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Operation: Family #2
The SEAL's Stolen Child
He's defended his country and upheld the code of the navy SEALs, but Garrett Solomon has never faced a mission quite like this. As teenagers, he and Eve Barnesworth were passionately in love. Eve's unplanned pregnancy only deepened his commitment to her. But Eve's powerful father, fearing a scandal, whisked her away. As far as Garrett and Eve knew, their baby had died—and with it, their love. Years later, the loss and betrayal still pain Garrett deeply.
Then comes shocking news: the child is still alive. Determined to find their stolen son, Garrett and Eve join forces. Working together is strictly business…until it isn't. Because it seems their powerful attraction—like the child they once thought was gone forever—is still very much alive.
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 27, 2012
23 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Laura Marie Altom
165 books241 followersAfter college, Laura Marie Altom did a brief stint as an interior designer before becoming a stay-at- home mom to boy/girl twins. Always an avid romance reader, when she found herself replotting the afternoon soaps, she knew it was time to try her hand at writing.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 2, 2018
"You know, if you wanted to use me as a pillow, I'd be okay with it."
"Oh, you would?" she teased.
"Just sayin'..." He grinned as she sidled against him, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder while positioning her hand over his galloping heart.
Hal calls his daughter, Eve, and her high-school boyfriend, Garrett to his deathbed. They are 24 now. Hal tells them that even though he told them that Eve's son died after childbirth he's really alive somewhere. Then he dies.
The book is Garrett and Eve trying to find out where their son is and trying to patch up things between them. It doesn't go well.
For one thing, Garrett is hugely bitter over what happened and now hates all women because of his teenage relationship with Eve. I've known men like this in real life, but I mean... come on, man. One failed relationship in high school should not make you hate all women for all time. Everyone has relationships that don't work out. Yeah, it's rough. But you continue on. I wanted him to grow the fuck up. Eve didn't even cheat on him. She got pregnant by him, her rich dad sent her to a house for unwed mothers,... not really seeing a reason to hate all women forever here.
Eve is pretty weak. I wasn't a huge fan. She believed her dad was amazing and put him on a pedestal, even though his reaction to her being pregnant was to send her away to a home for unwed mothers. When he dies and some bad deeds of his (including lying to his daughter and Garrett about their son's death) come to light, she's struggling with this new truth about her father.
She cries a lot, snivels a lot, she's super-rich and I just didn't like her character very much.
Neither she nor Garrett were too bright, honestly.
BAD THINGS ABOUT GARRETT
He's kind of an asshole. He's rude and dickish to Eve sometimes, when it's obvious they were both victims of her father.
He hates women, and blames Eve for it.
He's dumb.
He runs SO hot and cold. "I want to fuck her." "I can't stand her." "I want to be with her forever." "We can never be together." "I want to take care of her." "I never want to see her again." And on and on and on and on. WTF, Garrett? PICK ONE. JFC.
GOOD THINGS ABOUT GARRETT
The snuggling scene quoted above.
I feel like he genuinely cares about Eve's well-being. She's bone-thin, and he worries about it, but DOESN'T cross that line into pushing food on her, 'forcing' her to eat more, or nagging her about it. I rarely see a hero with this much respect and restraint in regards to the heroine's personhood and choices. While he worries about her extreme thinness in his mind, he doesn't do anything to push her or force her to eat more, and I never felt like he was an asshole about it. RARE, SUPER RARE in romance novels. I have to give Altom props for this.
Not only is he caring about her nutritional needs, but he helps her get some sleep sometimes when she needs it, he's always looking out for what she needs physically and tries to meet that.
This only starts after 13% though. Before that, he's a dick.
Slipping off her heels, she curled onto the end of a leather sofa, drawing an afghan from the back to cover her legs. The night was cool enough to warrant a small fire in the hearth, which Garrett easily could've accomplished. Might be petty, but in their battle, he'd already given her too much ground. No way was he also volunteering to make her more comfortable. 13%
He punches a reporter who is hassling her at her father's funeral, which I personally don't approve of - he could have resolved that without violence, and it was an overreaction - but his urge to step in and protect her is in the right place.
THE BAD ABOUT THE LEADS
The bad thing about the leads in this book is that they just don't get along. They bicker a lot. They don't trust each other. They play games with each other, especially Eve. I wasn't rooting for them to end up together because they didn't seem to especially like each other. I mean, I know Harlequin promotes "end up with your child's father, no matter what" ideals, but just because these two had sex and created a child when they were sixteen is no reason to be saddled together for life IMO.
