Jess Anastasi
Entangled Publishing
October 26, 2015
Blurb: Nicknamed Captain Hardass by the new recruits, Captain Leigh Alphin is captain of the Fighter Force of the battleship Valiant Knox. He’s honorable, straightforward, and hard as nails – except for the soft spot he has for a young woman he rescued off a transport that was under attack. Now that she’s one of his new recruits, it’s imperative he stop thinking about her in that way.
Especially now that the Knox has been secretly infiltrated by the enemy.
Mia Wolf’s new commander is icy, no-BS, and completely gorgeous. His glances send heat searing through her. Neither of them can afford to make this mistake, yet desire takes hold, consuming them. For the first time, Leigh’s iron sense of honor falters as his heart fights for love… and against an enemy trying to destroy everything they hold dear.
SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW
Directly preceding Cover Fire, a novel by Jess Anastasi I reviewed back in June (you can read the review here) is the novel Damage Control, which I am reviewing today. And, yes, I read them out of order, which you probably shouldn’t do. However, if you’re a fan of Laura Griffin or Suzanne Brockman and like the idea of a little sci-fi thrown in, I recommend that you give the Valiant Knox series a try—but, in order. 😉
I enjoyed Damage Control almost as much as I enjoyed Cover Fire. There is a lot of action and a good mystery, although because I had read Cover Fire, I already knew who the spy was. Still it was interesting to watch it all unfold.
Leigh Alphin, the hardass Captain, and Mia Wolfe, the recruit, come together relatively early on in the novel. Mia isn’t sure that she wants to be a fighter pilot, but the psych program put her there and she hates to quit anything. What she is good at is engineering and being a hacker, which all comes in handy when it’s determined that there is a traitor in the squadron.
The romance between Leigh and Mia is kind of ho-hum. I never really became enamored with Leigh, who seemed like, especially at his age, he should know better than participating in stupid behavior while I thought Mia was kickass. She’s the one who hacks into systems and makes things happen. She can also handle herself in hand-to-hand and pretty much everything that comes up.
Now, one thing I didn’t like in Cover Fire is done multiple time in Damage Control. I’m going to call it “dumb bunny.” Dumb bunnies are characters who essentially can’t get a grip on their lust and must do the deed wherever they are. Forget the fact that there are probably (most definitely) cameras focused on the jets—let’s just have sex in a cockpit. Forget that this is the officer’s wardroom and someone can drop by at any time, let’s have sex. Lust scenes lose their impact when the reader is rolling her eyes.
The action, however, makes up for the dumb bunnies.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
rating: 
4 out of 5 butterflies