Sparkle in His Eye (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Heroes in Hardhats Book 2) Sparkle in His Eye (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Heroes in Hardhats Book 2)
Contemporary Military Romance
Independently Published
July 20, 2021
290
Zaine “Zero” Oates grew up under the worst of circumstances; trapped in a troubled life he never talks about. With hard work and perseverance, he reached his goal of becoming a Navy SEAL, but a dozen years into his dream-career, an insurgent with a knife inflicts an injury, cutting his military tenure short. Life after the teams looks pretty bleak until Tex the miracle-man sets him up with a job working for an ex-Army Combat Engineer building homes for wounded Vets. What he doesn’t count on when agreeing to come to Pleinfield, is forming a crush on the mystifying local librarian…a woman who clearly harbors deep secrets of her own.
Ginny “Sparkle” Smith—up and coming actress—is laying low, her current life as a small-town librarian giving her the cover she needs to hide from her stalker. But the stress is getting to her. When will her exile end? She yearns for a life outside her small duplex apartment and the little library’s story-hours, but as long as someone is after her, she’ll never be able to return to the big stage in New York. When an additional monkey-wrench gets thrown into the works, in the guise of a handsome, curly-haired ex-soldier who wants to date, how can she let her guard down and say yes? But how can she say no? Danger is in the air, but so is love.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Zaine “Zero” Oates is one of the wounded vets residing at Safford “Safety” Tulaine’s property waiting for his home to be built and fortunately his is the first. Safety dreamed of using his family property to build affordable housing for those who put their lives on the line for their country and came back with wounds that changed their lives forever.
Zaine became a Navy Seal in spite of living through a childhood that would have made that goal impossible. Zaine lived with a man who he was not sure was his father, a man he called Sir and who brutalized him daily. His mother disappeared and he hoped that she was somewhere safe. At the age of seven Zaine was sent out on weekends to deliver packages, at the age of nine he met a police officer who saw him with a package and then coming back empty handed. For two years Zaine continued meeting Gerry the officer who befriended him never revealing his circumstances or his deliveries but at the age of eleven he finally opened one of the packages and found out he was delivering heroin and that definitely put a stop to his dream of being a SEAL. That was the day he faced Gerry and revealed it all and that was the day that Gerry took him under his wing and changed his life.
Present day Zaine is part of the group of wounded heroes building the homes they will eventually all own, heroes who now have a purpose in life thanks to Safety and his fiancé Circus. Safety and Circus were the stars of book one and it should definitely be your first stop, their story like Zaine and Ginny “Sparkle” Smith’s is a story of survival and love.
Ginny has returned to her hometown of Pleinfield where she is the librarian, where she does everything, and where she can stay hidden. Ginny realized her dream of being in the theatre but a crazed stalker sending bloody and ripped lingerie, dead mice and very scary poems sent her running back to her childhood home. Everyone always believed she lived with her parents and so all those nasty packages are arriving at their home. It was at the library that Ginny met Zaine and it was a meeting that would change both their lives. His past was a nightmare and her present is one but everyone living at Safety’s is now determined to protect her and find the stalker.
When Zaine discovers that Ginny’s nickname was Sparkle he can’t call her anything else. The Sparkle she once had is slowly returning in spite of the danger she is in thanks to Zaine who finds everything about her to be perfect. Over time both of their pasts come back to haunt them but one of them will be set free and one of them will have to face his nightmare.
I loved this book but then I have loved all of Ms. Vickery’s books. A story about overcoming finding love and a story filled with suspense and amazing characters. There is quite a group of wounded heroes in this series so I feel very comfortable in stating that there are many more books to come, I hope lol.