THE BAD ABOUT EVE
I don't think there's ever a scene where her nose isn't red. She cries all the time. She is pale. She is very thin and tired all the time. She is very rich. She doesn't own a T-shirt, or a pair of jeans. When she finds out she is she hides it from him and doesn't tell him about it. Then she 'fake' tells him about it. Then she finally tells him about it for real, after like eight other people know first. Game-playing, dicking around, didn't need this kind of shit. Obviously he's going to notice that you're at some point! Not sure why she was fucking around so much with this information.
MADE UP, MAKES NO SENSE DRAMA
The two leads keep saying "There is no us." and "We can't be together." and etc. etc. and I'm just like, WHY? I'm sorry, if you were with a girl in high school for two years... you have a romantic history together. You had a baby together. That makes an 'us,' since the baby is still alive. Now you are having sex with her again. You are spending time with her again. It makes no fucking sense that they are so determined that they 'can't be together.' If they said, "I can't be with him/her because I don't really like/love him/her and we are terrible together," that I can buy. But this 'we're doomed for no apparent reason' talk all the time made no fucking sense. They are both adults, her dad is dead... honestly I see no reason preventing them from marrying or whatever they want to do.
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
*Carmen scrubs her hands over her face* Okay...
Why these two decide to have sex with each other as adults is beyond me. WHY.
Also, this is the way he brings it up:
"Wanna get out of here?" he asked in a low tone, almost afraid of her answer.
Hands pressed to his chest, she nodded. "Where?"
"It's not fancy, but there's a perfectly good motel down the street."
Gross. So then he takes her to this motel. HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY CONDOMS. Dude. WHY, why, why?!!?!? Why would you suggest going to a motel, get her into the motel room, start kissing her and THEN be like, "I don't have condoms." WHY. You could have even stopped and picked some up on the way to the motel. I seriously do not understand this. Especially given their tragic history of sex and pregnancy and children etc.
Eve is no better, she's just like, "Oh, it's okay you have no protection. Let's just have condomless, birth-control-free sex!!!!" WHAT. How does Altom expect me to believe that she's SO devastated about her baby boy being taken away when she was 16 and having all this angst and not really sure of if she likes or loves him, and now she's just super-eager to have condomless sex with him. WHY.
Secondly, on a psychological level, I think alarm bells would be going off for him. She even says,
"Would you just hurry up and do this?"
Now, I think that is a bad sign. I know society tells us that men just think with their dicks and are incapable of turning down sex or making smart sexual decisions (LIES) but don't you think you would be hesitant to have sex with a woman who was acting like this? She seems anxious and stressed and completely uninterested in kissing or foreplay, and it's obvious she's in a bad place mentally.
I have to give him credit, he does question her about this.
"Make no mistake, I want you as bad as I've ever wanted any woman, but not like this. Not with you acting as if a personal demon's nipping your heels."
OK, GOOD. She's fucked-up in the head, you don't have any condoms... let's not do this. NOT doing this is a good idea.
But no! They do have sex. She pushes him down on the bed, crawls on top of him, and has woman-on-top sex with him. He just lies there, basically. Which is fine, I mean, I have no problems with this sexual position PER SE, however, I feel like these two are fucked up. It's not making love. It's not even fucking... ? It's like... she's hellbent on making this happen and he's just like, "OK." and it's not romantic or even sexy. Then she gets off of him and goes to take a shower. She's just sobbing and sobbing in the shower and he's lying on his back in bed, naked, listening to her sob and being like, "What the fuck just happened?"
She'd been consenting - hell, she'd practically thrown herself at him, so why, when they should have been cuddling, breaking down all that had gone wrong between them, was he on his own, feeling helpless while listening to her sob?
...
The two of them hadn't made love tonight; they'd had sex. And it was great. But it didn't change the truth between them - that there wasn't a THEM. Would never be. Couldn't be.
Wow. Well, that was depressing. What a fucking depressing sex scene. I'm sad now. Why did they even DO THIS?
TL;DR These two dumb, drama-creating-for-no-reason leads end up together. Even though I feel they don't really like each other very much. And they are breeding. *shrug* She gives up her career and decides to become a SAHM, which is perfectly okay, but I'm noting it here because I'm trying to figure out how many Harlequin ARs end this way.
P.S. I also didn't like how the Cuban housekeeper was portrayed. It was really getting on my nerves.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES:
Contemporary Romance
Holiday/Christmas Romance
Military Romance
Millionaire/Billionaire Romance - That would be the heroine
Second Chance Romance
Non-Virgin Heroine
Secret Baby
She's the CEO of a 'mini-empire,' He's a Navy SEAL - but she gives up her career at the end.
"Oh, you would?" she teased.
"Just sayin'..." He grinned as she sidled against him, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder while positioning her hand over his galloping heart.
