Flashpoint

Lucy Karmon has taken her skills learned while attending the Athena Academy and formed a mercenary team. Her specialty: explosives. Delphi wants her assistance in the fight against the deadly Athena Academy foe, Arachne, and Lucy is more than willing. Her mission leads her to Africa and the empire of Miranda N'Buta. Miranda has a new security chief, Nolan Taylor. Will Nolan prove to be friend or foe in this mission? FLASHPOINT is another explosive (literally!) hit from the Athena Force series! Lucy Karmon is exactly the sort of heroine I've come to expect. She is intelligent, feisty, and willing to take chances as she tries to do the right thing no matter what the personal costs. Connie Hall creates a fabulous cast of secondary characters around her as Lucy's teammates are just as important to the success of the storyline as Lucy herself is. FLASHPOINT begins moving the story closer to a finale. Arachne's deadly web is starting to crumble as the Lucy and her team chip away at her vast string of empires. There are some exciting twists revealed, ones that make me think the Athena Force series may be here longer than just this 12 book continuity. Regardless, it will certainly be fun to see what happens next! COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Athena Academy for the Advancement of Women graduate Lucy Karmon is an explosives expert who takes few risks as she uses the DAME technique to any scenario by dissecting, assessing, moderating, and estimating the situation to always succeed. Thus the Athena Academy leadership believes she and her team are most suited to go to Cape Town, South Africa to capture archenemy Arachne, who has been reported as operating with impunity from there. Her adversary turns out to be former SAS agent Nolan Taylor, an Arcane operative. When they meet, their attraction is enormous. However, they work for opposing sides in a global war in which Arachne wants the total destruction of the Athena Academy and the extinction of all alumni. Nolan realizes he has made a bad error in judgment when he realizes his side is the terrorists. He joins Lucy's side but though some of her teammates suspect him of being a mole, she applies DAME to him, which leads to trusting him with her life and heart. FLASHPOINT is a great romantic suspense story that starts off in a fast-paced fashion in Puerto Isla and never slows down until the final adrenalin pumping climax. The lead couple is a superb pairing of a strong dedicated female and her opponent inadvertently working for the bad guys. Fans of the series will marvel at Connie Hall's one sitting entry while newcomers will scramble for the back list. Harriet Klausner