Review/Giveaway–Seal My Destiny (SEAL Brotherhood #6) by Sharon Hamilton

Published June 1st 2014 by AL Publication

Navy SEAL Luke Paulsen, on the verge of PTSD stemming from the death of his fiancée and a brutal tour overseas, knows he is damaged goods and unsuitable for relationships. While paying respects to a fallen comrade, he is unprepared for the chemical attraction he feels for the carefree dark-haired beauty playing in the surf one evening.

Julie Christensen befriends the troubled SEAL, motivated by her yearning to soothe the young man’s troubled soul. Fueled by intense mutual desire, they succumb to one night of mind-numbing passion. Afterwards, he is unable to shed the memory of his lost love and disappears.

When they meet again at a wedding that will forever bring their two families together, their passion and longing for one another forces them to confront their pasts in order to find a future together. But soon the trauma of his service separates them. Julie goes back to teaching and Luke deploys for North Africa with SEAL Team 3. Upon his return, he receives a frantic call that Julie's life is in danger. Will he make it in time to save the woman he now knows he wants to marry and spend the rest of his life with?

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He wanted to say something but suddenly became hesitant. Everything had gone so fast, he didn’t want to spook her. He was unafraid to show her how much he loved being with her, especially since she’d promised to visit him in Coronado and they’d see where things went from there. It would have been like the cart before the horse, but he wanted to ask her to marry him at that impulsive moment, but he held himself back. Being the wife of a SEAL was a special assignment and there was no training for that, except the school of hard knocks. There was a community of wives that looked out for each other. And not all the stories from overseas made it home to them. The smart wives knew this. He knew it was a lot to ask of someone. He didn’t want to fall for a lady who didn’t really understand what she’d be getting herself into. But that was a completely crazy thought, because he’d already fallen for her. He decided he’d just put it out of his mind, and not discuss anything future-related, to keep the pressure off them both. Nothing wrong with having a little bit of—well, a lot of—fun in the next few days before his deployment. He held her under the starlight. Feeling eyes on him, he saw Julie’s parents eyeing him from their kitchen window, smiling. He couldn’t keep up the eye contact because odds weren’t in his favor. He wasn’t prince charming, or Sir Galahad riding in on his white horse. He was just a guy other guys sent in to blow stuff up, grab people and hopefully get out before getting shot or caught. And his intentions, although he liked to think of them as honorable, were merely to do everything in his power to be as irresistible as possible to her so that when he left, he’d be the one hard to miss. And then maybe she’d wait for him. Maybe she’d wait until he got fully well. It was a lot of ifs. The music stopped while he was kissing her ear through her hair, while he was holding her tighter as she melted into him. He liked that they were dancing because their thighs made soft caresses and the dress, that yummy dress, made all that noise. He just knew every time he heard the sound of layers of chiffon, he’d get hard. It was going to be something he’d have for the rest of his life.

 Seal My Destiny was sooooo not what I expected it to be. I expected it to be one of those quick sexy, funny reads that doesn't take a lot of effort or emotion on my part. You know, your basic cookie cutter erotic romance where the characters are as basically interchangeable as the sexual positions. I could not have been more wrong and I owe Sharon Hamilton a sincere apology for thinking to slide her into a preconceived niche. Bad blogger and shame on me!!

This was as far from unemotional as you can get. It was waaaay deep and layered. Yes, there was some really, REALLY hot sex, but there were issues that almost put the kibosh on the whole romance aspect. Real, "need help from professionals" issues. Luke is a medic just back from a tour in Afghanistan and has seen more than his share of death. Of course it affects him mentally and physically. He can't sleep, has erratic mood swings, classic PTSD. What's so great is that he acknowledges his problem and seeks professional help, buuuuut, these things take time.

Julie and Luke hook up very, VERY quickly, and both are up front. He tells her flat out. No involvement, no strings, he's just not in that place right now. Julie counters with "I am all about the strings and emotions." Guess who gets disappointed?

There is a lot of back and forth and some extremely awkward reunions. Personally, I don't know if I could have had the patience and fortitude that Julie had because Luke had some rough patches that were brutal. I was moved by Luke's story and touched by the romance. (The really hot sex moved me as well, but that's a given, true?) So, for a deeply emotional, turbulent, but sexy read, look no further than SEAL My Destiny. It will definitely surprise you. Good job Sharon, well done.

 

Sharon’s award-winning almost-erotic Navy SEAL stories of the SEAL Brotherhood, have consistently made best sellers lists and review sites. Her characters follow a spicy road to redemption through passion and true love. She has been an Amazon top 100 author in Romantic Suspense since last fall.

Her Golden Vampires of Tuscany are not like any vamps you’ve read before, since they don’t have to go to ground and can walk around in the full light of the sun. Honeymoon Bite, Book 1 of the Golden Vampires of Tuscany Series was recently named the #1 Gothic Romance by Amazon. It is now available on Audible.

Her Guardian Angels struggle with the human charges they are sent to save, often escaping their vanilla world of Heaven for the brief human one. You won’t find any of these beings in any Sunday school class.

Sharon lives in Sonoma County, California with her husband, and two Dobermans. A lifelong organic gardener, when she’s not writing, she’s getting vera vera dirty in the mud, or wandering Farmer’s Markets looking for new Heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers.

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Prizes:

1) Signed set of print books 1-5 and a signed cover posted featuring Jimmy Thomas 2) Winners choice of audiobook (choose from book 1-5 in the SEAL Brotherhood series) (or an ebook of their choice if they don't read audio) 3) One $50 Giftcard

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