Review of Some Kind of Hero by Michelle Cary

Michelle Cary
Some Kind of Hero
Samhain Publishing, April 2008

Genre & Keywords: Contemporary, Wounded Soldier, Ménage a trois (M/F/M), Abuse, Violence

Rating: êêêê
Heat level: ¹¹½

The Back Blurb:
After serving his tour of duty in Iraq, Sergeant Derek Rison returns home to find his apartment—and his life—in ruins. Sitting in the back booth of a local diner, contemplating his options, Derek meets waitress Jordan Minx, a petite brunette with a sad smile and a big heart.
Well-intentioned Jordan offers him a place to sleep, but an accidental encounter in the bathroom lands them both in her bed. Derek discovers a woman with an insatiable appetite for sex and a secret to hide—her “boyfriend” blackmails her to be a toy for his group of kinky friends.
Bolstered by Derek’s love, Jordan finds the courage to do the right thing. But the cost of freedom could be her life.

Warning, this title contains the following: Explicit sex, spankings, ménage a trois, violence.

This story is very fast paced and packed with lots and lots of action. I think maybe it was a bit too much and too fast in the short span of time of the storyline. But if you like to be gripped by action and hot sex scenes, this might be just the book for you. From the very first page the hero and heroine are figuratively getting on a train together, to not jump off again, because it keeps riding and riding, even while it takes some quite impossible curves.

Ex-soldier Derek meets waitress Jordan when he returns wounded from Iraq and finds his apartment burned down. She offers him her couch for the night and one thing leads to another. Within a couple of days they have hot sex (with some out-of-the-blue-but-one-time-only spanking), share their secrets and fall in love. But Jordan can’t commit to a relationship with Derek because she has a boyfriend. And she happens to be financially dependent on that guy. I found this in itself a bit incredible but even more so when it turned out that she let him abuse her sexually. She’s a sweet woman but she annoyed me as well because of this impassiveness and dependency.

The relationship between Jordan and Derek felt genuine though. He’s not only hot as sin but also very easy to like and his feelings for her are heartwarming. His character was less well developed as the heroine’s though. The story is written mostly from her point of view. He’s really good for her, especially after what she’s been through. And he knows how to encourage her without pushing her into something she doesn’t want to do. The perfect man, right? Jordan does realize her luck and she dares to believe in a happy future for herself again. But their happily ever after is postponed shortly by some unexpected events. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this turn of the story, which involved a matter of life and death (I’m trying not to reveal too much…). It was unexpected but very plausible and it added some good emotional tension.

There’s just one thing in the storyline I’m not too thrilled about: the ménage scene between Jordan, Derek and Derek’s business partner (who was gay but unexpectedly turned bi). It’s not the scene in itself that bothered me, because that was kinda hot. But it was too farfetched with these three characters: Derek didn’t seem to be the kind of guy that likes threesomes, and Jordan had a nasty history with ménages instigated by her abusive boyfriend. Although she engaged willingly in the threesome it didn’t seem to fit at all.

But overall, I liked this book, because the storyline was interesting and the writing was good. The characters were well developed and there was plenty of action and emotional tension which elevated the suspense.