was SO due. And what a story it is. As with all Aegis titles, it will keep you on the edge of your seat and biting your nails. But the romance is oh so sweet! I loved all the previous title but this is my favorite so far. In fact the series is getting better and better. But then Elisabeth Naughton never disappoints. Just look at all her previous work, especially Eternal Guardians which is also on my favorites list.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Fatal Pursuit by Elisabeth Naughton is a 2015 Montlake publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have enjoyed the last two books in this series and was eagerly anticipating Jake and Marley's story. However, I was a little frustrated by the story line in this one and really struggled to get into it.

Marley has worked for Jake, a former SEAL and current CEO of Aegis, dutifully for over three years. But, her boss continues to hold her back, refusing to allow her to do field work, and it's slowly killing her inside. When Jake pulls a stunt that proves his arrogance and lack of appreciation of her, she throws in the towel. Right on the heels of that monumental decision, she gets a phone call from an old boyfriend, a man she believed was dead, begging her to help him. So, with no job, and nothing to lose, Marley travels to South America to rescue the man she once considered marrying.

When Jake discovers Marley is gone, he enlist Eve to help locate her, then takes off after her, thus beginning a fatal pursuit.

The previous installments of this series had a kind of stylish quality to them this one lacked. The suspense wasn't nearly as tense and the action was muted. In fact, the mystery was flat and predictable, as it was pretty much spelled out for us that something was awfully fishy about this whole set up.

What was frustrating was Marley's gullibility which is something a person so well suited to field work could ill afford. I expected more from her than just an ability to survive in the jungle. She needed to work that brain of hers on all cylinders, and stop making impressing Jake the more important goal.

The foray the couple takes into a native village was a detour that took the story way off course, and while I am certainly not an expert on native tribes, or their rituals and ceremonies, this part of the story seemed highly implausible and a fairly ridiculous way of getting Jake and Marley to loosen up around each other.

Finally, the story gets back to the original thread regarding the search for Marley's friend. Once the man is located the story really flounders. Jake and Marley only had a marginal amount of chemistry between them and Jake was not at all likable. He took liberties by looking into Marley's medical records, and various other invasions of her privacy, is sexist, controlling, and unapologetic about it.

I have also recently discovered that I can't stand the trope involving the female protagonist finally moving out from behind her controlling father's shadow, only to find herself falling in love with a man with those very same traits. But, at least Marley doesn't sacrifice her convictions to rationalize a relationship with Jake, accepting and putting up with his treatment of her, and folding to his will. No, Jake will have to redeem himself and it looks like he's going to drop the ball. Until.....

Well, I must grudgingly admit Jake really pulls off a 180, goes down grand gesture avenue, and I almost forgot about his prior behavior, as a result. He really did tone down his bossiness, although it still peaks through here and there at times.

So, while this was not the best book in this series, the conclusion of the book offset some of the complaints I had with the story, but not enough to push the rating up to a higher level. This one gets 3 stars ( )