Levi Butcher is team leader and totally focused on the mission and he works Jina hard hoping she would quit. But there is no quit in this girl and soon she finds herself part of the GO-Team despite the nickname given to her by them -- Babe. When the time comes for a mission, Jina is at base when it is attacked and barely makes it out alive, only to believe that her team was going to leave her behind. She doesn't know that Levi was not going to do that, despite his earlier statements that she was the bottom of the team, she was still team. Still his!

THE WOMAN LEFT BEHIND is an amazing read. It is action packed, very intense, and fast paced. Author Linda Howard gives her readers a look at the toughness of the training of special ops teams, and the tenacity of one woman who refuses to wash out. Jina is the only communications expert to be taken by her team and trained and she does an impressive job of keeping up and kicking butt, which they did not expect. Nor did Levi expect to be attracted to her, though there is a very strict no-fraternizing, his feelings start to bleed into their lives. However, when she felt she was was expendable she must decide where she wants to be an operative or not ... a hard decision to make as the men have become her family.

The romance with Levi is rather intense because of the fraternizing thing and that dance is always entertaining, especially to the other team members. I am a sucker for team camaraderie where they act like brothers and always have each others back and the GO-Team that Levi and Jina are attached to are just that way. They joke, tease, and stand shoulder to shoulder.

There is a political side to this storyline that adds to the general vibe with a Congresswoman who is seeking revenge (though I believe it was her own guilt riding her) against the leader of the GO-Team and destroying his teams before killing him is her plan.

If I have a complaint about this book, it would be the lack of romance, though it was added like an explosion toward the end and the rather abrupt ending. That said, I do hope there are more books planned by Ms. Howard as a number of the guys need their own stories.

Book Summary