Hal calls his daughter, Eve, and her high-school boyfriend, Garrett to his deathbed. They are 24 now. Hal tells them that even though he told them that Eve's son died after childbirth he's really alive somewhere. Then he dies.
The book is Garrett and Eve trying to find out where their son is and trying to patch up things between them. It doesn't go well.
For one thing, Garrett is hugely bitter over what happened and now hates all women because of his teenage relationship with Eve. I've known men like this in real life, but I mean... come on, man. One failed relationship in high school should not make you hate all women for all time. Everyone has relationships that don't work out. Yeah, it's rough. But you continue on. I wanted him to grow the fuck up. Eve didn't even cheat on him. She got pregnant by him, her rich dad sent her to a house for unwed mothers,... not really seeing a reason to hate all women forever here.
Eve is pretty weak. I wasn't a huge fan. She believed her dad was amazing and put him on a pedestal, even though his reaction to her being pregnant was to send her away to a home for unwed mothers. When he dies and some bad deeds of his (including lying to his daughter and Garrett about their son's death) come to light, she's struggling with this new truth about her father.
She cries a lot, snivels a lot, she's super-rich and I just didn't like her character very much.
Neither she nor Garrett were too bright, honestly.
BAD THINGS ABOUT GARRETT
He's kind of an asshole. He's rude and dickish to Eve sometimes, when it's obvious they were both victims of her father.
He hates women, and blames Eve for it.
He's dumb.
He runs SO hot and cold. "I want to fuck her." "I can't stand her." "I want to be with her forever." "We can never be together." "I want to take care of her." "I never want to see her again." And on and on and on and on. WTF, Garrett? PICK ONE. JFC.
GOOD THINGS ABOUT GARRETT
The snuggling scene quoted above.
I feel like he genuinely cares about Eve's well-being. She's bone-thin, and he worries about it, but DOESN'T cross that line into pushing food on her, 'forcing' her to eat more, or nagging her about it. I rarely see a hero with this much respect and restraint in regards to the heroine's personhood and choices. While he worries about her extreme thinness in his mind, he doesn't do anything to push her or force her to eat more, and I never felt like he was an asshole about it. RARE, SUPER RARE in romance novels. I have to give Altom props for this.
Not only is he caring about her nutritional needs, but he helps her get some sleep sometimes when she needs it, he's always looking out for what she needs physically and tries to meet that.
This only starts after 13% though. Before that, he's a dick.
Slipping off her heels, she curled onto the end of a leather sofa, drawing an afghan from the back to cover her legs. The night was cool enough to warrant a small fire in the hearth, which Garrett easily could've accomplished. Might be petty, but in their battle, he'd already given her too much ground. No way was he also volunteering to make her more comfortable. 13%
He punches a reporter who is hassling her at her father's funeral, which I personally don't approve of - he could have resolved that without violence, and it was an overreaction - but his urge to step in and protect her is in the right place.
THE BAD ABOUT THE LEADS
The bad thing about the leads in this book is that they just don't get along. They bicker a lot. They don't trust each other. They play games with each other, especially Eve. I wasn't rooting for them to end up together because they didn't seem to especially like each other. I mean, I know Harlequin promotes "end up with your child's father, no matter what" ideals, but just because these two had sex and created a child when they were sixteen is no reason to be saddled together for life IMO.
THE BAD ABOUT EVE
I don't think there's ever a scene where her nose isn't red. She cries all the time. She is pale. She is very thin and tired all the time. She is very rich. She doesn't own a T-shirt, or a pair of jeans. When she finds out she is she hides it from him and doesn't tell him about it. Then she 'fake' tells him about it. Then she finally tells him about it for real, after like eight other people know first. Game-playing, dicking around, didn't need this kind of shit. Obviously he's going to notice that you're at some point! Not sure why she was fucking around so much with this information.
MADE UP, MAKES NO SENSE DRAMA
The two leads keep saying "There is no us." and "We can't be together." and etc. etc. and I'm just like, WHY? I'm sorry, if you were with a girl in high school for two years... you have a romantic history together. You had a baby together. That makes an 'us,' since the baby is still alive. Now you are having sex with her again. You are spending time with her again. It makes no fucking sense that they are so determined that they 'can't be together.' If they said, "I can't be with him/her because I don't really like/love him/her and we are terrible together," that I can buy. But this 'we're doomed for no apparent reason' talk all the time made no fucking sense. They are both adults, her dad is dead... honestly I see no reason preventing them from marrying or whatever they want to do.
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
*Carmen scrubs her hands over her face* Okay...
Why these two decide to have sex with each other as adults is beyond me. WHY.
