Wild Card: An Elite Ops Navy Seal Novel

by Lora Leigh

Book Overview

It was supposed to be simple. All Navy SEAL Nathan Malone had to do was rescue three young girls from a Colombia drug cartel, then allow himself to be captured just long enough to draw out a government spy. That was before his mission went disastrously wrong...and before his wife, Bella, was told that Nathan was never coming home. Bella's mourned her husband's death for three long years. But she has no idea he's still alive. Forced to assume a new...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312945795
• ISBN13: 9780312945794
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 418 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Wild Card

Sabella Malone had been incredibly happy married to her SEAL husband Nathan until the day came when she was told he wasn't coming home from his latest mission. For the first three years, she couldn't function. She kept having these horrific nightmares that were filled with blood and death, but always had the feeling Nathan hadn't perished. She felt he was hurting and that she was his lifeline, but never that he had actually died. When the garage was in danger of going under, she was forced to pull herself up, and start functioning again. Belle couldn't allow something that Nathan loved be taken from her. She had already lost too much. Nathan Malone had been to hell, and when rescued, he wasn't sure he could survive the torture he had endured. Only the thought of his soul mate Sabella, and his memories of their short two years together got him through. A part of him wanted to go to her, and be with her, but he didn't think she could handle the changes in him. Due to the physical torture, he had undergone so many surgeries that he lost count. He barely resembled his former self. The mental torture had changed him also. He was no longer Nathan Malone. It had been six long years since he had seen his Bella, but when his team was notified of the danger surrounding her, he was about to confront the past he had forced behind him. Nathan was shocked when he saw Bella. He had expected her to grieve, and then move on with her life, but obviously she hadn't. She was still missing her husband. Apparently she like he, remembered the vows they exchanged Go siorai - forever................... I have read all the books in this series, and this is my favorite by far. Bella and Nathan make such an appealing couple. Even though they got to spend only a couple of years together, and didn't know each other as well as they thought, the love was so powerful - was a bond that could not be broken. Even though it may sound like an old cliché, in this emotional story love does conquer all. Very erotic and sensual read with enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat.

An intense, sexy and thrilling ride!

Wild Card starts out with the love between Nathan and Sabella just blossoming. She's eighteen and he's about twenty seven so there is definitely an age gap between them. She hasn't had time to mature into the woman she's destined to be yet so when Nathan's job as a Navy Seal goes horribly wrong, he doesn't believe his soft, Southern Bella can handle the repercussions. He turns his back on the man he used to be and throws himself into healing his mind and body. After countless surgeries and numerous suicidal missions, Nathan, now known as Noah Blake, has to return home to the life he left and the wife he refused to see. Sabella is smack in the middle of a growing militia in his hometown who is targeting illegal immigrants and killing them. They might have gotten away with their activities, but the militia killed four FBI agents who were undercover. Their heinous actions brings about the attention of the organization that Noah sold his soul to. The Elite Ops. An organization of dead men who signed their lives away for the chance for vengeance. Noah has been with the group for six long years and during that time both he and Bella have gone through hell and back. Seeing Bella again is wreaking havoc on his control. He doesn't know how to handle seeing his formerly soft and deferential wife stand up to him as Noah Blake with a spine forged in steel and an attitude that leaves him spinning. During the years Noah was healing, Sabella grew up and took charge of her life. She's still very much in love with her deceased husband and hasn't been able to handle much in the way of day to day life, much less men, until Noah Blake roars into her shop on a the back of a Harley and suddenly she's come alive again. She's responding to him just as if he were her husband and at first it horrifies her, but soon she's helpless not to accept the comfort he gives her. With the timetable closing in, the Elite Ops need to uncover the mole who is leaking information and bring down the heads of the militia. The men and women Nathan Malone had trusted to take care of his wife if anything were to happen to him have not fulfilled their oaths. Sabella is practically alone and has no one to help her. Noah is desperate to do his job and protect the woman he regrets leaving. Too late he realizes the core of strength his Southern Bella held within her and wishes more than anything that he could turn back time and be the man she deserves. Bella doesn't want her fairy tale any longer though. She's grown up and been forced to stand on her own two feet and only wants the man who's in her life and who has always been in her heart. Anyone expecting a raunchy read is going to be in for a shock with Wild Card. This was a beautifully written, emotionally loaded read with plentiful twists and turns. Lora Leigh did a fabulous job in bringing everything about slowly and carefully. Noah Blake is a dangerous wild card who has been in the Elite Ops for so long that he's practically ice. He shows

