The Medusa Prophecy

I really enjoyed this book. While this book was put out Harlequin Romance-I wouldn't classify it as a Romance novel. In my opinion, that does not take away from a really fun, exciting and different book. I loved the idea behind the Medusas-an all female Special Ops group. This one is about Karen-who is a great and unusual heroine-portrayed as a 6 foot tall former pig farmers daughter and weight trainer. Karen is a physically and mentally strong heroine and a breath of fresh air in a world of simpering, "too stupid too live" romance heroines. Karen doesn't wait around to be saved, she saves others-and is so strong she can even carry the injured hero, in a fireman's carry for several miles in the snow! The book was exciting and interesting enough that you won't want to put it down. This is not your typical romance in any way-and that's a good thing. If you are looking for action romance with strong, savvy heroines then I heartily recommend this short, fun book. 4.5 stars.

Cindy Dees the author has evidently led a very interesting life, having been in the US Air Force, a part-time intelligence operative and now being an author. Reading this book it is evident that her wealth of experience in the Air Force underpins this engaging story. I actually thought this book was a paranormal book, the blurb on the back also backed up that idea but in fact it's a straight story about a group of women Special Operatives carrying out a training exercise in Lapland (the north of Norway) who stumble into a drug laboratory which is making drugs that have deadly side effects, causing the person who has taken the drug to get so violent that bystanders are getting killed. The Prophecy referred to is something that the nomadic Sami peoples think that the Medusas fulfil - and they do seem to somehow. Karen Tucker is a member of the six-woman special forces team called The Medusas. They are training with various different groups in order to prove the benefit of the all-women force in combat. Despite being successful at her work Karen has a rather low opinion of herself because of teasing throughout her life about being a tomboy, her height, her muscles etc. The Medusas' training exercise is to try to evade a Norwegian special forces team who are trailing them. Although the Norwegians eventually win, Karen managed to hypothetically kill the man she was up against, Lieutenant Anders Larson. He ends up as an observer on their next mission, to try to find the Norwegian team who have gone to ground somewhere in the cold. However, when apparently finding and storming the Norwegians' base the Medusas, with Larson in tow, find that they have actually disturbed a drug factory and they are now in serious trouble. I read this book in winter in England which is, of course, not very cold at all - particularly compared to the cold of the arctic circle. However, this book was written so well that I felt chilled to the bone most of the time. Cindy Dees is not only a good pilot etc, she's also very good at describing the surroundings and the feelings of someone on a mission like this. There's a very gentle and slow-burn love story in the book but any sex (if there is any, I wasn't sure) is off-screen. It's only 300 pages but I was gripped by the story the whole way through and, at an incredibly cheap £2.50 at the moment in the UK, I think it's a great book to buy.

I love all of Cindy Dees books and I say each one is my favorite but this one really is. I love the suspense and the characters, they really came to life. Python or Karen is a warrior with an engineers brain. The things I learned in this book about drugs showed the author really researched her material. The descriptions of the Arctic gave my imagination free rein. I really was into this book. I won't go into the plot but I know you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. I hope we'll see more of The Medusas in some future books. This is the last month of Bombshell Books. I have really enjoyed them. I can't believe they'll end.