Also, this is the way he brings it up:
"Wanna get out of here?" he asked in a low tone, almost afraid of her answer.
Hands pressed to his chest, she nodded. "Where?"
"It's not fancy, but there's a perfectly good motel down the street."
Gross. So then he takes her to this motel. HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY CONDOMS. Dude. WHY, why, why?!!?!? Why would you suggest going to a motel, get her into the motel room, start kissing her and THEN be like, "I don't have condoms." WHY. You could have even stopped and picked some up on the way to the motel. I seriously do not understand this. Especially given their tragic history of sex and pregnancy and children etc.
Eve is no better, she's just like, "Oh, it's okay you have no protection. Let's just have condomless, birth-control-free sex!!!!" WHAT. How does Altom expect me to believe that she's SO devastated about her baby boy being taken away when she was 16 and having all this angst and not really sure of if she likes or loves him, and now she's just super-eager to have condomless sex with him. WHY.
Secondly, on a psychological level, I think alarm bells would be going off for him. She even says,
"Would you just hurry up and do this?"
Now, I think that is a bad sign. I know society tells us that men just think with their dicks and are incapable of turning down sex or making smart sexual decisions (LIES) but don't you think you would be hesitant to have sex with a woman who was acting like this? She seems anxious and stressed and completely uninterested in kissing or foreplay, and it's obvious she's in a bad place mentally.
I have to give him credit, he does question her about this.
"Make no mistake, I want you as bad as I've ever wanted any woman, but not like this. Not with you acting as if a personal demon's nipping your heels."
OK, GOOD. She's fucked-up in the head, you don't have any condoms... let's not do this. NOT doing this is a good idea.
But no! They do have sex. She pushes him down on the bed, crawls on top of him, and has woman-on-top sex with him. He just lies there, basically. Which is fine, I mean, I have no problems with this sexual position PER SE, however, I feel like these two are fucked up. It's not making love. It's not even fucking... ? It's like... she's hellbent on making this happen and he's just like, "OK." and it's not romantic or even sexy. Then she gets off of him and goes to take a shower. She's just sobbing and sobbing in the shower and he's lying on his back in bed, naked, listening to her sob and being like, "What the fuck just happened?"
She'd been consenting - hell, she'd practically thrown herself at him, so why, when they should have been cuddling, breaking down all that had gone wrong between them, was he on his own, feeling helpless while listening to her sob?
...
The two of them hadn't made love tonight; they'd had sex. And it was great. But it didn't change the truth between them - that there wasn't a THEM. Would never be. Couldn't be.
Wow. Well, that was depressing. What a fucking depressing sex scene. I'm sad now. Why did they even DO THIS?
TL;DR These two dumb, drama-creating-for-no-reason leads end up together. Even though I feel they don't really like each other very much. And they are breeding. *shrug* She gives up her career and decides to become a SAHM, which is perfectly okay, but I'm noting it here because I'm trying to figure out how many Harlequin ARs end this way.
P.S. I also didn't like how the Cuban housekeeper was portrayed. It was really getting on my nerves.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES:
Contemporary Romance
Holiday/Christmas Romance
Military Romance
Millionaire/Billionaire Romance - That would be the heroine
Second Chance Romance
Non-Virgin Heroine
Secret Baby
She's the CEO of a 'mini-empire,' He's a Navy SEAL - but she gives up her career at the end.
November 16, 2012
Good book. Garrett was home for the holiday and stunned when Eve's dying father dropped that bombshell on them. Garrett had spent the last eight years trying to forget his feelings for Eve and cope with the loss of the son he'd never had a chance to see. Now he and Eve have to work together to find out what happened to him. Being this close to Eve brings back the feelings of powerful attraction, but also the sense of betrayal he felt because she'd never contacted him after she left. Now he doesn't trust that, if they do get involved, she won't disappear on him again. He has to decide if he's willing to take the risk. Eve had grown up idolizing her father who had always been good to her. She was horrified by his revelation, and more so as she and Garrett found out more about him in their search for their son. In spite of their still strong physical attraction she feels there is no future in a relationship between them. She doesn't think he loves her, plus the distance between their homes would make it impossible. It takes a life changing event for them to realize that they can have the future they both want.
January 31, 2013
This is one of those rare books where I was totally unable to bond with the hero and heroine. Their closeness seemed force and the quest for their young son came across as semi-emotional. The hero's SEAL ties were unexciting as well. It was one of those books that I finished because I started it.
Read
June 30, 2016Miniseries: Operation: Family
May 17, 2014
Garrett and Eve made a really good couple. Even with a hurtful past sparks fly between them as they're trying to solve the mystery of their son her father lied about.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews