Grace Griffith is in Venezuela waiting for the adoption of her son to go through when a civil war breaks out and the army starts hunting Americans. The Navy SEALS, including Senior Chief Amos Mcleod, are sent in to get her out. But they don’t have orders to bring her new son with them.

The beginning of this book was subpar. Both Amos and Grace were pretty unlikable. The last book in the series (Rising from Ashes) really painted Amos in a bad light and it took me a while to move past it. I had to pretend that he was a different person because I will never be able to forget the image of him “nibbling [Opal’s] toes” in the hot tub. As for Grace, she was annoying, selfish, and single minded to a fault. And the entire plot (Grace having to go back to Venezuela to get her son) was kind of ridiculous because it very easily could have been avoided—Amos should have just taken the kid with them.

Despite how much I disliked the beginning, I got caught up in the ending (after about 70%) and couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what was going to happen with all of the characters: Grace, Amos, Simon, Mateo, Faith, Emma, and everybody else. Okay, maybe not Jake and what’s her face. I was also slightly creeped out/intrigued by the whole casting out the demon situation.

As much as I hated the random scenes/perspective changes from the other couple in Rising from Ashes, I didn’t think it could get worse. It can. It did. There were two other couples in this book. I didn’t necessarily like Fitz and Faith, but the whole drama with the pregnancy… it got my attention. Jake and what’s her face’s moments were completely unnecessary though. There were maybe two chapters from their perspectives. Why? Just why?

As for my other recurring issues with this series—awkward/unrealistic word choices and extremely forced religious moments—they’re still there. The forced religious moments weren’t as bad as Cry in the Wilderness or Ruby and Tony’s moments in Rising from Ashes, though. Did I enjoy this book? Um… sometimes. Will I be continuing the series? You know me… probably... maybe. Will I ever swing back around and read the second book that I skipped earlier? We’ll see.

*Side note, while looking into the series, I made the discovery that the author, Rebecca Hartt, is a pen name for Marliss Melton who writes/wrote non-Christian romantic suspense. The Acts of Valor series is essentially a rewrite of her Navy SEAL Team Twelve series with Christian elements added in.