Love that withstands all trials

Nathan Malone lived a nightmare in prolonged captivity at the hands of a Colombian drug cartel. Pumped full of an experimental drug designed to stimulate the victim's libido to an uncontrollable level, he never broke his commitment to his beloved wife Bella, although the pain was torturous. Once rescued, he knew he could never return to Bella, else he would put her in danger from the villains that nearly destroyed him once before. Her only chance is if they believe him dead. And so Noah Blake was born. With a new face and a new name, he can operate under the radar as part of an Elite Ops unit to bring the cartel down. Now danger threatens Bella regardless of Nathan's absence from her life. To save her, he must go undercover as Noah Blake, sticking close to her side even while trying to keep his emotional distance, knowing they can never be together again. Easier said than done... Lora Leigh launches her brand new book series, ELITE OPS, with lead character Nathan Malone/Noah Blake, best known for his appearances in the TEMPTING SEALS stories she has published. ELITE OPS is the start of a new saga, but is very much connected to the SEALs books Leigh's fans know and love. They even share a mission similar to the Durango team from those previous books, but with a different team of special agents, all of whom have left their previous lives for an existence based on complete anonymity. The men of ELITE OPS have lost everything - family, lovers, anything to do with their previous lives. All of them have assumed new names, and none of them form emotional attachments. Yeah, right. *grin* This wouldn't be a Lora Leigh romance if they didn't have emotional attachments, now would it? LOL OK, so they aren't supposed to have relationships. That doesn't stop them, though, it only provides delicious obstacles to the happy ending we all know will be at the end of these tales. And so readers enjoy watching men who have steeled themselves against love fight a losing battle as they come face to face with the women who not only complete them, but challenge them, meeting them as equals in this battle of hearts. The romance between Bella and Nathan/Noah in WILD CARD is all at once heartbreaking and uplifting. Nathan is a man who loves so absolutely that he can never be with a woman other than his Bella, no matter that her love is forever lost to him. He'll do anything, sacrifice everything, just to keep her safe and happy, no matter the cost to himself. His heart and soul yearn for the woman he loves, until what little resistance he had mustered crumbles beneath the weight of their mutual desire. Bella is just a beautiful character. I'm not talking about looks, although obviously she is lovely, judging by the description of her in the book. Her personality is what really makes us believe that a man like Nathan could not only fall in love with her but forsake all other women in favor of Bella. Of course, she has done the same thing f

Five Blue Ribbons!

Dead men stay dead. At least that is the motto of the six `dead' men of the Elite Ops. WILD CARD is the first book of this new series and features Nathan Malone, who readers first met in Lora Leigh's HIDDEN AGENDAS. Nathan Malone died at the hands of the sadistic drug lord Diego Fuentes. It is in the files and it is public knowledge. The funeral was planned and held and his widow grieved. Six years later Noah Blake roars into Alpine, TX on the back of a Harley. Bearded, blue eyed, and alpha to the bone, Noah is on a mission - to find the murderous faction of a white supremacist group hunting illegal aliens, and to connect with one Sabella Malone. Not necessarily in that order. Sabella Malone loved her husband Nathan with every single beat of her heart and every breath she ever breathed. When he died six years ago on a mission she thought she would die with him so great was the pain she felt. For years nothing mattered; but when her world didn't end, Sabella slowly learned to live again. Dating men but not allowing them close to her heart, Sabella is stunned at the heated attraction she instantly experiences with the new mechanic her brother in law hired behind her back - Noah Blake; blue-eyed Noah Blake. Noah rides into town under the deep cover of his mission. His eyes are looking for the only woman he has ever loved and when he finds her under the engine of an automobile, he recognizes that Sabella has changed. What he doesn't realize is that the Bella he knew is not the Sabella of today. Intrigued and unable to contain his desire, Noah sets out to insinuate himself in Sabella's life - at least for a little while - because once the Elite Ops' mission is complete, Noah Blake will have to disappear. While reading HIDDEN AGENDAS, also by Lora Leigh, my heart hurt for the Navy SEAL so abused but still so steadfast in his wedding vows to his wife. I yearned for his book and for his happy ending. Not one word of this highly emotional and addicting novel, WILD CARD, has disappointed me. Noah Blake, while a changed man, continued to be true to his wife and though six years had passed, almost three of them spent recovering; Noah still honored his wedding vows. A more perfect character I have yet to meet. WILD CARD is an intoxicating first installment of a brand new series. The words flow, the emotions are raw, and love is in the air. Add in the danger of Noah's mission and I could not have asked for a better book. I can't recommend WILD CARD enough. It is ultimately one of the most satisfying books I have ever read penned by this prolific and talented author.