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Don’t Let Go (Navy SEALs, Book 5)

Marliss Melton
Forever (2008)
ISBN 9780446618359
Reviewed by Melissa LaMunyon for RebeccasReads (6/08)

Jordan Bliss’s heart finally feels whole again. After loosing a husband to infidelity and a baby to a miscarriage, Jordan goes on a trip of rejuvenation and healing to Venezuela. There she meets and falls in love with a three year old orphan named Miguel. She is all he has in this world and Jordan struggles for a year to move the earth and the heavens in order to adopt Miguel and bring him home with her to America.

The papers are only weeks away from going through when the mission where Jordan and Miguel are staying is attacked by rebels looking to arrest Americans on sight. Terrified that they will be locked away in a third world prison and all the orphans killed, Jordan, the children and the two British priests take refuge in the chapel’s wine cellar. After four miserable days of hiding, a team of NAVY Seals led by Solomon McGuire rescues them.

Solomon’s orders are to take all Americans out of the hostile Venezuela rebel zone and he follows his orders. But when Jordan refuses to relinquish a small child and come with him to safety, Solomon has to rip the boy away from her in order to follow his orders.
Or did he? The question haunts him over the next few weeks after his mission as the experience of taking Jordan’s child away from her brings old, painful memories of his to the surface. Solomon’s growing feelings for Jordan confuse him as he struggles to do everything within his power to bring Miguel home to Jordan.

Melton brings the intense feelings of the book to life in her vivid and often practical descriptions. One of my favorite parts is where Jordan finds herself overwhelmed with bills and late fees when she returns to America. There is a scene where Jordan is frustrated that no one at the phone or electric company will believe that the reason she was late paying her bills was because she was hiding from murderous rebels in Venezuela.

The characters in “Don’t Let Go” are all well developed. Not only is there the primary story of Solomon and Jordan, there are several other juicy plot lines developing at the same time that are all expertly intertwined within the main storyline. I particularly enjoyed both of the subplots immensely and hope that Melton continues with them in future books.

It appears that Melton’s intention was to portray Jordan as a courageous, determined mother, who would stop at nothing in order to find her child. I thought that Jordan, while definitely stubborn and determined, came across as more hysterical and well, dumb, than courageous. I really wanted to admire her determination to adopt Miguel, but there were moments when I wondered at her motivations to save him. Does she really love him? Or is she emotionally unstable and simply using this orphan boy to salve the wounds left by her miscarriage and divorce? I found the women in the subplots far more strong and heroic than Jordan, who often came across as an unstable, emotional teenager rather than a capable, brave mother.

There was also a moment where, as Jordan and Solomon’s relationship intensifies, Jordan wonders at her intense, sexual attraction to Solomon. “What right do I have, as 30 year old woman to feel this way?” Jordan wonders. Though only a minor part of the story, the idea that “only women in their 20s” should have libidos really irritated me. Women of all ages have every right to be as sexually active and intense and they want to be.

All in all, “Don’t Let Go” is an excellent book and I had a hard time putting it down. I thoroughly enjoyed the taut, dramatic action scenes, the (forgive the cliché) steamy love scenes and all of the lovely, lovely character development. I would recommend “Don’t Let Go” to anyone wanting a fun, action filled romance and I plan reading the rest of Melton’s books as soon as I can.

.: Blog