Review: Breaking Point by Pamela Clare

Breaking Point (An I-Team Novel)
Author: Pamela Clare
Publication: Berkley (May 3, 2011)


Description: Denver journalist Natalie Benoit and Deputy U.S. Marshal Zach McBride find themselves captives of a bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartel. Working together, they escape through the desert toward the border, the attraction between them flaring hotter than the Sonoran sun. They fight to stay ahead of the danger that hunts them as forces more powerful than they can imagine conspire to destroy them both...


My Thoughts: This was a great romantic suspense story. I liked that the heroine was not just a helpless victim. Natalie Benoit had already faced far more than her share of heartbreak and trauma even before she was kidnapped off a bus of journalists in Juarez, Mexico. She had survived a murder attempt in New Orleans and lost her parents and fiance during Hurricane Katrina. She had locked down her emotions and was carrying on as an investigative reporter in Denver. 


When she finds herself in the cell next door to Zach who had also been captured by the drug cartel and was being tortured, she is the one who managed to rescue both of them. Zach is a Deputy US Marshall who is undercover to try to bring down the cartel. Of course, he can't share that with Natalie. She thinks he is some sort of criminal. But they have to trust one another as they travel across the Mexican-US border avoiding the cartel and other criminals who are on the same trek. 


Zach is also a struggling survivor of trauma. He was a Navy SEAL who lost his whole squad of friends when they were ambushed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. He won the Medal of Honor but couldn't deal with the Post Traumatic Stress after he left the service. He joined the Marshall Service so that he could feel that his life had some meaning but he was sort of looking for a way to die. 


When they saw each other, they both gained a new reason to live. But the path to their "happy ever after" was filled with lots of danger and some really creepy villains.


This is the fifth book in this series and lots of characters from earlier stories make appearances and have a role in this one. I have not read the others and found this one perfectly clear and understandable. However, meeting some of the side characters intrigued me and made me want to go back and get the rest of the books in this series so that I can find out their stories.


This is nicely spicy romantic suspense that is a great example of the genre.


Favorite Quote:

Her brows settled into a delicate frown. "I know I'm not a geography whiz, but my recollection is that Iraq and Afghanistan lie somewhat to the east, while the desert we intend to cross is in a more northerly direction."

Why did her accent make every damn thing she said seem charming, even when she was being a smartass?

I bought this one from Amazon. You can get your copy here.